Page 39 of Long Gone

“But surely Lucinda took his license too,” I said. “Is there any way you can find out who was inquiring?”

Her gaze narrowed. “Why?”

What was I going to tell her? I decided to go with the truth.

“I’m a private investigator, and I find it weird that someone was asking about his land the day I started looking into Hugo Burton’s disappearance.”

“You’re a private investigator?”

I nodded.

She glanced over her shoulder at the back room before turning to face me again. Her lips turned down. “I wish I could help you, but I can’t. I don’t want to get in trouble.” Her face brightened. “You can come back in a couple of weeks after Lucinda retires.”

I really didn’t want to wait a couple of weeks, but I didn’t want to make an enemy of her either. If I started a P.I. firm, there was a good chance I’d be back, requesting information for another case. But if the clerk had a description, even a bare bones one, it might help.

“Sorry…” I said, “what was your name?”

“Marissa.”

“Marissa, I’m not sure what you remember about Hugo Burton’s disappearance five years ago. You may not have even heard about it.”

“I heard about it,” she said. “Everyone knew about it.”

“Well, you probably heard he ran off, because that’s what everyone other than his family thought, but I’m trying to find out what really happened to him. His family’s been stuck in limbo for five years, so anything you can remember about the guy from yesterday will help them.”

Guilt filled her eyes. “I really don’t remember much. I was in the back doing my job, and Lucinda was doing hers. I didn’t pay much attention.”

“Surely you heard him talking,” I suggested. “Do you remember anything they said? Or what his voice sounded like?”

“He wasn’t loud, but he wasn’t quiet either.” She shrugged. “It was just a guy’s voice.”

“Was he polite? Demanding? Arrogant? Young? Old?”

“He wasn’t yelling at her, so I guess he was polite. He didn’t sound like an old man, but he didn’t sound like a kid either,” she said, sounding frustrated. “I wish I could help more.”

That didn’t narrow it down much, but it was better than nothing. “No, that’s great. Do you know if Lucinda gave him anything?”

“No. I think she told him he had to wait too.”

Movement behind Marissa caught my attention. Lucinda was heading toward us from the back room, so I nodded to the side slightly to warn Marissa that her boss was coming.

The older woman plopped my driver’s license on the counter with a smacking sound. “The fee to pull the information on two properties is forty dollars.”

I hadn’t finished filling out the form but pulled out my wallet and placed two twenty-dollar bills on the counter.

She snatched them up. “I don’t know what you’re doin’ here, but you should go back to where you belong, Harper Adams.”

So she knew about my notoriety.

The younger woman’s eyes bugged out and her jaw dropped, but I gave Lucinda a tight smile. “I see you’re a member of my fan club, but sorry, Lone County is my hometown too. I’m not going anywhere.”

I had to wonder why I kept insisting I was staying in the very place I hated.

Chapter 10

When I walked out of the courthouse, I still had fifteen minutes before I was supposed to meet Anton. I needed to get my hands on a map of the county. Lucinda was obviously in no hurry to help me, but Anton might have a general idea of where his father’s former property was located. I headed into a shop a few businesses down from the café that looked like it sold tourist tchotchkes. I had no idea why Wolford would need a store that sold tourist crap, but I wasn’t going to question it.

The only person inside was the cashier, an older man wearing a white button-down shirt with black pinstripes paired with a black bow tie. He gave me a cheerful hello when I walked in.

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