Page 77 of Night Fall (The Quantico Files 1)

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When he opened the store’s door, he found an old man sitting behind a counter, his head down, snoring. Logan hated to wake him, but he didn’t have much choice.

“Excuse me?” he said softly.

No response. The snoring just got louder.

“Excuse me?” he said with a little more volume.

This time the old man’s head shot up, and he glared at Logan. “You don’t have to yell at me, young man,” he snapped. “I ain’t so old I can’t hear.”

“I’m sorry. Do you have a map of the lake area?”

The man got up from his stool and pointed to a table near the window. Logan noticed a name stitched on his shirt. Elmer. “Maps is over there.” He looked toward the large window at the front of the store. “Is it icin’? What in the world are you doin’ out in this?” He stared at Logan’s jacket. “FBI? What’s the FBI want out here? Ain’t nothin’ illegal goin’ on.”

“Looking for someone. I don’t suppose you’ve seen another FBI agent, have you? A woman with long black hair tied back in a ponytail?”

The old man stared at him for a moment. Logan could tell he wasn’t sure what he should tell him, so he reached into his inside pocket and pulled out his creds, then waited while he looked them over.

“Okay,” he said. “I guess you’re the real deal.” He coughed a few times and then spit into an old paint bucket behind the counter. “I didn’t know she was FBI, but she was here about ... an hour ago maybe? Lookin’ for a cabin on the south side of the lake.” He nodded toward the maps, then held out his hand for one. Logan picked up a copy and gave it to him.

Elmer opened it up on the counter and pointed at a spot. “She wanted old cabins, so I sent her here. There’s also a couple of small houses there, but they were deserted years ago ... I think. No one goes down there anymore. Now that I think about it, though, someone told me they seen a light comin’ from one of them old properties. But I wouldn’t drive down there, young man. The roads are terrible. And in this?” He pointed at the window, and Logan’s eyes followed. The ice was coming down faster. “You could get stuck real easy.”

“You say that area has old cabins and a couple of houses,” Logan said. “There’s a difference?”

“They all look like small houses, but only the houses have basements. Cabins might have a cellar, but that’s it. ’Course, everyone calls them all cabins.” His eyebrows knit together, causing even more wrinkles than the old man already had. “I’m pretty sure one of them houses was torn down a couple of years ago.”

The mention of a basement got Logan’s attention, although he wasn’t sure why. “Can you tell me where that house with the light might be?”

Elmer pointed to another spot on the map. “Probably on Waywind Road. That’s the road I told that woman to watch for.”

Logan pulled out his phone and scrolled through his photos until he came to the one he’d taken of Adam Walker’s employee photo.

“What about this guy?” he asked, holding the phone up so Elmer could see it. “Do you recognize him?”

“Hmm. No, he don’t look familiar.”

“Thanks.”

Logan was putting the phone back in his pocket when Elmer said, “Can I look at that one more time?”

“Sure.” Logan retrieved his cell and reloaded the photo. He handed the phone to Elmer, who stared at the screen for several seconds.

“I ain’t seen him as a man, but I think he used to live around here when he was a kid. I wouldn’t have thought it was him except for this.” He pointed to the scar on Walker’s chin. “His family was in here once in a while to buy some of the staples I carry—milk and the like. But one time the father brought him in here and asked for antiseptic and bandages so he could treat a gash on the kid’s face. Never said what happened. I told him he needed to take his kid to the hospital. Get him fixed up proper.”

Elmer shook his head. “I still remember him lookin’ back at his car. The woman I always assumed was the kid’s mother was sittin’ there starin’ daggers at him. Then he said he couldn’t do that.” He sighed. “I gave him what I could, but I was concerned that gash weren’t gonna heal right. And sure enough, it looks like it didn’t if this is that kid all growed up.”

“So you didn’t really know the family?” Logan asked.

“Nah. I could count the number of times they stopped in here on one hand. They bought their gas somewhere else, though. I kinda worried about the kid after that gash thing. And then one day I realized they must have moved away because I hadn’t seen them for a long time. Never seen them again.”

“Are you pretty sure the boy you knew is this man?”

“Well, how sure can anyone be? Nah, I can’t say I’d write it in blood. But if I had to bet my store on it, I’d say, yeah. It’s him.” He sighed. “Sorry I didn’t figger it out when you first showed me the picture. It’s been maybe ... twenty years? Guess it slipped my mind.”

“And you think the boy and his family lived on the lake?”

“I think so. I mean, they always came from that direction. But I don’t know for sure. I ain’t connected to the lake. Just run my business near it. Sorry.”

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