Chapter 7 – Stone
STONE
Icrashed hard when we got back to the clubhouse and didn’t wake until mid-morning the next day.
But it wasn’t because I was so tired that I slept the entire night.
It was because I woke up after dreaming about Kim in a casket—six times.
By the time I had showered and gotten something to eat, it was almost noon.
I found Sin and several other brothers sitting around the table in church.
“Nice of you to join us,” Sin said.
“I knew you would wake me if you needed me. I’m guessing there was no activity at the house last night.”
“Nope. Absolutely nothing.”
“What about Glitch? Has he had any luck?”
“He’s been working in his room all morning,” Sin said. “I checked in with him a couple of hours ago. He said he was following a promising lead, but I haven’t heard from him since. How about you? How’s your head?”
“All better today,” I told him. My nose was a little sore, but nothing worth mentioning.
I moved to a couch in the room while we were waiting for Glitch and nodded off shortly after. I wasn’t sure how long I’d been asleep when Sin’s booming voice woke me. “Somebody wake his ass up!”
“I’m up,” I said, getting to my feet and moving to the table.
“This bitch was not easy to track down, but here’s what I’ve got,” Glitch said.
“I looked at the cars registered to Whitney’s roommate, Stephanie Hackman, and tracked the tags through various traffic cameras and license plate readers.
I tracked one of the vehicles to the area of Wood Pawn early yesterday afternoon.
I haven’t been able to find it since then.
I tracked the other car registered to her roommate leaving Palmetto Harbor yesterday evening. I lost it near Montgomery Ridge.”
“Where the fuck is that?” I asked.
“It’s near Lake Morgan and Lake Montgomery.
I’ve narrowed it down to an area where they could be, assuming they’re together, and I think it’s safe to assume they are.
It’s a large area, but there aren’t many residential properties.
I’m still searching through the records, but I haven’t found one with a connection yet. ”
“There might not be one to find. They could be at a friend’s house or a vacation rental,” I said. “I’m gonna ride out there and take a look around. Maybe I’ll get lucky and see the car.”
“You and Tomb can go. Leave your bikes and cuts. If they are there, I don’t want the girls taking off if they hear people talking about bikers being in town,” Sin said.
“Yes, Prez.” I turned to Tomb. “You ready?”
“Yeah. I’ll drive, but we’ve gotta hit a drive-thru on the way. I’m starving.”
“I could eat,” I agreed.
We picked up something to eat and arrived in Montgomery Ridge an hour later.
“Holy shit,” I said, looking around at nothing but swamp and trees. “This is the town?”
“Fuck if I know,” Tomb said. “I’m following the GPS. Did you put in the right address?”
“I think so but let me check.” I looked at my phone and compared the address Glitch sent to the one I had entered. “Yes, it’s correct.”
“Fucking hell,” Tomb groaned. “It’s the middle of the damn day, and it’s creepy as fuck out here. I don’t give two shits what this girl knows; I’m not searching that swamp water for her.”
“Relax, man,” I said, looking at the map on my phone. “There’s an intersection ahead with a few stores.”
“Do you want to stop? Or should we drive around more first?”
“Let’s drive around more first. Then we can stop and get something to eat, tell the people we got lost, and ask for directions back to the highway.”
We drove around the area for a few hours.
Most of the houses weren’t visible from the road, and the ones that were looked like they hadn’t been lived in for decades.
We didn’t see any sign of Stephanie’s car, but we didn’t pass any vehicles at all.
It was as if we had driven into the Twilight Zone.
People were obviously living in the area, but we didn’t see a single one until we went into the diner to eat.
“Hello! Welcome to Montgomery’s. Please seat yourself. I’m Kat. I’ll be over with menus and to get your drink order in just a moment,” the woman behind the counter said.
There were only a handful of people inside, but every one of them was looking at us.
“I do not want to end this day as gator shit,” Tomb grumbled.
“You won’t,” I assured him. “They don’t digest their food that fast.”
After we placed our orders, Tomb leaned back against his seat. “I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this girl is hard to find, and it’s not sitting well with me.”
“Why do you think we can’t find her?”
“I don’t know. I just think it’s intentional.”
“Like an undercover cop or something?”
“No, more like she was already running from something, or she has something to hide. She didn’t go to the cops; she ran. That says a lot.” He shrugged. “I think we’re wasting our time trying to find her.”
“We don’t know that she didn’t go to the cops.”
“We’d know by now if she did,” he pointed out.
“Here you go,” Kat said as she placed our plates on the table. “Can I get you anything else?”
“No. This looks great.”
“It is,” Tomb said with a mouth full of food.
“All right,” she said and placed our ticket on the table. “Let me know if you need anything. Enjoy your meal.”
“Thank you,” I said and waited until she went back behind the counter. “Since we’re trying not to draw attention to ourselves, maybe don’t eat like you just got out of prison.”
He wiped his mouth with his bare arm and sat back. “Maybe I’m just hungry.”
“You have mustard running down your arm.”
He grabbed a napkin and wiped it off quickly. Then he wadded it up and threw it at me. “If you’d get busy with your own food, you wouldn’t know what the fuck I was doing with mine.”
I laughed to myself as I picked up my hamburger. For as long as I’d known him, Tomb loved to eat.
I took a few bites of my burger and thought about what Tomb said. “You think we should go back?”
“It doesn’t matter what I think. Prez told us to look for her, so we’ll look for her.”
“I’m asking what you think.”
“Unless we’re gonna go door to door knocking, I think we should wait until we have a more defined search area. Like I said, I think it’s intentional, so I don’t think we’re going to just happen upon her.”
He had a point. She avoided being killed by the Wood brothers, escaped from the crematory, and disappeared with very little trace. “I think you’re right.”
“It doesn’t matter what you think either.”
“Right,” I sighed. “At least we’ll be in the area if they find something.”
Tomb snorted. “If they find something.”
While we finished eating, I tried to think of ways to locate Whitney, but I was unable to come up with anything. I couldn’t explain it, but I wanted to find her more than I wanted anything in a long time.
* * *
The next day, I drove back to Montgomery Ridge by myself, declining Tomb’s offer to join me. I wanted to spend some time alone to clear my head, because I was sick of seeing Whitney’s blue eyes turn into Kim’s dark ones every time I fell asleep.
Two hours later, I was tired of thinking about what happened with Kim. I would never know the truth, unless I found her. And I had spent enough time and money searching for her during the first two years after her disappearance.
I thought the time would be better spent checking on my niece.
I’d been keeping closer tabs on her since she called earlier in the summer and asked me to get rid of a body for her.
I couldn’t believe it. The little girl who was once frightened by the thought of the club had grown up to become the manager for a mainstream band, and she wasn’t afraid to get rid of the bodies—literally. I couldn’t have been prouder.
“Call Mia.”
“Hey, Uncle Stone.”
“Hey, Mia. Where are you today?”
“Why? Trying to plan ahead in case I call you for another pickup?”
“Does your mother know you talk to me like this?”
“Of course. Who do you think taught me?”
“How is your mom?” I asked. It had been a while since I’d talked to my sister. I needed to call her more often, but I didn’t want to because she got on my damn nerves most of the time. Her daughter, however, was one of my favorite people in the world.
By the time I got off the phone with Mia, almost two hours had passed. Since I was hungry, I drove to the diner to have dinner while I tried to figure out where Whitney could be.
“Hello again,” Kat said. “Seat yourself. I’ll be over with a menu in a sec.”
“No need. I’ll have the same as yesterday.”
“Cheeseburger and fries, no mustard, right?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
I was halfway through my burger when Stephanie’s car drove by. I started to raise my hand to get Kat’s attention but stopped when I overheard her talking to the cook.
“Damn,” she said. “I was hoping they’d stay longer.”
“You knew better than that,” the cook laughed. “Ms. Montgomery likes her privacy. You might not, but she does.”
“I worry is all.”
I decided to stay at the diner and finish my meal instead of running out the door and chasing Stephanie’s car. If she left the area, Glitch and the brothers would know, but if I left the diner, none of us would know where she went if she came back.
Meanwhile, I pulled out my phone and searched for Ms. Montgomery in Montgomery Ridge, South Carolina.
H. U. Montgomery, Direct Descendant of Town Founder Vows to Revive Montgomery Ridge, Starting with Diner
I clicked on the article hoping to find the descendant’s full name. As I was scanning it for information, Kat’s voice caught my attention. “You doing okay, honey?”
“Yes,” I said, clearing my throat. “Sorry. I thought I overheard someone say Ms. Montgomery. Like the town name?”
Kat smiled. “Yes, Hadley Montgomery. Her lake house is right up the road.”