Chapter 39
Tuesday
JP pulled into the 7-11 parking lot just before noon, the sun flattening everything into hard light and faded colors. The place looked like it hadn’t changed in a decade. It had cracked asphalt, a buzzing sign, and a steady trickle of people going in and out.
Inside, the air smelled like burnt coffee and sugar. Behind the counter stood a kid, barely out of high school, scrolling on his phone.
“Hey,” JP said, easy. “Is the owner here?”
The kid shook his head. “Nah. Just me right now.”
“How long have you worked here?”
“Six months.”
“When do you expect the owner to be around?”
“He comes in later. Afternoon usually. Three-ish.”
JP gave a small smile. “I’ll be back.”
~~~
When JP returned, a different man stood behind the counter. He was older, in his late-fifties thick around the middle, reading glasses low on his nose.
JP stepped up. “Are you the owner?”
“That’s me.”
JP pulled out his credentials and introduced himself. “I’m looking into something from eight or nine years back. I was hoping you could help. Did you own the place then?”
The man looked at him a moment, then nodded. “I did. What kind of something?”
JP slid a photo of Victor Hayes across the counter.
The owner barely glanced at it, and his expression shifted to recognition.
“Yeah,” he said. “I know him. Anyone who lived in this neighborhood knew who that was. He’s the guy who went to prison for abducting that little girl. I saw it on the news. I didn’t peg him for that kind of thing, but you just don’t know people.”
“What can you tell me about him?”
“He used to come in.” The owner tapped the edge of the photo. “He was a regular. Not every day, but often enough. He bought beer, mostly, but sometimes whiskey.”
“Was he in the day the girl went missing?”
The owner huffed. “He did come in that afternoon, around the same time it happened.”
“Did anyone ask you about him back then?”
The owner frowned. “You mean the police? No.”
“No one?”
“No,” the man said again, more certain. “Nobody asked me anything.”
“What can you tell me about that day?”
The owner scratched his chin, thinking. “He came in pretty lit.”
JP’s focus sharpened. “Drunk?”
“Yeah. He shouldn’t have been driving.” The owner shook his head again, like it still bothered him. “He was slurring a bit. He took longer at the register than usual, and he bought whiskey, not beer.”
“Was he alone?”
The owner hesitated. “I didn’t see anyone with him.”
“Did you look?” JP asked, not pushing, just narrowing.
“After he walked out, I watched him. Not because I thought anything was wrong. Just you know. You see someone that drunk, you don’t want them getting behind the wheel. I really hoped to see that he was walking.”
“What did you see?”
“He walked out, headed toward the lot.” The owner gestured toward the window. “I remember another customer came in, so I couldn’t go out and stop him from driving.”
“You didn’t happen to see if someone was following him, did you?”
“So, that’s what it was.”
“What?”
“I noticed a yellow car pulling out. It struck me odd, because no one had been in the store, so I wondered where it came from. Now, that makes sense.”
“Yeah, to me too.” JP thought about Gates’ sighting of a yellow vehicle. “Do you remember the make?”
The owner squinted. “It looked like a Mustang. An older one, I think. But I couldn’t swear to it.”
“Did you see the driver?”
The owner shook his head. “No. I just saw the car leaving.”
“And you never saw the child?”
“No. I didn’t see any kid. Was that girl in the car with that drunk driver?”
“That’s what I’m trying to figure out.” JP paused. “Anything else stand out?”
The owner thought for a moment, then shook his head. “No. At the time, he was just another guy who shouldn’t have been driving. If I’d known…”
He didn’t finish the thought.
JP picked up the photo. “You’ve been very helpful.”
“Wish I’d been helpful ten years ago.”
JP met his eyes. “You are now.”