Page 96 of Kings Fear No One
The drum of madness beating inside me comes to a halt. I look up feeling like I’ve woken from a dream. I’m no longer alone.
Mace and Sydney are standing at the foot of the staircase leading into the basement.
“What?” I spit, agitated. “What is it?”
“It’s Teysha,” Sydney answers. “I just got off the phone with her grandmother. She never made it to Boulder.”
23
LOGAN
I turn up to the town bus terminal ready to fracture skulls. Ozzie wanders behind me, something of a chaperone to ensure I don’t do anything too homicidal. Mace’s idea after I found out that Teysha never made it home.
I announced I was headed to the source. The bus terminal that saw her off.
The fucking place where I’d spoken to a clerk who claimed she bought a ticket to Boulder and boarded the bus.
A pimply-faced college kid sits in boredom behind the plexiglass. He’s flipping through a comic book, his situational awareness zero. Otherwise he’d see me striding toward him. I slip my arm through the cutout in the glass and grab the front of his polo shirt. A hard tug later, his face smashes into the see-through barrier between us.
“Ugh… hey man, wha…”
“You told me you sold a ticket to Teysha Baxter for Boulder yesterday.”
“So what?”
“So you gave me wrong fucking info. Which means you better start giving the right fucking info or I’m gonna break your face.”
“She did buy a… a ticket… lemme go!”
“To Boulder?!”
“Yes… and no.”
“You better be fucking kidding!”
“Ghost!” Ozzie yells.
I slam his head into the plexiglass hard enough to shatter his nose. Blood spurts out as he grunts in pain. The two other travelers in the terminal scream and run off. I couldn’t give less of a shit who does and doesn’t see. Or how much blood I draw from this asshole.
“Where did she buy a ticket to?”
“She did buy a ticket to Boulder!” he screams, blood spewing from his nostrils. “S-she was waiting for it at first… but then she got on a different bus.”
“TO WHERE?!”
“I think it was… it-it must’ve been Jefferson!”
“You fucking shithead! You better pray I find her in one piece!”
I beat his head several more times ’til he’s unconscious and his blood decorates the plexiglass. Ozzie nudges me away, throwing glances over his left and right shoulder.
“You trying to catch a case? Let’s get the fuck out of here.”
We mount our bikes, already on the same wavelength about where we’re headed. No questions necessary.
If Teysha went to Jefferson, then that’s where I’ll be.
Jefferson exists as an even smaller blip on the state map than shitholes like Portales and Wheaton. It’s a single stoplight sorta town with one of everything and dust storms as entertainment. From Pulsboro, it’s an almost four hour bike ride.
