Page 55 of Code Word
For one brief moment, I considered asking them for help. Maybe they could help me find him, track his passport number or something. Just a small blatant abuse of power, maybe?
But then I remembered thinking they were about to deny me or detain me, so I just took my passport, gave a nod, and got the hell out of there.
I walked out to the first waiting cab and tried to remember some Spanish. “Hola, Señor. Necesito ir a...” I held up my phone and showed him the screen, showing him the place Luke was seen at. “I need to... este lugar. Lo siento, mi español no es bueno...”
The cab driver, an older man with a kind smile, maybe fifty years old, took pity on me. “My English is not too good either.”
I laughed with relief. “Sorry. I need to go here, to this address.” I was still showing him my phone. “To this beach, I guess.”
He nodded. “I know where it is.” He set his meter and pulled the car into traffic. “It’s out of town. There isn’t much there. Just beaches and a few bars, some houses.”
I nodded, not really caring what was or wasn’t there.
“Are you meeting someone?”
I cut to his gaze in the rearview mirror. “Uh, yeah. I think... I hope.”
“Ah, an internet romance? You meeting a beautifulwoman you’ve never met before on a beautiful beach? Because I hate to be the one to tell you...”
I snorted. “No.” God, could I tell him it wasn’t a woman I was meeting? “Uh, it’s my best friend. He was last seen here.”
The older man winced and mumbled something in Spanish, then he looked at me in the mirror again. “How long ago? How many days?”
“Just yesterday,” I said. “I think.”
“Ah,” he said, nodding. “Maybe he not go too far, yeah?”
“I hope so.”
Because if he wasn’t here, I had no clue where to even start.
“How long you be staying for?” he asked.
“As long as it takes to find him,” I replied.
He nodded again, and maybe he could tell I wasn’t up for conversation, or maybe he didn’t have the heart to tell me this was a waste of time and money, but either way, he was quiet for a few miles.
The scenery was beautiful, in a desert-meets-the-ocean kind of way. I saw glimpses of the bay as the road followed the shoreline, and I was grateful that it was warmer here than it had been at home.
But I was glad I was still wearing the hoodie because I was pretty sure once the sun went down, the night would be a lot colder.
The cab slowed down and we pulled into what looked like a large parking lot that fronted the ocean. The lot was dirt and sand, no pavement here, and it was mostly empty save a few cars to one side. We pulled up close to them, and the cab driver turned in his seat.
“Bars up this way.” He pointed past the cars. “People walk from here.”
“Okay,” I said, pulling out my wallet. I realized belatedly I only had American dollars on me, and I only had fifties. “Shit. I’ve only got dollars.”
“Just as well I accept those,” he said with a laugh, but then his smile faded a little. “You not come prepared, huh?”
I gave him a fifty, even though it was more than double the meter. “I heard where he was seen last and literally boarded a plane. No luggage, no anything.”
“I hope you find your friend,” he said gently.
“Me too.”
He took a card from his sun visor and handed it to me. “My number. You need a lift to a hotel or back to the airport, you call me. You’ve got not even two hours of daylight left.”
“Thank you.” His kindness surprised me, and I tried not to get emotional. “I have to go.”
