Page 54 of Psycho
August scanned the parking lot. The spaces weren’t assigned. “Now, we just have to find his car.”
Lucas continued to stare out the window. “What if he’s not home?”
“Then we wait.”
“What if he’s out there hurting somebody else?” Lucas said again, anxious.
August sighed. “Then there’s nothing we can do about it.”
Moody silence returned. August backed his borrowed car into a parking space and turned off his lights. His Mercedes cost over a hundred grand. While it was a fairly upscale development, his car would have stood out and the last thing they wanted was to be noticeable. Instead, they’d taken his father’s Ford pickup truck, one of several cars he owned.
They were better off looking for Kohn’s car on foot. It shouldn’t be too hard to find a Black Lincoln Navigator in a sea of Toyotas and Hondas. It did beg the question of why Kohn drove a car that was bound to stand out like that while living in such a nondescript apartment complex.
When he glanced over to see Lucas staring out the window into the darkness, he finally asked, “Can I touch you?”
Lucas glanced over at him, startled. August winced at the abruptness of his question. “You don’t have to ask,” Lucas said. “I told you, I’m not afraid of your thoughts.”
August didn’t want to tell Lucas that there might come a time when he was not only afraid of August’s thoughts but disgusted, maybe even horrified. But that was a discussion for another time. He slid his hand over Lucas’s thigh, squeezing. “Are you alright?”
“No. But I will be. I think. It’s just hard to not feel responsible for those missing women.”
August shook his head. “You have to stop—”
Lucas cut him off, pointing as he said, “August…” August followed his finger to see a black Navigator coming around the corner, heading towards the exit. “He’s leaving.”
August waited a good thirty seconds before he turned on his lights and crept out of his parking space. “Good. Let’s see where he’s going.”
August did his best to keep his distance while they were winding their way back out of the complex. He turned onto the main road just in time to see Kohn making a right at the street light ahead. He sped up so he didn’t lose him, making sure to keep a few cars between them so as not to alert Kohn of his tail.
When they entered the highway headed north, Lucas looked at August in confusion. August had no answers, so he concentrated on the road. He could lose Kohn at any exit if he wasn’t careful. Lucas’s hands fisted in his lap, his face tense as he squinted through the windshield.
They drove for a good half hour before Kohn took an exit in the middle of nowhere with only an obnoxiously large truck stop that touted showers, entertainment, and a twenty-four hour diner. August followed, but when Kohn parked outside the diner, he circled around to the convenience store before backtracking. By the time they parked, Kohn was sitting at a booth in the back.
August once more backed his truck into the parking lot facing the window before extinguishing his headlights. Kohn sat alone at a booth. August could see why Lucas was surprised the man had flirted with him. He was tall and muscular, his brown hair shaved into a high and tight military cut. He looked...unapproachable. He sipped a coffee for approximately fifteen minutes before another car pulled up. A souped up black and silver Mazda RX-7 purred into the spot directly beside Kohn’s Navigator. Somebody had sunk a lot of money into that car.
“Who’s Mr. Fast and Furious?” Lucas asked.
The man was tall and broad, with tattooed muscles, a white tank top, and saggy well-worn jeans. He strode confidently to the back booth where Kohn sat, sliding into the seat opposite and flagging down a chunky silver-haired server, who gave him a disgusted look.
“Do you think that’s him?” Lucas asked in a rough whisper, as if the man might hear him. “His partner?”
August distractedly noted that Lucas had a tendency to whisper when he grew nervous.“You tell me.”
“He doesn’t fit the typical profile. Look at him, he’s confident, moves with authority, doesn’t seem to defer to Kohn in any way.” Lucas shook his head. “Maybe I’ve got this all wrong. It doesn’t make any sense.”
August didn’t say anything, just continued to watch the two. When the car beside the stranger left, August crept his truck into the space beside it. The windows were tinted. A man like that was bound to have a security system on his car. He had an idea. He hopped from the truck and moved to the car’s window, using his phone to snap a picture of the VIN number just below the windshield.
Once he was back in the pickup, he hit a button on his phone. The ringing filled the cab as Lucas frowned at him.
Calliope answered on the second ring. “‘lo?” she said around a mouthful of something.
August figured he could skip the politeness. “Is there a way to bypass a car’s alarm in, say, the next five to ten minutes?”
“Do you have the VIN number?” she asked.
“I just sent a picture.”
“Hold please.”
