2012 - No Return by Brett Battles

Author:Brett Battles [Battles, Brett]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Conspiracies, Mystery & Detective, Aircraft Accidents, General, Suspense, Television Camera Operators, Thrillers, Fiction
ISBN: 9780440245629
Publisher: Dell
Published: 2011-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

WES HOPPED ON THE TRIUMPH, NOT WORRYING about any potential ticket. With two vehicles they could cover a lot more ground. He’d braced himself for an objection from Anna, but she hadn’t said a word.

They agreed to check in with each other every fifteen minutes, then took off in opposite directions.

Where the hell are you, Tony?

He stopped at bars and restaurants, and cruised around fast-food places, looking through the windows for the show’s missing crew member. But so far, nothing. The periodic check-ins with Anna revealed that she and Alison were faring no better.

Wanting to make sure they covered everything, Wes headed over to Burroughs High. The school was within the Ridgecrest city limits, but was tucked up against the base, with a chain-link fence separating it from Navy property.

The last house Wes and his family had lived in before relocating into town had been in a housing tract known as the B K-parts on the other side of the base fence. Now where there had once been lawns and homes, there was only desert and asphalt streets leading nowhere.

He tried to remember exactly where his house had stood, but even the trees that had been planted throughout the neighborhood were gone. He visualized the walk he used to take home every day, watching his imaginary self make the journey again. There, he thought after a few moments. Right there.

Maybe.

The truth was, without any definitive markers he was only able to approximate its location. He felt hollow, like a part of his life had never existed.

He turned his attention to the still-standing school.

There were only two cars in the faculty parking lot, a Honda Accord and an old Dodge pickup. Both had faculty stickers in their windows, the pickup also sporting a Burroughs Burros booster bumper sticker on the tailgate.

Burroughs was basically an outdoor campus—long, rectangular buildings separated by wide areas of dirt and the occasional bit of grass. Wes drove the bike up a handicap ramp and onto the sidewalk, then slowly moved in and around the different halls. When he’d covered everything, he stopped near the administration building and called Anna.

“Anything?” he asked.

“Not a sign. How about you?”

“Same. Where are you now?”

“Just checked out a place called Lucky Liquor. Showed them a picture Alison had on her camera of Tony, but no one recognized him.”

He frowned. “Let’s give it another hour, then meet back at the motel. We should be able to cover most of the likely spots by then.”

“All right.”

Wes looked around at the school. Tony wasn’t here, had never been here. It had been a long shot at best. Anna and Alison were more likely to find a lead at Lucky Liquor than he had been riding around Burroughs.

He sped away from the high school and turned back onto China Lake Boulevard, passing the McDonald’s he’d worked at the summer before his junior year, then turned left on Ridgecrest Boulevard.

He checked the bar where he’d found Lars that morning, then two more before he ended up on the road to the fairgrounds at the eastern edge of town.

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