Bad Memory by Lisa Gray

Author:Lisa Gray [Gray, Lisa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781542092326
Published: 2019-10-23T16:00:00+00:00

21

JESSICA

Jessica reached the liquor store in under five minutes, eager to hear what Lockerman had to tell her.

It was a straight run, east along the highway, in the opposite direction from the tire mart. The building was low and detached and had a kind of disheveled appearance, like the drunks it serviced every day. Once-white paint flaked off in chunks, like dry skin on sunburned shoulders, the result of decades spent baking in fierce heat and being roughly swept by desert winds. The midafternoon sun glinted off the yellow store sign propped on the flat roof, unlit now, but a beacon for those cruising the highway after dark.

Jessica ignored the “no parking” warning, mounted the curb, and pulled up between a black plastic trash receptacle and an empty newspaper dispenser. A plastic banner advertising an energy drinks offer flapped in the soft breeze. She put the truck into park and watched as a guy in a dirty wifebeater stumbled out of the store clutching a brown paper bag, looking like his purchase was an attempt to recover from last night’s drunk.

One of the double doors was propped open. The other had a crude cardboard sign taped behind the glass, under the red blinking LED OPEN sign, advertising the assistant manager’s job. At first glance, the place appeared empty. No customers, no Jed Lockerman, the counter unmanned. Jessica wandered down the center aisle, snacks and candy bars and potato chips stacked on one side, freezers filled with packs of ice on the other. Then she spotted Lockerman in the warped reflection of a circular convex security mirror nailed high on the back wall.

She turned the corner into the next aisle and found him on his knees in front of an open refrigerator, stacking bottles of Bud and Coors and MGD onto the bottom shelf.

“Hi, Jed.”

He glanced over his shoulder. “Hey, Jessica. I didn’t expect you to get here quite so soon.” He pushed himself to his feet with a groan, left the rest of the beers in the cardboard boxes on the floor, and started making his way toward the front door. “Let me just lock up for ten minutes. I don’t want anyone to interrupt our conversation, and I don’t have staff cover in order to have a chat out back since firing Michelle.”

“Sure thing.”

Jessica wandered back the way she had come and waited for Jed next to the cash register. He secured the front door, hurried back along the aisle, and slipped behind the counter. Pulled a bottle of Talisker from the shelf behind him and handed it to her.

“This is for you,” he said. “As promised.”

“You really don’t have to.” She grabbed the bottle and slipped it into her bag. “But thanks anyway.”

Jessica leaned on the counter and appraised him. She wasn’t one for judging people on looks alone, figured a guy who could make her belly laugh was worth a hundred Brad Pitts, but Sylvia Sugarman was right—Jed Lockerman was not an attractive man. Reed thin, receding hair, acne-scarred skin, eyes a little too close together.

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