Page 79 of Home Again
It was time to check out Linus’ place. When he let himself out, he didn’t even bother to look over at the young crowd. Instead, he just went three rows over and down a few houses, until he hit the trailer that belonged to Linus. Just by the shape of the outside—with the dilapidated porch, the fence that was hanging off its hinges, and the dead grass—Sebastian knew Linus’ trailer would not be neat as a pin.
He tried the door but it was locked. It took him less than a minute to let himself inside. Once again he first made a check and found no sign of Linus, then he did a more thorough search. Under his bed, Sebastian found two AR-15s, one AK-47, a Glock, and a whole hell of a lot of ammo. Taking all of that out to the car was going to be kind of obvious, so Sebastian took all of the ammunition out of the rifles and the pistol, as well as the additional ammo and cartridges, and brought them into the living room. He looked around for a moment, then he remembered.
Sebastian went back outside and looked at the obviously broken grill and opened the lid. He threw all the cartridges inside and shut the lid. That done, he wandered back to the Cutlass. He drove it right outside the entrance of the trailer park, maneuvering it so that the two driver’s side wheels sat in the gulley on the side of the road. Hopefully, anybody looking at the car would think it was stuck and that’s why it was sitting there.
As for Sebastian, he was just a poor bastard who was sleeping in his stuck car until morning, probably drunk. Yep, that would work.
He called Jada and it went to voicemail but he didn’t leave a message.
He texted her, telling her to call him. She didn’t.
He called her again.
“Can’t a girl go to the bathroom? Seriously, first, you tell me not to bother you guys, then you act like your ass is on fire. Mellow. It was less than two minutes. A girl needs to pee occasionally.”
“I need to know what the two Fontenot brothers drive.”
“A ‘hello’ and a ‘please’ would go a long way.”
“We don’t have time to fuck around.”
“Goddammit, Sebastian, I’m not fucking around. I’m already starting the search, all right? I’m trying to do things. Actual productive work that will help my friend, instead of pulling all the stuffing out of my pillow or crying!”
“Jada—”
“Darnell doesn’t have a car. He rides a motorcycle, a Yamaha Volt. I’m sending you a picture right now. And surprise, surprise, surprise, a man from Louisiana owns a truck. Who woulda thunk it? Linus’ ride is a red RAM-1500.”
“Sounds a lot like all of his rifle choices,” Sebastian mumbled.
“What?”
“Never mind.”
“Thanks, Jada.”
“Sebastian?” Ah, shit, he could actually hear a tremor in her voice.
“Yeah?”
“Please tell me you’re close to finding her.”
“We are.”
“She looks really bad, and after that last hit…”
Sebastian sat up in his seat. “How do you know about her being hit?” he demanded to know. “Did you hack into my phone? How in the fuck did you hack into my phone?”
“Who cares? I saw the videos, that’s what matters. Please find her.”
He raked his fingers through his hair, yanking at the back ends. “I will. I promise.”
“That’s good.”
He hung up the phone and slumped back down in his seat. After an hour and a half passed only two vehicles had come in to the park. He texted Gideon but got no response. His gut was churning; he hadn’t eaten since Neil had shoved food at him before they’d gotten in the airboats. Shit, he knew better than that.
He heard the rumble of a motorcycle and his heart started beating fast. The driver took the turn fast into the trailer park, but even from here, Sebastian could see the bike matched the picture that Jada had sent. Darnell had arrived.
Sebastian eased the car out of the ditch and slowly drove back into the park and toward Darnell’s trailer. The little party three doors down had dispersed, so that was good news. When he saw the man go inside, he parked beside his house. He needed to be close since Darnell would be coming on a little drive with him.
