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His fingers didn’t feel the tiny golden pendant or the chain. He dug around as panic rushed his movements. He reached into his other pockets, but there was no pendant.

Where did it go?

He reassured himself: “If Hazel doesn’t see it, no one will understand it anyway. It won’t matter if someone finds it out of context,” he muttered aloud. “It just won’t matter.”

But what did matter was the fact that he didn’t have it anymore, and it was important. He’d planned it all out and there was no substitute for that pendant. It wasn’t like he could stop by the small Black Vulture grocery store and buy another one. It had taken him time to find and then order it.

Should he order another one? Could he get it sent overnight? How would that work? Was he going to have to deal with that old woman at the post office?

Inadequacy, failure spread through his limbs, leaving him both hot and cold at the same time.

He knew he’d been faking it until he could make it, but he’d thought things were going well. Now he was sure he was just an imposter, even with a grudge he couldn’t deny.

He bit down on the inside of his mouth, just to the point before his molars would break through skin. He liked to taste the blood, and the pain was sometimes the only thing that could cover up the soul crushing ache, the real pain that would truly never go away.

Until he killed and posed Hazel Dylan.

CHAPTER

24

“ARE YOU FUCKING kidding me?!” Trisha slammed the empty ceramic coffee mug down on the counter. “Joey and Danielle Harold? That’s the wildest thing I’ve ever heard.”

Calloway and I sat at the counter. It had been by chance that I’d seen him walking into the diner. I suspected he was going in to talk to Trisha, and I didn’t think it would go well. I wasn’t sure I could make it better, but Trisha liked me enough to maybe not throw something at Calloway if I was with him.

“Trisha, watch your language!” Virgie said from somewhere in the kitchen.

I didn’t see her or her hair. Trisha ignored her, keeping her angry focus on Calloway and me.

“I know, Trisha. I’m just asking,” he said.

“No, you’re not just asking. You’ve heard something. I want to know what it was and who said it.”

“I’m trying to find Joey. I’m exploring every lead, no matter how small or ridiculous.”

He wouldn’t bring up Dixie’s name. Neither would I.

The bright anger in Trisha’s eyes calmed a little, but her pursed lips remained tight. “Okay, okay. Look, I know how rumors go around this crazy place. Joey did some work for Danielle out at her place. Her water heater busted, and she paid Joey to drain and remove the old one and then put in one she bought off some online marketplace. Joey had to go out to her place a couple times because the one she bought needed some new parts that he had to go buy. He was at her place a lot, trying to get that damn water heater to work.”

“Did he?” I asked, surprised that Joey had any useful skills.

“Yeah. Joey can fix anything.”

I had no idea. “Okay.”

Calloway continued, “Trisha, is there any chance at all that they went to Nogales together? She’s not at her house.”

“No. And, there’s no chance that Joey went to Nogales by himself, Sheriff. He for sure didn’t go with Danielle. She’s … old and strange. He told me.”

“What? Talk to me, Trisha,” Calloway said.

Trisha grimaced as if she wasn’t sure what to say, but she continued, “She’s paranoid.”

“How so?”

“She made him knock on the door a certain way. I don’t know. It was something like two long pauses and then two short. He said she answered the door by just peeking out first. Joey said she kept looking outside, like she thought someone was coming after her.”

“Is there anything else he said? Anything at all, Trisha? What you’ve told us so far might help. Can you remember anything else?”