“You know where we’re going?” Aaron asked.
“Enough to get us in the general area,” Kreed answered in that calm, cool, and collected way he had about him. Outside of that brief exchange in the front lobby of the FBI building, it sure didn’t seem like anything got to the guy. He needed to take a page from Kreed’s book. It would probably help him get through the next few days.
“Okay, wake me up when we get there.” Aaron lowered the seat and reached for his headphones. He was tired. All that nervousness of a few minutes ago seemed to reiterate just how little sleep he’d had over the last few days. Besides that, Kreed smelled too good, and the deep, rich sound of his voice seemed to speak directly to his soul. Aaron reclined his seat and put the earphones in then closed his eyes.
Chapter 12
“Cement Capital of Texas,” Aaron read a sign in downtown Midlothian as the headlights skimmed across the reflective etchings. “No way. Did that sign really just brag about dumping all those pollutants in the air?”
“Looks like it. There’s not much here,” Kreed said, following Ninth Street. The roads were barren, and as they passed the small downtown area, Kreed read the signs of the few businesses sprinkled along the route. “We got Chinese food, a bridal shop, a flower shop—they go hand in hand. Wonder what they thought about same sex marriage. We got a Mexican food restaurant, a title company, and a burger joint.” As they came to a stoplight, Kreed stopped then looked all around. “Wait, was that it? That’s downtown?”
“Looks that way." Aaron leaned forward, searching for something more. Thank God he didn’t live here. He turned his head to the right. A small restaurant, a donut shop, and a single stoplight were the only signs of civilization in that direction. Wow, talk about small towns. If you blinked, you’d miss the damn thing. Aaron focused his attention to the left. “Besides that Italian place and the donut shop, I see a Sonic, I think, and that’s about all they’ve got.”
“What time is it?” Kreed asked.
“It’s early still, just after ten,” Aaron answered with a glance at the dash and finally sat back in his seat. What kind of place had they landed in? All the way there, they’d passed cities full of progress. Hell, not five minutes up the highway, they had a shopping mall and more restaurants than he could count then this… It almost appeared like the community didn’t want to grow. Trying for anything that would help him understand, Aaron finally said, “Maybe the town closed early because it’s cold.”
“It’s not that cold,” Kreed said sarcastically. Clearly, he was on the same wave length as Aaron.
The light turned green, and Kreed took the turn as the GPS instructed and got in the right-hand lane to turn again. In the distance, the dimmed sign of a closed CVS Pharmacy caught Aaron’s attention, making him feel a little better that at least one chain store had made its way inside the town. He picked up his cellphone and searched the info on Midlothian, Texas.
“I’m feeling very Back to the Future here, like we warped back to the seventies. Hell, even Pineville, Louisiana, has more going on than this place,” Kreed said.
“Well, you don’t wanna go too far back in time. The town has a bad history. Back in the eighty’s some kids discovered the identity of an undercover cop at the local high school. They took him to a field and shot him—over a supposed drug deal. That’s terrible,” Aaron said, reading from his phone.
“Huh,” Kreed muttered.
And as much as he hated it, small towns sometimes held the most appalling secrets.
“Yeah, the town’s stats don’t look so good. Bet there are quite a few hidden secrets,” Aaron said, swiping his finger across the screen as Kreed hit another red light, this one with a set of train tracks twenty feet ahead. The crossing signal lit up as they came to a full stop, the safety gate lowering into position. They were the only ones on the road, and both Kreed and Aaron looked one way then the other down the dark tracks, no hint of light to show an oncoming locomotive.
“I saw this once on an episode of the X-Files,” Aaron said, after a few seconds of nothing but the flashing red lights of the track sign illuminating their car.
“Yeah? What happened?” Kreed asked, drumming his fingers against the steering wheel, still looking one direction then the other for anything that might be coming their way.
“The track was really alerting them of a UFO above them.” Aaron reached over and pressed the button, rolling down his window. He stuck his head out and looked up, searching for anything that might be hovering above them. Feeling reasonably secure nothing lurked outside—or maybe it was merely the cold air pushing him back inside the warm vehicle—Aaron sat back in his seat, raising the window. Kreed grunted and kept up the tapping on the steering wheel.
“The town in that episode was almost identical to this one. Real country, not much going on. But we don’t have to worry. I don’t see any kind of extraterrestrial ship trying to beam us up,” he added dryly, his eyes still focused up in the sky through the passenger window as he tried to see as much as he could with the window up. Almost as if he had given an all clear, the crossing signal stopped flashing and the gate lifted. Nothing had crossed in front of them.
“Didn’t Mulder and Scully work for the FBI? Connors would have a field day with someone like them,” Aaron commented as Kreed continued on and took a right at the next road.
“High school’s down there, I think.” Kreed pointed straight ahead. In all the darkness, no matter how hard he tried, Aaron couldn’t see a thing. Kreed spoke, drawing Aaron’s attention the other direction. “Does that sign say Midtowne Senior Citizen Community?”