Desolation Road (Torpedo Ink 4)

FOUR“You’re really gone on this girl,” Lana said, not looking at Absinthe but keeping her gaze on Scarlet through the high-powered binoculars.

They’d followed Scarlet to a very upscale, trendy restaurant downtown where she parked in the upper parking lot next to an older gray Honda. A woman with long black hair got out on the driver’s side of the Honda immediately, smiling at Scarlet, and the two women hugged.

Lana frowned. “They aren’t that good of friends. They’re pretty stiff with each other.”

“Scarlet doesn’t like to be touched,” Absinthe supplied, happy it was a woman she was meeting. There was something “off,” but he wasn’t certain what it was.

The two women exchanged a couple of pleasantries and started walking along the narrow path leading to the restaurant. Scarlet turned her head and took a casual look around. She was up two floors, but her gaze included the parking garage beneath her as well as the grounds she could see. She looked across the narrow strip separating them to the gardens where Lana and Absinthe were behind the tree weeping long limbs of purple flowers. They stayed very still as her gaze swept first one way and then another, crossing them twice before the two women disappeared inside the building.

One side of the restaurant was glass from floor to ceiling, facing the garden. A lighted patio separated the indoor section from the jungle of plants. Scarlet and her female companion appeared at one of the little tables for two right in front of the window, where any passerby might see them. Absinthe went very still inside. There was something really wrong. They might be two stories up, but Scarlet was in plain sight. She was beautiful and anyone would notice her.

“What is it, Absinthe?” Lana asked, immediately noticing his body language.

“She never sits where she can be seen. Never. In the library, she watches the door, every exit. Every window. She never goes outside until she checks her surroundings, just like she did as she walked toward the restaurant. Choosing that table is out of character for her.”

Lana watched the two women carefully as they ordered food and talked together. “You said they were old friends and one is leaving for her home out of the country?”

He nodded, not taking his eyes off Scarlet.

“Her friend is named Josefa. She’s from Chile. They definitely know each other, but I don’t think they’re really good friends. Scarlet is leading the conversation and the other woman is following her lead. They’re speaking Spanish, but using a Chilean Spanish, their dialect. Scarlet is very fluent,” Lana continued.

Absinthe could read lips as well. Neither had been able, in the library, to get a good angle on Scarlet and Joan because Scarlet was protecting Joan with her body. But here, Scarlet was watching out the window, rather than looking at her companion, exposing her face openly. She was laughing in all the right places and acting as if the two women were old friends who wouldn’t be seeing each other for a very long time. Her friend was shading the upper half of her face, but not covering her mouth.

“It’s possible Josefa is here illegally,” Absinthe mused. “She’s far more nervous than Scarlet. In fact, Scarlet is as cool as it gets. She’s chatting away, carrying the conversation as if she’s done this a million times. Josefa is following along, but she’s sweating. She’s not facing the window and she’s keeping her head down. She plays with that scarf all the time, pulling it up around her eyes and forehead. See?”

“I think you’re right, Absinthe,” Lana said. “Mystery is solved. Josefa was most likely a victim of human trafficking and Scarlet’s helping her get back home. I can see her doing that, using the library for the railway.” She lowered the binoculars.

Absinthe didn’t move. It was the right scenario for certain. It felt right and yet—it wasn’t all right. Just like Scarlet’s truth held a lie. Scarlet was in plain sight in front of the window. Did she have a partner? Was she signaling someone by sitting in the window? Was that what she was doing by acting out of character? He didn’t think so. Why be in the restaurant at all? Why go there if she was smuggling the woman out of the country? That made no sense.

He took the high-powered binoculars off his woman and swept the restaurant, first paying attention to the other customers. The room was full. There were quite a few male customers. More men than women. Most wore suits and quite a few had their eyes on Scarlet. He couldn’t blame them. She laughed often and he’d heard that laugh. Soft. Sexy. And when she tossed all that gleaming red hair, falling like a waterfall of silk down her back, it gave a man far too many fantasies. She’d taken her hair out of the sexy librarian twist she’d worn earlier and let it cascade down her back, thick and rich and unforgettable.