Somewhere Near Luminous Texas, Part 2

 

When I found Howard sitting outside, like he was, I knew I wasn’t going to like this, whatever it was. In addition, I got a cold nasty feeling in my stomach when I saw that the door was about an inch ajar.

Howard didn’t budge. He kept looking at me, like he had something to say. His bright green eyes looked deeply into mine. I kind of shook my head to maybe break the spell.

“I sure wish you’d spit it out, Howard,” I said, as I climbed the three steps and opened the door. I didn’t even say “Geronimo!” I just opened the door and stepped in. Howard followed me inside. Oh, how I wanted to see Bertie in there making coffee or ordering groceries or anything, but she wasn’t there.

I had never been upstairs to Bertie’s apartment, but I followed Howard up there as soon as I saw that she wasn’t in the store. It almost seemed to me that Howard wanted to show me that she wasn’t upstairs either.

The apartment was neat, spare even. Bertie didn’t go in for a lot of stuff lying around. If I had taken time to admire it, I would have noticed her very good taste. Everything seemed to be in place. There was no sign of trouble up there. Whatever had happened to her didn’t happen in her rooms upstairs.

Howard headed downstairs and I followed his tail down the tight little old fashioned staircase. It occurred to me to check the drawer for Mulvaney’s Colt. It was there. I didn’t know if that was good or bad, or if it was just data.

I don’t know how he did it, Howard’s pretty heavy, but he managed to get onto the counter and sat there staring at me, pointedly. Once again, the big tabby looked like he wanted to say something.

“She’s in Luminous.”

“I don’t have time to lose my mind, Howard,” I said, partly to steady myself. I wasn’t ready for a telepathic tomcat. “How would you know that, anyhow?”

“Russell.” The beast knew my name? “She’s in Luminous.”

“I can’t very well call for search and rescue on the word of a cat, Howard,” I said, but I was thinking it too!

“I always know where she is,” came back at me. I had a strange wobbly feeling. Maybe I was losing it? I stared into the small mirror on the wall in there to see if I looked crazy, while I was thinking. No crazier than usual. Just me, a fiftyish guy in a tan uniform.

“How and why, Howard? How and why?” I frowned at the big fuzzball on Bertie’s counter.

“I was asleep. Then she was gone. The door was open, and she was gone,” he said.

I took an analytical look around the inside of the store. Everything looked normal in here too. I took the Colt, and found her extra key in the drawer, right where she said it would be.

I stepped outside, with Howard at my heels, and locked the door. I couldn’t very well leave him there alone could I? Besides, he said he was coming with me.

How do you like that?

I opened the passenger side door, to let Howard in, closed it and walked around to my side. Before I got in I looked at the little old Apache John store sitting there not telling me anything. It looked utterly normal. Just a little old fashioned brick two story building sitting alone on the highway, the highway leading to Luminous, Texas.

Maybe a bit like this real one!

But before driving to Luminous, I owed it to Bertie to search the area, no matter what Howard thought he knew. Besides open land, there were exactly two places I needed to visit. Both were ranches. One, the Mitchell place was five miles down a dirt road called Swallow for some reason. The other, Johnson’s, was at the other end of Swallow, eastward.

I didn’t think they would know anything at either place. But, me and Howard drove out to Mitchell’s first anyhow. What it usually amounts to in a case like this is to inform the homeowner of the situation and ask them to call if they see anything.

I talked to Mrs. Mitchell on her big wide old fashioned porch, deeply shady and pleasant. On some other day, I thought it might be nice to visit here. Mrs. Aline Mitchell was a serious looking blond in her forties, who listened nodded and said she sure would keep her eyes open and that she really liked Bertie, the store lady. I gave her a card with my mobile number on it, in case she noticed anything.

A similar scenario happened at the Johnson’s place. I talked to a hired lady, who did the cooking and some housekeeping in the big stone building. She took my card and said she would inform the Johnsons when they got home. Her name was Louisa.

At neither house did I admit I had Bertie’s tomcat in my vehicle.

I drove westward on Swallow until we reached that little desert highway, and then turned north.

🌵

Linkie to first part.