Chapter 2: Darek - Pisces

Darek’s back was screaming as he sat behind the wheel of his partner Lizzy’s Land Rover. The usually comfortable seats weren’t doing him any favors, and now he was regretting that they hadn’t stopped off in Maryland on the way to Virginia. Instead, Lizzy wanted to drive on through and check into a hotel.

They were on the road and getting close to the old diner. Darek wondered if it had changed much.

Lizzy was staring down at her phone. “There should be a diner up here according to my GPS, and when we get there, let’s go ahead and check it out. I’m hungry, and I need to stretch my legs.”

They rounded a bend in the road, and the diner came into view. It had indeed changed a lot. The name of it was Gas and Guzzle now. The two gas pumps it used to have out front had been replaced with a huge twenty-pump station, and the diner looked more like a convenience store.

Darek knew he had to act like he’d never been there. “Is this it?”

“Yeah, it’s not quite what I was expecting either.” Lizzy unbuckled her seatbelt and then gave him an apologetic look. “I’m hitting the little girls’ room before we go out back.”

“Are you sure this is the place? There’s a barbecue restaurant inside.”

Lizzy nodded. “This is the address. I guess a lot has changed. If we’re lucky, we’ll find some of the same old staff.”

She hurried in, and Darek took a minute to check his phone, which had made a few sounds while he was driving. He also checked the burner phone, which was the only direct line of communication he had with the killer. While the last message was still there to haunt him, there was nothing new.

The words from the last message still surprised him. Whoever the killer was, they’d had a hard time ripping poor Lidia Hobbs to shreds, and he figured that was why the killing had been so brutal. It was more deliberate and forced. The person had to muster up everything in them, and they probably weren’t even watching what they were doing. They’d hacked into her until she was nearly bisected.

The phone vibrated in his hand, causing him to jump. When he looked down at the message, it was from the killer. “Have a nice trip,” he read aloud. “Really? So now the killer is a fucking smart ass to boot? Just wonderful.”

He glanced around and wondered if they could have been followed, but it was ridiculous to think that way. Someone in the department might have run their mouth, or the killer had seen them leaving with their bags.

Darek stowed the phone away and returned his focus to the task at hand. He couldn’t believe that the diner was no more. He wondered if the same family owned and operated the place. Maybe they had expanded their business from the mom and pop type location to a national franchise.

He walked in, and the bell on the door still sounded the same, but the place didn’t bring back any memories. That was a good thing, but he wasn’t sure it was going to do him any favors. He might not have any horrible flashbacks here, but he still hadn’t made it to Camp Victory. That little walk down memory lane still kept him awake at night.

Lizzy walked out of the bathroom and joined him near the fountain drinks dispensers. “Do you want to sit down and have something to eat?”

“Let’s grab a sandwich and get back on the road. The day isn’t getting any younger and we’re burning daylight.” Darek didn’t want to sit around in case he saw anyone that remembered him when he was just a kid. It was unlikely but possible, so better safe than sorry.

“Then let’s go ahead and order,” she said. “We can look around outside while we wait.”

“Sure.” He kept his head down as he ordered, even though the girl taking his order wasn’t anyone he’d know. He glanced at some of the other employees and didn’t see a single person he remembered from the old days.

Once they ordered and Lizzy explained who they were and what they were doing, the manager wanted to walk out with them and insisted on giving them a law enforcement discount, which he ended up making free.

“You’re looking into that case where they found that girl?” The man walked them out to the back. “I heard she was found out here. That old boy they convicted, he died. I’ve had a few people tell me this place is haunted by her.”

“Haunted?” Lizzy’s back stiffened. “Do you know any real facts or is it just urban legend?”

“Well, some people think it’s true.” He shrugged. “I heard that old boy said he was innocent, but I think he should have fried. Dying in prison was too good for him for what he did.”

“Does he haunt your business, too?” Darek asked. He could tell that Lizzy wasn’t too impressed with the man’s contributions, and she gave him a sour look for encouraging the manager.

She took off to the edge of the woods, following the information she’d gotten from the report. “The body was found more in this area, at least according to the file. It almost seems like whoever put her here probably hadn’t realized there was a diner there at all.”

Darek caught up, with the manager on his heels. The man was anxious, as if he might miss something. “That’s why they think Gough put her here,” he said. “He found her; he had to have known she was back here. If you ask me, he did it.”

Lizzy gave him a sour look and read through part of the police report. Then she pointed out into the woods. “There’s a fence here. It’s not in the report.”

Darek hadn’t encountered a fence all those years ago. He was trying to keep himself distracted from the image of Emily burning in his brain. In his mind, he was still running through those woods, his feet sloshing through the muck of recent rains as the mist of summer showers fell from the sky.

“We put that up a few months back,” the manager said. “Ever since that boys’ camp reopened about a mile up the road. I know they were some of the ones up to no good around here. We put up with it for a long time, but after the fire, we just couldn’t see letting that happen to this place.”

“Fire?” Lizzy and Darek spoke at the same time.

“Yeah.” The man acted as though he couldn’t believe they didn’t know about it. “There was a fire at the main office of the camp.”

“What happened?” Darek asked.

“Well, some say it was the boys being rebellious, but I asked my daughter, and she said the kids were talking about tax fraud.”

Darek didn’t think that sounded like the owners of Camp V, but then, things had changed. Lizzy was visibly shaken by the news, and Darek knew that it was because her hopes for finding more clues were vanishing. He hoped that was the case, but he offered a comforting hand to her back.

“Could you give us a minute?” Darek asked the manager.

“Yeah, sure. I’ll just go in and check on those burgers. You two take all the time you need and let me know if you need any more help.”

“Thanks,” Darek said.

“The name’s Albert.” He walked away, and Darek turned back to Lizzy.

She smiled. “Thanks for that. He was driving me up the fucking wall. Haunted? Really? How fucking disrespectful.”

Darek shrugged. “Yeah, some people are assholes. So, what’s next?”

Lizzy looked defeated. “Well, I say we take our dinner and go find a place to stay the night. We’ll regroup and try to hit the place first thing tomorrow.”

Darek feigned disappointment. “You were looking forward to getting over there.”

“Yeah, until numbnuts said the place burned down. What kind of evidence am I going to be able to find if it’s burned up?”

Darek was banking on it but decided to offer more comfort. “Maybe it wasn’t the main building? Maybe it wasn’t that bad.” Darek hoped that the entire place had been burned down to ashes so he could put this part of his life behind him and focus on anything else that might help them find the new killer. The old evidence wasn’t going to do anything but expose him and the other Zodiacs.

“I don’t want to know tonight,” she said. “I know it sounds bad, but I’m so fucking upset that I don’t want to even go there until I have time to process this. Not only that, but no one said a word about there being a fire when I called. I should make them pay the state for this trip.” She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.

Darek tried not to smile as he pulled her into his arms. “Let’s get those burgers. We’ll come back here later, and maybe we can figure something out.”

“I wanted to see if I could walk from here to the camp.” She turned and looked at the damned fence and her brows furrowed. “Stupid fence.”

“At least you know it wasn’t there back then.” He tried to offer what he could without incriminating himself and knew she deserved a better partner.

“Right. Come on.” She waved her hand at Darek and then walked back to the building. They were greeted by Albert who had a greasy paper bag with their names on it.

“Thank you for your help, and we appreciate the burgers.” Lizzy snatched up the sack, and Darek gave the man an apologetic look.

“Here.” The man reached over the counter for two large plastic cups. “Get yourself a drink on the way out.”

“Will do.” Darek gave him a toothy grin and thanked him as he took the cups. He paused to fill them up as Lizzy went back out to her Rover.

“You could have been a tad more pleasant,” he said as he caught up to her. “He gave us our food.”

“I know, I’m sorry. I’m just frustrated. What if we’ve come all this way for nothing?”

“I don’t think we did. Let’s get on the road, find our hotel, and regroup.” The longer he put off going to the camp, the better. Even if it had changed and was nothing more than a dead end, that was okay by him.

“Okay, but I’m eating in the car, so you’re still driving.” She walked around and climbed into the passenger seat.

Darek opened the door and climbed into the driver’s seat. She was already munching on a French fry and unwrapping her burger. “Fine, but I’m eating, too, so I don’t want one word about my shitty driving.”

“Deal.” She put the bag on the center console and then took a bite of the burger.

“How is it?”

Her eyes rolled back in her head, and he wished he could make her react that way as she moaned. “Worth the trip.”

He hoped that wasn’t the only pleasure they got out of it.