Read Temptation Town for Free Online Page A

looked like it just occurred, because I couldn't see
any flashing lights up ahead. The inevitable big jam-up was taking shape, so we
had to turn around and go back the long way, taking Las Vegas Boulevard to
Bonanza, then back over to Main, then on to the bus station.
    The girls
were waiting for me in Patty's car, parked across the street from the station.
They looked like they had calmed a little, but only a little. Emily,
especially, looked like she might lose it any second, wobbling on her feet as I
got them out of the car, and moaning beneath her sweatshirt hood. Patty's arm
was around her, and even though Patty was still shaking, she was much more in
control of herself, and of Emily.
    I very
carefully led them across Main Street. My hand was inside my jacket, gripping
my weapon every step of the way, as I threw quick, hard looks up and down the
street.
    Inside
the terminal, we walked rapidly to the ticket counter. My eyes flicked around
the room several times for any signs of trouble, but everything looked normal.
Emily bought her ticket. It said Miami, but I knew better. She was going to get
off somewhere along the way. I also knew there was no point in asking her
where.
    Soon they
called down the Miami passengers. People began filing onto the bus. Emily and
Patty hugged several times, as tears flowed between them. I said a few kind
words to Emily, but she didn't respond. I watched her get on the bus, taking a
window seat on the door side, near the front. She pulled the hood back from her
head.
    As the
bus backed out of its long space and rolled down Main Street, beginning its
journey to Florida, Emily waved through the window, but I saw blankness in her
eyes. And no wonder. She was leaping into the unknown, with death in hot
pursuit. That kind of apprehension and anxiety will put that look on a person's
face.
    My body
quivered. I'd seen that look before, years ago, back in LA. On Lyla's face.
Through the driver's side window of her car, right before I let her drive away
from my apartment. They found what was left of her a month later. And I had
fucking let her go.
    I ran
after the bus shouting something, I can't remember what. The Greyhound wound
upward through the gears and beyond the green light on Main Street. Still I
chased it, hoping I could catch it, pound on the side of it until the driver
stopped, maybe coax Emily off and save her, but the big bus picked up too much
speed and left me sucking its exhaust. I watched it vanish around a distant
corner toward the freeway ramp.
    Patty
rushed to my side, dragging me out of traffic.
    "Jack,
Jack. Are you all right? What were you doing?"
    A little
short of breath and gasping from inhaling the exhaust, I just gazed at her
while she pulled me to the sidewalk.
    She
propped me up against a building while I got my breath back.
    "What
is it?" she said. "What's wrong?"
    Finally,
I said, "Nothing. Nothing's wrong. Just some memories coming back to fuck
with my head."
    I
straightened up as best I could and took Patty's hands in mine.
"Look," I said, "call Emily tomorrow. Try to find out where
she's going, then let me know. Whatever you do, of course, don't let on to Beck
about any of this."
    She said
she would let me know, then we hugged. I was going to hold off on contacting
Lansdorf until she got back to me … I really wanted to be able to tell him
where Emily was.
    Patty and
I got into our respective cars and drove off in different directions.

 
    ≈≈≈

 
    Later that night, I finished up some bill-paying and turned on the
11:00 news. It was nearly half over. They were just concluding a story on how
there was no end in sight to the booming Las Vegas real estate market.
    Then
Patty's picture came up on the screen behind the female anchor, who said,
"A local prostitute was found murdered earlier tonight in an apartment
complex just off the Strip. Patricia Ann Dahlgren, 25, was found beaten to
death in her home at the Arrowhead Apartments on Sierra Vista Drive,