Free With Vics You Get Eggroll (A Mad for Mod Mystery Book 3) by Diane Vallere Page A

asked.
    “Not much to tell. Not yet, anyway.”
    “I saw the news.”
    “That’s only half of the story.”
    “If I thought it was the whole story, I wouldn’t have gotten into your car.”
    “Night, I would never hurt you.”
    “I know.” It was obvious that Tex didn’t want to talk about the abductions. I tried out silence for a while, but when that proved awkward, I went with good old-fashioned get-to-know-you small talk. “Do you have any family around here?” I asked.
    “What?”
    “Family. You know, a mom. A dad. The people who raised you. Do they live in Dallas?”
    He stared at me like I’d grown a second head. He finished chewing and leaned back against his seat, staring ahead at the windshield. I looked away and bit down on a messy piece of chicken.
    “My dad split when I was six. My mother passed away when I was in high school.”
    “Brothers? Sisters?”
    “Both.”
    “So there are more of you out there?” I said, trying to get a smile.
    “My sister lives in Austin.”
    “And your brother?”
    “Killed in action.”
    My initial assumption that he might like some company seemed far from accurate, and the shortness of his replies told me that he wanted me to leave.
    “What about you? What’s your story?” he asked.
    “You know my story. I worked at Pierot’s in Philadelphia. Fell in love. Got lied to and left.”
    “That guy was a part of your life, but the way I’ve been figuring, there’s a lot of life that you’re not talking about.”
    “What else do you want to know? I came to Dallas to start over. And then one day after I was done swimming, I found a dead body under the wheels of my car. You were there. You know the rest.”
    I sat, silent, waiting for Tex to badger me into talking. I waited for three minutes, if the clock on the dashboard was to be trusted. As it turns out, three minutes is a relatively long amount of time.
    “My parents died in a car crash when I was twenty-one,” I said. “I remember because it was the night before my midterms. They were the only family I had. When they were gone, it was just me.”
    “What about your extended family? Aunts? Uncles? Cousins?”
    “My parents were both only children. When they died, I was on my own.”
    I stared at the empty containers scattered inside his car. Not only had I not gotten Tex to open up, but I’d succeeded in exposing my own old wounds. This wasn’t going well.
    “I should be getting home,” I said. I picked up the empties and opened the car door.
    He reached a hand out to stop me before I was out. “I’m here because I can’t sit around at home wondering what’s going on. Kate Morrow was abducted from this store.”
    “You’re planning to make the parking lot your new residence?”
    “Not just here. One of the other women was abducted from the bowling alley on Turtle Creek Boulevard. Another from the Mexican restaurant on Greenville, and another from the Cineplex.”
    “So you’ve become a one-man surveillance operation.”
    “There has to be something we’re missing. Officially, I’m on leave. Unofficially, I can sit in a parking lot and look for something unusual to happen.”
    “Has anything unusual happened yet?”
    “Aside from you showing up with the Chinese food? Not really.”
    I smiled. “Are you going to be here tomorrow?” I asked.
    “I don’t know where I’ll be tomorrow.” He hesitated. “But maybe I’ll be back here tonight.”
    “Okay, well, maybe I’ll bring you dinner.”
    We held each other’s stare for a few seconds but neither of us moved. When I opened the door a second time, Tex didn’t stop me from leaving. Halfway to my car, the Jeep started. Tex pulled up next to me and rolled down the window.
    “The Chinese takeout was a nice touch,” he said. “Next time bring eggrolls.” He smiled and drove away.

      
    I stopped at Mad for Mod for the references of other contractors that Hudson had left for me and drove home. Effie and her boyfriend Chad sat