Free Truck Stop by John Penney

in as soon as I know anything.” He turned and headed out the door.
    Roger took a deep, anxious breath. This can’t be happening this way. How could there not be a squad of helicopters with searchlights overhead looking for Lilly right now? Where was the team of rescue dogs and volunteers scouring this piece-of-shit truck stop? His entire fucking life was going down the drain, and that cop was being reasonable and logical rather than reacting the way he should. Everyone seemed to be doing everything they could to keep him calm when they should be as freaked out as he was feeling. A storm? An Amber Alert? What the hell kind of bullshit was that to keep them from lighting this whole place up and calling out the National Guard?
    Roger felt dizzy; he steadied himself on the edge of the table.
    “Roger?” Kat saw him sway unsteadily.
    Roger looked away from her and slumped back down into the booth.
    There was a moment of silence. They all felt the helplessness Roger was feeling.
    Bart looked over at Kat and spoke quietly. “Anything he needs, just go ahead.”
    Kat nodded. “Thanks, Bart.”
    Bart headed back into the kitchen.
    Roger ran his hands back through his hair and looked out the window. He could see Ben’s patrol car pull out of the parking lot, head out onto the highway, and disappear into the misty darkness.

CHAPTER TWELVE
     
     
    A bitter cold breeze swirled through the truck stop complex. The rain had let up for the moment. It had been over an hour since Ben had left, and an eerie emptiness had settled in. No one had come or gone. It was just the four trucks and Roger’s car in the parking lot.
    But Cedar Mountain Truck Stop was never silent. It was always restless.
    Inside the shadowy truck wash, the rows of hanging shammies swayed slightly in the breeze that whistled down the large tunnel.
    In the repair garage, the eerie maze of parts and equipment stood silent, but the wind seeped in through the cracks in the sheet-metal siding, causing the chains from the massive engine hoist to tinkle slightly. Kincaid’s weird sculpture waited, half-formed, for its artist to return.
    And in the back hallway of the diner, there was the lonely dripping sound of the rainwater in the buckets and the rustle of the missing-persons fliers on the bulletin board.
    Cedar Mountain Truck Stop was alive and breathing, and it would never rest peacefully. Too many dark and evil events had happened here over the years, and time alone wasn’t enough to separate those events from this world.
    The only refuge for the living at the moment was inside the warm diner. Bart was busy cleaning the grill in the kitchen, and Kat was at the cash register with Ida and Daniel Consiglio, who had come in to take showers.
    “There you go,” Kat said as she handed Ida some change. “Towels are in the rooms. Leave them in there when you’re done,” Kat took out two keys with numbers stamped into them. “Number 5 and Number 6,” she said.
    “Thank you,” Ida said as she took the keys and turned to her son with a stern look. “Daniel.” It was a command.
    Daniel obediently followed his mother as she started toward the back hallway.
    Kat came around the end of the counter and joined Roger, who was still slumped in the booth, staring out the window. He didn’t look up. He kept staring out into the darkness. Kat waited a moment, then asked, “Coffee?”
    “Can’t afford the caffeine,” Roger said, still looking away.
    “Decaf?”
    “Still has some.”
    “Barely,” she said, then grew puzzled. “What’s the deal with caffeine? You came in here to buy that energy drink earlier, and that’s loaded with the stuff.”
    Roger grew a bit irritated. “It makes me more aware, that’s all. More sensitive, you know, to the things I see.”
    “Oh,” Kat said; it all made sense to her now. She looked over at Bart, busy in the kitchen, then took a seat at the booth.
    Roger felt her scooting in across from him; he was being rude and angry, and