Chapter 4.
The cellphone rang its obliviously cheery melody as Fox pulled over to the shoulder of the road, the car's tires splashing into the puddling rain. By the time he pulled his car alongside the curb, he answered his phone.
"Hey, Fox, how did it go with Jerome?"
"You're right; it was a lead. Falco goes to a bar on Singer every now and then to get away with his friends. This time, they're getting away from him."
"What do you mean?"
"He showed up drunk before Jerome and his buddies, and he started talking shit, so they had enough of him." He looked through the clouds of droplets on the windshield. "I'm at the corner of Anderson and Pullman. Where do I go from here?"
"Cool. The GPS is working. I think I found Falco's car. He's a few blocks away from Pullman."
"Keep me posted."
The line fell silent, and Fox laid a small earbud in his left ear. He clipped a microphone onto the collar of his shirt and thought, From Mead to Pullman? If I didn't know better, I'd think Falco's coming from the Academy.
After signaling and glancing over his shoulder, Fox drove back onto the lane and signaled a right-hand turn at the stop sign.
God, I don't know whether I'm being stupid or just wasting my time. I'm tracking down my friend who has gone out of his way to avoid us, and for all I know, he could be under the influence.
"There he is," he said. "He just passed me…and I lost him."
"OK, you just passed Trumbull. Singer's coming up after that. He's going north."
Fox slowed and took the turn, splashing up rainwater as he glided the car through the curve. No cars moved along the road. The dim fluorescent lights from the street's worn buildings reflected off the pools of rainwater.
"It's a dead end, Slippy. There's no one on the road except me."
"Just keep going. The bar should be right at the end of the street."
"Wait…should be?"
"Seedy part of town, Fox. Six bars on the street, several nightclubs…and he could be at any one of them."
"I'll search them all if I've got to. I'll get him out of there and get him back to his apartment."
"Fox, I had a feeling it was bad, but I had no idea it was like this. What are you going to do when you find him?"
Fox paused. "I haven't figured that out yet."
"You know he can't go back to his apartment."
"Well, I can't take him to my house. Marcus is done sleeping over. I can't ask him and Krystal to spend the night somewhere. Besides, Falco's an adult. I won't coddle him."
He pulled into the parking lot of the sports bar and searched for a place to park. Every other moment, his eyes fell back to the building beside him. The musty wooden beams and warped window wells drenched in the pouring rain made his face fall.
"I don't like this, Fox. It sounds dangerous. Wasn't it your dad who said, 'Never give up. Trust your instincts'?"
"Yeah. And my instincts keep telling me something else he told me."
"What?"
" 'Do what you know to do, and God will help you.' "
"I've heard catchier sayings."
Fox chuckled. "Yeah…but right now, that's what I keep hearing."
He hung up the phone and dashed into the rain, splashing up puddles with every step.