The Lot Lizard

Chapter 3

As I get ready to start out our day of searching, all I can think about is what Damon told me last night. The way my sister was hanging around the shop. The way she changed her entire look from down home good girl to rebel without a cause. It isn’t like her and I don’t know what has changed her and I don’t know what I am going to find. All I know is that I want to find my sister. I drive down to the diner just a little after 8am. I decided I would eat breakfast before our day of searching and questioning. I arrived at the diner to find Damon already there. I walk into the diner and look around. I see the top of Damon’s head in the back of the kitchen. I can’t tell what he is doing so I just sit down and order some pancakes. As I am eating the last of my breakfast, Damon turns around and sees me at the bar and ducks down behind the counter. I can’t see where he went but just a few minutes later Damon is walking in the front door of the diner.

          “Hey Jessica, you’re here early.” I guess he doesn’t think I saw him in the back and is trying to play it cool. “Yeah I wanted to get something to eat before we started for the day. Where have you been?” He looks out the window before he responds to me which is a little weird. “I was just out and about this morning. You ready to get started?” We head out the door and start for my car. “So where to first? I was thinking about going to the body shop since you said she liked to hang out there all the time, right?” I started to get in the car as Damon stood frozen at the front of my car. “Uh no we can’t go there. We need to start somewhere else. Vinney doesn’t like people poking around the shop and he won’t want us there asking questions.”  I spin around, looking at him in disbelief. “You can’t be serious. That was where she went every day. That is the first place we need to go! We need to talk to Vinney and see where she went after the poker game!” I am beyond furious that he would even suggest looking any where else. What the hell is he thinking?

          “Look, it’s not like I don’t want to find Ellie. I do, really and truly. We just can’t go there. Vinney is not the kind of guy that you want to mess with. He doesn’t just own the auto shop. He does a lot of bad things too. I just don’t want us getting mixed in with what he has going on.” Damon looks a little scared as he is talking. “Why do you work for him if you know that he does bad things? I mean, unless you’re a criminal too.” Am I seriously getting in the car with this guy? Maybe he is the one that did something to my sister and now wants to do the same thing to me. “I will tell you everything in due time. For now, we need to start moving though. Just start driving towards the college. We can start there.”

          It is almost dark now and we still have gotten no where on finding Ellie. Damon has been vague today too. He avoids anything to do with the shop he works in yet that seems to be the only place to go to for answers. After all, Vinney and the people at his shop that night for poker were the last to see my sister. “Well, we should get you back to the hotel for some rest. We can pick this tomorrow morning at the same time?” I am pulling into the diner at this point and just don’t know how to handle all this. “Damon, don’t you think we should have found something? I mean, why can’t we just go to the shop? I get that you are not wanting us to go see Vinney, but at least we need to try right?” Damon doesn’t look to happy that I am still trying to go see Vinney. Damon takes off his seat belt and goes for the door. “Look, let’s just not go to the shop for now. There are still places that we can go to before it gets to that point. Okay?” I reluctantly agree and head to the hotel. My mind can’t stop racing, going back and forth between the conversations of the day and what I found out from Damon. After I shower and get in bed, I can’t seem to go to sleep. My mind wanders aimlessly for what seems like hours.

          I am jolted awake by the sound of banging on my door. I fumble around for the light on the bed side table. The banging is persistent, and I am finally able to turn the light on and jump out of bed. I open the door to have Damon shove past me into the room. “We have to go now! Pack your s**t and let’s go.” He was very pale and sweaty, and I was still trying to wake up. “What do you mean? What time is it and how did you know where I was?” Damon is franticly putting some of my stuff in my bags and shoving my shoes at me. “No time to explain right now. Get your s**t and let’s go!”

          BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! We both turned and started at the door. “Do I open it?” I whispered to Damon. He shakes his head no and heads for the window. “We need to move now. We need to go out the window. Were only on the second floor so it shouldn’t be to hard of a fall. Land on the car right there in that spot and run to the black Impala down there.” He is pointing to a car a few spots down from the one he wants me to jump on. “How can I trust you?” Damon throws my bag out the window, it lands next to the car. “You can’t right now. I promise you though, I won’t let anything bad happen to you. Now go.” Just as Damon said the last word, someone is trying to knock down the door. I jump out the window and land on the car. I look up to see Damon looking over the ledge at me. “GO!” I grab my bag just as he lands on the car and I take off running to the Impala.

          “Who was that?” I let Damon drive for an hour before I decided to talk. I don’t know if I was trying to get my head around everything or if I didn’t trust him. “Vinney sent some guys to get you. He heard we were asking about Ellie around town and he didn’t like that. There is a reason I didn’t want you to go to the shop to ask him questions. Vinney is a bad guy Jessica; I don’t need you mixed in with what he is doing.” Damon looks straight ahead and won’t answer any of my other questions. He just sits in silence and drives. I don’t think I can trust him, but I know he saved my life back there.