FOLLOW THE LEADER - Chapter 62

 Chapter 62

It turned out the homeless guy had lied to us. We spent the entire next day from dawn to dusk in or around Whole Foods.  I had a pee pot, but there was nowhere to dump it, so we didn’t use it. Terry and I had used the market’s restroom so many times that a big armed guard was eyeing us suspiciously. He could not catch us shoplifting, of course. Once he came into the bathroom, maybe figuring that I was doing drugs. It was dark outside. I had hung around all day. What the fuck was I doing?

I turned on the hand dyer, hoping I would not have to answer any questions. 

He waited patiently until the thunderous noise abated. The frown was gone.

“It just come to me,” he chuckled. “Y’all are livin’ in your car.”

It was an intelligent guess. I was not about to stand there and answer questions.

“You nailed it,” I said.

“If one of y’all come in here to clean your pits, you pick up after y’selves. Don’t be washin’ y’selves when it’s busy. Customers don’t wanna see you washin’ your pits and nethers. They come in here to buy food.”

“Got it. Mind if we stay a little longer? What time do you close?”

“’Leven. You done been here a whole workin’ day. You gotta leave by noon tomorrow.”

“Your rules?”

“The manager’s. We clear?”

“Clear.”

When I got back to my car, Terry was stretching outside it. I knew he was testy because I took away his phone so he could not play games on it.

“This is hella boring,” he said.

“Part of the job.” 

“Whatever.”

I was edgy because Rollins would not be paying us if we chose to stay and surveil an extra day. I couldn’t blame him for thinking we were fools; that the investigation had turned on a damned matchbook. It did sound crazy. I imagined Chief Holloway updating the press: “We now have in our possession an old matchbook that was picked up in Death Valley.”  “Really?” a reporter would ask.

The bottom line was we had just spent the whole day for nothing.

No mud splattered Rover.

No girls.

No nothing.