Five Days in Summer

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    “Morning, Dick.”
    “Close. It’s John. And this is Will, twin brother of Willy. So you practically hit it on the head, Darlene.”
    She suppressed a smile and looked Geary up and down. She clearly did not like what she saw.
    “What can I do for you gentlemen?”
    Geary took the receipt out of his pocket, then dug deeper for his wallet.
    “Darlene, I’m FBI.” He flipped open his worn black wallet too fast for her to notice that his ID was expired.
    Her meticulously tweezed eyebrows arched.
    “We’re looking for someone. She shopped here yesterday, checked out at number eight.”
    Darlene looked over the receipt, then directly at Will.
    “I saw you talking to Todd.”
    “He’s kind of a jerk, if you ask me.” Will forced a conspiratorial smile.
    Darlene winked. “You sure got that one right!” She lowered her voice. “I wasn’t here yesterday afternoon, but Tariq was. He’s at number one. See him?”
    Tariq was a slightly built teenager, clean cut with wire-rimmed glasses, apparently trying to defy his respectable appearance by wearing a silver hoop in his lower lip. Geary took the boy through a similar introductory routine that Will was beginning to understand had been used many times before and worked like grease on a lock.
    “Pam was on eight yesterday afternoon.” Tariq’s tongue nudged the lip-ring as if trying to displace it. “She worked a double shift to midnight. But I think Susannah worked the afternoon shift with her yesterday.She’s right over there at three. They’re best friends. I hate them.”
    “Thank you, son.” Geary nodded. “If you don’t mind my asking, how do you brush your teeth with that thing?”
    “Is that, like, part of the investigation?”
    Geary smiled. “Not exactly.”
    “I don’t feel a thing.” Tariq nodded rapidly. “I don’t even know it’s there.”
    Will followed Geary to checkout three. All of six minutes had passed, and they had found someone who might have seen Emily.
    Susannah was deeply tan, with peroxide hair in a short bowl cut and electric blue mascara. She let her customer wait while she studied the time clock information at the bottom of the receipt. She nodded sharply, then turned to continue ringing up items with her scanner as she spoke. “Pam came over to me just after that and we went on break. She said she was a little weirded out by a guy on her line so she shut down a couple minutes early. We’re not supposed to do that, but, you know.” She turned to look from Geary to Will. “Did something happen or something?”
    “Maybe,” Geary said. “That’s what we’re trying to find out.”
    “So anyway, Pam, she told me there was like this lady who was kind of rushing her, and she didn’t like it, but then she figured maybe the lady wanted to get away from that guy right behind her. Pam said he kept touching things, like, over and over.” Susannah rolled her eyes as she quickly scanned bar codes, punching in the occasional item that wouldn’t read.
    “Did you see the woman?” Will asked as calmly as he could, refusing his desire to shout, beg, cry.
    “Nah, she was gone by then. But I saw the guy. Pam showed me.”
    “Can you describe him?” Geary asked. “Whatever you can remember.”
    “I’ve seen him before. He shops here like every Monday afternoon. I know because I’m usually on shift then. He’s like totally regular . Okay so he’s pretty old. I mean not as old as you — sorry — he’s maybe fifty. He’s got white hair and this really white skin, like he doesn’t get into the sun. He’s always wearing this blue cap with a twisty little rope on the front and a little visor thing.”
    “Some kind of sailing cap?” Geary asked.
    Susannah shrugged. “And he’s always wearing the same white jacket. We call him Mr. White.” She rolled her eyes. “I was surprised yesterday because I actually saw him talking to someone. Usually he’s just like this weird loner guy.”
    “Can you remember who he was talking to?” Will asked, hoping it wouldn’t be Emily.
    “It was a lady, older than him, but—”
    “Not as old as me?” Geary smiled.
    Susannah’s eyes flickered in embarrassment. “That’s not what I mean, really. She was just more like a grandma. But she had blond hair. She had this big gold charm bracelet. I think she was pissed at the guy.”
    “When was that, Susannah? While the first lady you didn’t see was checking out?”
    Susannah shook her head and her straight bright hair