~1.15~

Nick drove Woe in the direction of the waterfront until she told him to stop. She got out of the car and begun to crouch by the curb, picking up pebbles and tiny chunks of concrete

“What now?” Nick asked.

“Now, we throw the pebbles into the air,” Woe said. “And then we follow which way they go, and that‘s where your daughter will be.”

“What, you throw them straight up and try to see where they come down?” Nick asked.

“Well… we could do it that way,” Woe said, considering. “But, it’ll probably go faster if we do it this way.” So saying, she flung one of the pebbles as hard as she could down the street, and then pointed in the direction in which she had thrown it. “We go that way.”

“But… you just threw the pebble that way,” Nick said.

“Right,” Woe said. “So that’s the way to go.”

“Are you… you’re just making this up as you go, aren’t you?” Nick asked, suddenly beyond irritated with the whole thing. He was being taken for a ride… wasting valuable time entertaining a homeless whackjob… and he’d promised another homeless whackjob a hundred dollars a week for the privilege of doing so! Of course his daughter’s disappearance had unsettled him… but what had he been thinking, indulging in the delusional fantasy world of his youth? Mama… tribe… witches. Bullshit! “You don’t have a clue where Karrie Anne is, do you?”

“Look, if I wasn’t making it up as I went, it probably wouldn’t work,” Woe said, a hint of exasperation in her voice. “I don’t know where your daughter is, but I also don’t know where she isn’t… and if I don’t know that she isn’t in the place I’m leading you to, then that means she could be there. Okay?”

“Don’t jerk me around!” Nick said. “My daughter is lying in a parking garage somewhere, possibly dead or dying…”

“So… you do believe,” Woe said.

That shut him up.