Vegas or Bust: An Aggie Underhill Mystery Read Online Free Page B

a bit, and then zip past her going ninety plus miles per hour.  Or, once in a great while, a car would zip past her going the other direction. And she wasn’t even a slow driver.
    The only concern Aggie really had about relieving herself on the side of the road, besides the fact that she didn’t want to, was worrying that she might accidentally squat down on a cactus or rattlesnake or something.
    Suddenly a foreboding feeling washed over her.  So far, Aggie had spotted maybe five buildings.  Each had been rundown, boarded up, and looked vacated.  She gnawed on her lower lip.  She couldn’t hold it much longer.  She needed to pull over.  Driving for a minute or two more, she sighed with relief when she spotted a gas station on the left hand side of the road.
    Her headlights lit up an old fashioned sign that looked like it was straight out of the 1950s.  The first sign said, “Café”.  Aggie pulled into the dirt driveway.  She stopped in front of an old gas pump that was in front of the little café.  The Café sign was peeling and falling apart and the building was dark, but not boarded up like the other ones she saw.  There was another sign a little farther down, in front of the rest of the building that read, “Restaurant and Motel”.  For some reason the sign looked familiar to her, but she knew she’d never been there before.  She chalked it up as being some form of déjà vu . 
    Aggie pulled up a little bit further under the café sign and parked the car in the dirt.  Betty let out another snort and drowsily asked, “Are we there yet?”
    “Huh?” Roger awoke with a start.  “Where are we?”  He rubbed his tired eyes with his balled up fists.
    “A town called Amboy,” Aggie said, flinging her door open.
    “What?” Roger said in a panic.  He sat up straight, now wide awake.  “I said no stopping until we’re in Vegas!”
    “I’ve got to go to the loo,” Aggie said.  “So, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to see if there happens to be anyone in the café.”
    “This is Amboy!” Roger squeaked.  “You can’t pee in Amboy!  Everyone knows that!”
    “What?” Aggie asked.  “Don’t be ridiculous.”  She got out of the car and walked toward the building.
    “You can’t!” Roger protested.  He flung open the back door.  “Betty!  Stay here!  Whatever you do, don’t get out.  Keep the doors locked.”
    “What?” she asked.  “But why?”
    “Just do what I say.”  He slammed his door shut and caught up with Aggie.
    “Doesn’t look like anyone’s inside,” she said, trying to peer in the dark windows.
    “Aggie, let’s go,” Roger said, looking around nervously.  “We’ll stop somewhere else.”
    Aggie looked at him, perplexed.  In the rising moonlight, she could see his frightened eyes about to pop out of his head.  “What has gotten into you?  You look a fright!”
    Roger grabbed hold of her elbow and began to steer her back in the direction of the car.  In a hushed tone he said, “This is Amboy.”
    “So?”
    “So?  So!” he hollered, and then looked around to make sure no one was around to overhear him.  “This is where they filmed, ‘The Hitcher.’   There’s like maybe a population of twenty people living out here… if that many.  And what kind of people do you think live in the middle of a freaking desert ghost town?  Deranged, psychopathic killers, that’s who!”
    “Roger,” Aggie said, “r eally!  Get a hold of yourself.”
    “Where do you think the idea for the movie came from?” he asked.  They were now standing in front of the car.  Roger opened Aggie’s door for her. 
    “I have no idea,” she said, baffled, realizing why the gas station and café looked so familiar.  She vaguely remembered seeing the movie ‘The Hitcher’ .
    “From real life,” he whispered and looked around again.  “From here.  Now get in.”
    “Oh, don’t be silly,” she said, refusing to get in.
    Roger walked around to the