"A few miles from your house. Crazy, huh?"
I was so distracted, I could hardly think. "Uh. Yeah. Crazy."
"I know," April said. "I mean, who expects to see something likethataround here. So, are you surprised or what?"
Oh, I was surprised, alright.
And yet, itcouldn’tbe the same car. I surely would've noticed, right?
Or maybe not.
When Joel had picked me up, it had been dark, and I'd been distracted. Maybe Iwouldn’thave noticed.
"So?" April said. "Are you? Surprised, I mean?"
"Yeah." I gave a weak laugh. "Stunned, actually." I was still trying to sort things out. "So, when did you see it?"
"This morning. On my way out of town. So in a way, I haveyouto thank for it."
"Why me?" I asked.
"Because if it weren't for your birthday, I wouldn't've been in town, so I wouldn't've been driving down that road at all. See?"
"Uh, yeah.Whichroad? You never said."
"The one along the lake. You know, where that campground is."
Oh, crap.So much for a poor, destitute brother, walking to work.
April said, "You know the road, right?
Did I ever."Oh yeah," I murmured. "I definitely know."
"Anyway," April continued, "I'm passing this storage place – you know, the one across from the campground – and what do I see? That car! And I'm thinking, 'No freaking way!' But I hit the brakes and turn around. And like half-a-minute later, I'm pulling into that storage place, and I ask the guy driving it–"
"Wait," I said. "Which guy?" It couldn’t be Joel, or she would've already mentioned it. Maybe thiswasjust a coincidence.
April said, "The guy who works at the storage place. Apparently, I'd caught him moving it from one unit to the other. But that's not the point." She gave another happy squeal. "I got to sit in it!"
Yeah. Me, too.
My mind was a jumbled mess. "Do you have any pictures? Like a selfie or something?"
April sighed in obvious disappointment. "No. The guy wouldn’t let me take any. He acted like it was all top-secret or something." She paused. "But youdobelieve me, right?"
Oh yeah. I definitely believed her.
But now, I felt like giant idiot.
Chapter 28
After getting off the phone with April, I spent the next half-hour scouring the internet. There, I found countless pictures of the Camaro, movie stills mostly. But as far as the Camaro's owner, that remained a mystery.
So I started researching the movie itself. At last, I discovered something that made me sit up and take notice. One of the movie's financial backers was a guy named Jake Bishop.
Staring at the screen, I said his last name out loud. "Bishop." LikeJoelBishop. Coincidence? Unlikely.
After that, my research got a lot easier. While hunched over my computer, I learned that Jake Bishop was a big internet star, with a rabid fan base of frat boys, groupies, and mixed-martial arts fans.
