Shortly before 10:30, Preston had the line to himself when his cell phone rang. Well, no, it didn’t ring, really—Roger frowned on employees having their phones at work, but Preston needed to keep his in case the school tried to call him about Abby. So he hid it in his front pocket and kept it on vibrate, and after the breakfast rush was over but before the lunch rush began, he was restocking the produce on the station when he felt it go off.
He took a quick look around to make sure no one was watching him.
Neither Roger nor Maureen were anywhere in sight; most likely they’d gone to the manager’s office in back to review the restaurant’s surveillance tapes from the evening before. Someone was dumping trash in the cans out back after hours, and since Roger had to pay the city for waste dis
