Day 1
The rental car was a new Buick, perfect for the roads; heavy and wide, a big engine, all the gadgets and a full tank of petrol. He put his bag in the boot and drove out of El Paso International airport, heading south to pick up the 10. He loaded Gray Rock into the satnav. Stated time to destination was three hours and forty minutes. He yawned and settled into the drive, he had been travelling more than sixteen hours already. London Heathrow to Dallas, wait around the airport for a couple of hours, then Dallas to El Paso.
He hit the 10 and as he followed the road east out into the open space the familiar West Texas landscape surrounded him. Not familiar in he saw it every day, or even regularly but familiar in that he had done this journey about eleven years ago. This exact same journey, and in all that time it hadn’t changed at all.
And now he was back. It had all started four days ago. It had been a quiet time for him, he had not accepted any work for a while, needing some solitude after taking on some difficult projects. He had been in town, buying groceries, wandering around, not really doing much at all and had eventually gone into a barber shop for a haircut. It had been fairly busy, but he was in no hurry so sat down to wait. There were newspapers and magazines scattered on a table and he had picked up a red top and flicke
