Part 16 (1/2)
Jan's cell phone rang and she picked it up as quickly as she could, thankful for the interruption.
”This is Anna from the Pinehurst. I'm over at the bar and just heard something that might be about that girl you're looking for.”
”I'm on my way,” Jan said. She hung up and grabbed her jacket.
”Wait. What's going on?”
”Someone at the bar might know something. You can stay here.”
Catherine was up and at her side. ”Don't be absurd. I'm coming with you.”
”Why?”
”Because I'm your partner.”
Jan raised her eyebrow. ”Don't get any ideas. You're not my partner.”
Catherine smiled and a crack formed in Jan's resolve. Every smile, every laugh out of Catherine's mouth, made the risk of being hurt so much more worth taking. She spun and went out the door, crossing the parking lot with long strides, Catherine keeping pace behind her.
Inside the bar the drinkers were down to a few. It was Sunday night, well into the evening, and the hunched figures were the hardcore regulars. The feel of a barstool below them was more comforting than any living room La-Z-Boy. Annabeth was talking to her mother at the end of the bar. As they approached, Anna discretely pointed at a man sitting by himself at one of the few tables in the tavern. He looked startled when Jan and Catherine sat down at the table with him.
”Excuse us for interrupting you,” Jan said, ”but we're looking for someone and we'd like to see if you can help us.”
”What are you talking about?” the man said. He was middle-aged, tired, his coveralls dirty from whatever it was he worked at during the day. His hand was thick, gripping the bottle of beer in front of him. He was eating one of the tavern pizzas.
”We've been hired to find this girl,” Catherine said, as Jan showed him the photo. ”She's run away from home.”
”And we know she's been training at the militia camp that's near here. Do you know anything about her?” Jan said.
The man turned around and looked at Anna, who just waved cheerily back. He sighed.
”I didn't know that Anna was going to call you in here. I don't want to get involved in nothing.” He didn't seem hostile. He could have been saying he didn't want to buy any Girl Scout cookies. He just wasn't interested.
”If you could just tell us what you told Anna,” Catherine said. He c.o.c.ked his head at her, most likely because she talked funny. ”She's just a girl, you see. We need to find her.”
”I don't know if I do know anything at all about her. When Anna mentioned there were people here looking for a missing girl, I told her what I heard when I was at the gas station a bit ago. A couple fellas from the training camp were there and I overheard them saying they all had to scramble out of there 'cause it turned out there was a runaway in the camp and someone had come looking for her. They thought she was part of the group of young folks who are heading out to Idaho.”
Catherine and Jan looked at each other.
The man gave the photo back to Jan. ”I didn't see her myself, so I don't know if that's her.”
”Do you know the names of any of the people going to Idaho?”
”David Conlon is the only one I know of. I've heard him in the bar here talking about Idaho. They're crazy, if you ask me.”
”Why do you say that?” Jan asked.
”Well, what the h.e.l.l are they going to do out there? There aren't any more jobs in the middle of Idaho than there are here, and they won't have their parents' homes to go to when they run out of money. And Idaho is hard country. A Michigan winter is nothing compared to what they have.”
Jan had to agree with that. The winters of her childhood were endless months of freezing cold and unending snow. Every fall was spent shoring up the sorry structures in their camp in the hope they'd be st.u.r.dy enough to keep them alive until spring. Men cut wood non-stop, piling split logs into small mountains that never seemed large enough to keep them warm through the season.
”Do you have any idea where they planned to go in Idaho? Did it sound like they have a destination?”
”Conlon was boasting that they had some property they bought, with a house and some stables and who knows what else. I couldn't tell you where it was. Didn't hear him mention it.”
”Do you know where we can find David Conlon?”
”He lives somewhere around here, I guess. I've seen him in here enough. I couldn't tell you what town he's in though.”
”What about the men you overheard at the gas station?” Catherine asked. ”Can you tell us who they were? They might know more about the girl we're looking for.”
The man shrugged. ”Sorry. I didn't know those fellas.”
Catherine looked at Jan, who then turned for a final question.
”Can you give us your name, sir?”
”It's Fred Hansen. But I'd appreciate you not spreading it around that I talked to you. People don't much like it when you talk about them to outsiders.”
”I understand. I'll leave my card with you and ask that you call me if you hear anything else about the group going to Idaho or the girl we're trying to find. Her name's Maddy Harrington.”
Hansen nodded and turned back to his pizza as Jan and Catherine got up from the table. When they returned to the motel they stopped in front of their two rooms.
”What do we do now?” Catherine said. She stood facing Jan, close enough to put her arms around her neck and pull her down for a kiss, which she looked like she was about to do. Jan pulled back a step.
”I'm going to try to find David Conlon. You can do whatever you want.”
She put her key in her door and left Catherine standing outside, her hands on her hips.
Maddy woke to find herself in Kristi's cot, tucked under her arm and buried under their coats and the two thin blankets they'd found in the cabin. She barely remembered waking earlier in the night, freezing, not thinking twice about climbing in with Kristi and her generous body heat. Kristi had simply grunted and moved over a bit, wrapping an arm around Maddy.
Kristi's vibrating cell phone went off. She could hear it skittering along the floor below her. Kristi slept on.
”h.e.l.lo?” she answered the phone knowing it was probably David.
”We're five minutes away,” he said. ”Get yourselves ready to roll. We're heading to Idaho.”
”Now?”
”Yes. We have to. People are looking for you and we need to get out of here.” David didn't sound like his usual easygoing self. She felt Kristi s.h.i.+ft behind her.
”Okay. We'll be ready.”
”You know, Maddy, there are some who want to leave you behind. And they may be right. You shouldn't have lied to me,” David said.
”Why are you taking me then?” She didn't want to go where she wasn't wanted. She'd had a lifetime of that, she felt. But she wanted to go to Idaho, more than ever before.
”I don't know. It might be stupid of me. But you and I talked so much about this together that it doesn't feel right to leave you. Let's hope I don't regret this.”