Chapter Thirty-Nine
Dental Stone
Dale
Chief Deputy Sheriff Cosby called first thing the next morning. “Can you drive to the department?” he asked.
“What have you found?” Dale demanded.
“Look, it would be better if you drove in.”
“I don’t give a goddamn flying fuck if it would be better.” He took several deep breaths, trying to hold onto his temper.
“As far as we know, she’s not dead, but there are things we need to discuss. Come in, Dale. You know how this works, but you’re not a suspect or anything. We just need information that you might have.”
“I’ll be there within the hour.” He ended the call.
“She’s alive,” he told the dogs.
He called Louisa. “Will you be around tonight?” he asked after the pleasantries were over.
“Yes, we’re stacking hay bales in the barn. What do you need?”
“I’m leaving the dogs in the house, and if I’m not back in a few hours, I will need you to let ’em out and possibly feed them.”
“Okay,” she said. “Do you want to drop them here? We don’t mind.”
“That would be great.” He tried to sound cheery, but the darned woman had special radar.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Willow is missing. She went to Show Low yesterday afternoon and didn’t return. I don’t know a lot, and I don’t want to worry you.”
“I’m worried, and you can’t stop that. Do you know anything more?”
“I’m heading to the Sheriff’s Department at their request.”
Louisa sucked in a sharp breath.
“They said as far as they know she’s alive, but they need information from me. Willow was acting strange the day she left. Heck, I knew something was bothering her the day before that. I’ll bring the dogs over if you’re sure?”
“I’m sure. Pack enough food for a few days, and hopefully we won’t need it. That girl is special to us, and if she didn’t have bad luck, she wouldn’t have any luck at all.”
“Amen to that. She’s a solid person, and I’m proud of her.” Dale had a catch in his throat.
“You should be proud. Find her.”
Dale dropped the dogs off twenty minutes later.
He took a few extra minutes to load his rifle and place it on the truck’s mount.
He wore his handgun on his hip. All that was missing was the badge.
He didn’t give a damn if the department wanted him involved or not.
He would find Willow on his own if he had to.
It took another forty minutes before he was sitting in Jim Cosby’s office.
“A park ranger found her truck out on Little Mormon Lake Road, about a mile from Whipple Lake.”
“But not her?” He was trying to hold himself in check.
“No, only the truck. They also found Deputy Wallard’s parked in front of hers. No sign of him either.”
“What the hell?” Dale stood so abruptly, his chair almost tipped backward.
“Sit down, Dale. That’s what I want to talk to you about. Do you have any idea why they are both missing or why they would meet out there?”
Dale paced back and forth a few times before he took the chair again. He ran his hand through his thinning hair. “Goddammit. She disliked the deputy intensely. He scared her. There is absolutely no reason she would meet Wallard.”
“His family is throwing a fit. They left a few minutes before I called you. They’re screaming that Willow seduced him, and now he’s in danger, possibly dead because of her.”
Willow’s past came crashing in on Dale. Once Wallard’s family knew about her years in prison, things would get worse.
“There’s something you need to know,” Dale said.
He proceeded to tell Cosby Willow’s story. The chief deputy’s expression changed the more Dale spoke. He had no choice, really. It would have come out. Willow was in danger, and he would have trouble convincing people that she was not the one to blame.
Jim stayed silent for several moments when Dale finished. “It doesn’t look good,” he finally said. “I can’t keep this information to myself. It will be all over town as soon as I talk to Benson.”
Dale looked at the floor, and then his head rose, and he stared Cosby in the eyes. “She was acting strange two days before she disappeared. Pull Wallard’s log. I was out of town the day things changed. I think he came for a visit.” He switched directions. “Have they towed the vehicles?”
“You can’t be involved in this.”
Dale rose slowly this time. “Consider me involved. She’s my granddaughter, even if we don’t share blood. You can give me the information I need, or I can discover it on my own. Deputy Wallard threatened her. You can take that to the bank.”
He walked out ten minutes later with a folded sheet of paper in his pocket. He drove to Roger and Louisa’s place and repeated the story he told the chief deputy.
Louisa covered her mouth halfway through, and looked like she would cry. “That poor, poor girl,” she whispered when Dale finished.
Roger took her hand and looked at Dale. “Willow is a good person, and there isn’t anything you could say to convince us otherwise. She’s exactly like her grandmother. Her story explains a lot. What can we do to help?”
Louisa stood and grabbed a tissue. She wiped the tears from her eyes and laid her hand on Dale’s shoulder. “She’s in trouble, and you will find her.”
The dogs stayed with them, and Dale headed to Little Mormon Lake Road after he spoke to the park ranger who found the trucks.
“Deputy,” Russel Lutnik, the ranger, said, with his hand out. He was in his forties, tall with a thin face and defined jaw. A dark tan covered his face and arms. He had laugh lines at his mouth, along with friendly eyes.
“Retired, call me Dale,” he murmured.
“Law enforcement is not a job you retire from. Chief Deputy Cosby told me to give you full cooperation. As I said on the phone, the trucks were towed into Show Low.”
“Did you look around the area?” Dale asked.
“A little. I was mostly looking for who left the vehicles behind before I called the license plates in.”
“Do you mind sticking around and doing a sweep with me?” Dale asked.
“I’d be happy to.”
They started at the location where Willow’s truck was parked and went fifty feet behind it, widening the grid as they walked. Next, they did the same thing from the location of Wallard’s truck.
In the tall grass, Dale saw something flash. He walked a few feet and bent down. “Over here,” he called.
Willow’s phone rested in the dirt, covered by the taller grass.
Russel took pictures while Dale pulled plastic gloves from his pocket. He’d come prepared. Dale lifted the phone. The smashed glass was intentional. It wouldn’t turn on.
“We need to keep looking,” he said. “Do you want to take custody of this, or do you want me to drop it off to the chief deputy?”
“You’re thinking foul play, I take it.”
“Willow is like a granddaughter to me. She’s had a tough time of it since the day she was born, but whatever happened here, she wasn’t a willing participant.”
“I’ll take the phone so there’s a chain of custody,” Russel said. “What do you want to do now?”
“Keep looking.”
They found another damaged cell phone a few minutes later. It was bagged and tagged like Willow’s.
“I’m thinking there was a third person,” Russel said.
“My thoughts too. The phones need to be analyzed, checked for prints, and DNA. There’s a pattern here, and I guarantee you this is not two people running away together.”
“I’ve come to the same conclusion. This happened on federal land, and it’s my case. You’ve convinced me that something bad happened here.”
“I don’t want to get in your way or cause trouble when it comes to prosecution, but I will be investigating this, too.”
The ranger gave a quick flash of teeth. “I don’t mind the help. As long as we keep it by the book, my supervisor won’t have a problem either. We’ve had too many cutbacks, and we need manpower.”
They continued their search, then started over, looking for footprints and anything else out of the ordinary.
The tow truck driver’s prints were distinctive with a small indent on the right heel.
They checked each other’s boots to eliminate them.
Willow’s prints were easy because her feet were smaller.
They also found two other sets. Russel made casts of them after taking photographs.
“What are you using?” Dale asked as the ranger worked.
“Dental stone. Works better than plaster of Paris.”
“Things are changing so fast, I don’t know if I could keep up.”
Russel looked at him and smiled. “Everyone thought two lovebirds ran away together. You have a sharp eye, and now I have a big case on my hands. I think you could keep up just fine.”
Dale appreciated the praise. He continued to watch Russel while he thought about Willow.
After the casts set, they went back to the search.
“Look at this,” Russel said. “It appears that someone used a shovel.” He took several pictures. “Let me get the shovel from my vehicle,” he said after Dale walked over.
Carefully, he moved the top layer of dirt away. Dale went to his haunches. “Blood.” He would swear his heart stopped beating.
He looked through the trees into the distance. I know you’re alive, Willow, and I’m coming.