He pulled a deep breath into his lungs and stopped on the sidewalk, looking unseeing at Main Street.
When she said nothing, he prompted, “Right, you wanna let me in on why you’re callin’?”
She did because she launched right in.
“I know you dislike me repeating myself, Hix, however, it’s important enough to me to make one final attempt to ask you to stop this Junk Sundays thing. It seems lost on you that I’ve been trying since they were born to teach them healthy habits. They have to live in those bodies for what I’m sure we both hope is a long time, so it’s important that they take care of them.”
“Hope, it isn’t lost on me. What also isn’t lost on me is both Shaw and Cor play sports, so the entire school year they’re training and conditioning. Mamie is in dance year round. In the summer, they all like to go and help your dad out on the ranch and that work is heavy. They aren’t sitting around playing videogames all the time. It’s one day and they don’t eat so much they puke. They just have a day to relax and let loose.”
“Well, I don’t like it,” she shot back.
“You’ve made that clear.”
“They need to be shown what’s right, Hixon. Not shown what’s right but there are exceptions. Right is right. There are no exceptions. And they need a solid foundation for that when it’s their turn to make good choices.”
“Hope, they’re not five years old,” Hix returned. “No offense, but it’s weird, a momma tellin’ her seventeen-year-old son what he can put in his mouth. Or her fifteen-year-old daughter. Or even Mamie. We gotta loosen our hold and let them make those choices. We can’t treat them like first graders until the second they take off for college.”
“Shaw has a man’s metabolism,” she retorted. “But it would not be good for the girls if they got heavy.”
Hix tried to hold on to his temper.
“Neither of our girls are heavy, they don’t have the build or the habits to go that way, but that said, I’m not a big fan of you giving them ideas that they’d be anything but perfect however they are.”
“Society is not kind to fat girls,” she snapped.
“Unfortunately, you’re correct. But how about we worry about that if either of them gives us any indication they’re going to put on too much weight?”
She said nothing, and since they were on the phone, Hix couldn’t tell if she was seething or scheming.
He’d find out it was the former.
“So this is your play.”
Hix blew out another sigh and replied, “I’m not playing at anything.”
“Yes you are. Making it more fun to stay at Dad’s than put up with Mom expecting them to make the proper decisions about important things in their lives.”
“I don’t let them throw keggers at my place, Hope,” he clipped. “We have donuts and chips and dip and watch movies and football for one day. Christ, it’s not a big deal.”
“It is to me.”
“Yeah,” he bit out. “And you’ve shared that. I’ve listened. I don’t agree. So we’re not talkin’ about this anymore right now and we’re not talking about it again.”
“Hix—”
“Later, Hope.”
With that, he disconnected, and since he was on call, he not only had to drink pop with his wings rather than beer, he couldn’t turn off the phone but he could turn off the ringer.
So he did that, put his ex out of his head and walked back into the bar to continue with friends, football and shit food.
It didn’t occur to him as he did that for the first time since she’d kicked him out, he had no trouble putting her out of his head.
It also didn’t occur to him that he would not have to go home to her after football with his buds and listen to her bitch about the fact he put down so many nachos and wings.
By the time he sat his ass back on the barstool, he just ordered a plate of nachos and didn’t think of her at all.
The next morning, after going out first thing to the Mortimers to take their shit that he hadn’t yet figured out who’d graffitied their barn, Hix hit the department.
The instant he did . . .
No, the instant he saw the back of the rounded woman sitting in the chair beside Larry’s desk, he went wired.
Hal was not to be seen. Donna was probably out in a cruiser (the woman liked a desk about as much as Hix did, which was to say not much at all). Bets was at her desk.
Hix looked to Reva in the dispatch room and gave her a chin lift before he moved directly to Larry.
Larry looked up at him and straightened in his chair, murmuring, “Sheriff. This is Mrs. Calloway. Mrs. Calloway, this is Sheriff Drake.”
Hix was no longer paying attention to Larry.
One look at young, pretty Mrs. Calloway, he was also no longer wired.
He was tweaked.
“Mrs. Calloway,” he murmured.
“Sheriff,” she whispered.
“She’s in reporting her husband didn’t come home last night,” Larry put in. “She last saw him yesterday morning before he went to work. I’ve been explaining that protocol for a missing—”
His gaze cut to Larry as he cut him off. “Deputy, a quick word.”
Larry looked surprised, but Hix didn’t spend time taking that in.
His attention returned to Mrs. Calloway.
“We won’t be long.”
She nodded.
Larry got up and Hix walked him to the back. He stopped them at the mouth of the hall that led from the cells to the back rooms.
He turned in a way that Larry had his back to the room and he kept his face expressionless.
“Take her statement,” he ordered under his breath. “Get everything you can from her. When she last saw him. How he was when he left. His mood and manner the evening before. Where he works. Where he hangs. Who he hangs with. His normal schedule. If anything has seemed unusual about his behavior or routine the last few weeks or months. Get his cell phone number. The make and model of his car. License plate number. Get anything she can give you.”
“Boss, a missing person isn’t a—”
Hix allowed himself to lift his brows. “You got somethin’ better to do?”
“See your point,” Larry muttered.
“It’s not that.”
When he spoke those words, Larry focused more fully on him.
“That woman takes care of herself,” Hix explained. “Nails are polished. She does somethin’ to make her hair that way. She’s got weight on her but she’s also wearin’ stylish clothes. Those clothes she’s wearing, though, Larry, she wore yesterday. She might not have taken ’em off, she’s been so worried about her husband not showin’ last night. She mighta just been so freaked her man didn’t come home by the time morning arrived, she took off her pajamas and picked those clothes right up off the floor to put ’em back on to come see us. She has the remnants of yesterday’s makeup on. She hasn’t done anything to her hair, not even brushed it, just shoved it back in that ponytail before she came here. And her eyes are dilated, which is an indication of panic or anxiety.”
He got closer to his deputy and laid it out.
“Her husband comes home, Larry. She’s not here because he’s in the Dansboro Motel with his piece on the side and she’s fed up with putting up with it and wants to make a point. She’s not here because they’ve been having serious issues, he’s over it and he took off. She’s here because her husband comes home every night and last night he didn’t come home.”
“Right, boss,” Larry whispered.
“Go get everything you can out of her.”
“Right, boss,” Larry repeated on a nod, turned and took off.
Hix watched him and then he moved to Bets’s desk which was behind Larry’s.
He bent slightly to her and said quietly, “Listen in. Take notes. Be alert. You don’t have to hide it. We want Mrs. Calloway to know we’re taking her concerns seriously. Then be ready. We got a man to find.”
She stared up at
him with wide eyes and nodded before she grabbed her notepad.
Hix didn’t want to. He wanted to listen in. He wanted to make sure all the right questions were asked, no time was wasted, the interview was thorough and concise. And he was torn about the decision he made.
But he not only had to let his deputies know he trusted them when serious shit hit, he had to let his citizens know he trusted his deputies.
So he went to his office. Powered up his computer. Put in his password.
Then he watched covertly as Larry talked to Mrs. Calloway.
He’d called Donna back by the time Larry escorted Mrs. Calloway out the door and to her car.
Hal, who was out at Babycakes Coffee House getting himself an espresso drink that, not unusually, he didn’t ask his colleagues if they also wanted one, had returned before she’d left.
So he had all his deputies in his office fanned out in front of him with Hix leaning against the front of his desk while Larry reported what Faith Calloway had given him.
“You were right, boss,” Larry said. “He comes home. If he’s gonna be late, he calls. According to Mrs. Calloway, he’s a family man. He’s foreman on old man Grady’s ranch down in Grant county, so he’s got a long drive to work, gets up early, leaves early, gets home late. But likes to eat dinner with her, have some time with his kids before they go to bed. She says he’s in a fantasy football league and he and his boys got a thing where they rotate houses every Sunday and watch the games, but that’s usually all he’s away from them. He works so much and is on the road so much, when he’s got time, he likes to spend it with the family.”
“She report anything weird about him the last few weeks?” Hix asked.
Larry shook his head. “Not that she’s noticed.”
“Their story?” Donna queried.
Larry looked to her. “He got her pregnant when she was seventeen, he was nineteen.” Larry turned his attention to Hix before he said, “She blushed when she said that. Seemed embarrassed.”
Hix nodded.
It was a good catch. Didn’t give them anything they needed but it gave them insight into Faith Calloway.
Larry turned back to Donna and went on, “He married her and Mrs. Calloway says folks thought they wouldn’t work, but they did. They got a little girl, firstborn, she’s eight. Little boy came three years after. Mrs. Calloway works in the county clerk’s office part time and her husband’s ma looks after her boy while she works.” Again he looked to Hix. “She says it’s for ‘play money.’ She says he started as a ranch hand for Grady, worked for the old coot even before they hooked up, but even though he’s real young, he works real hard so Grady promoted him to foreman. They aren’t rollin’ in it but they also aren’t hurtin’. But she says, kids’re gettin’ older, they wanna start to take ’em for trips to Disneyland and stuff like that so they’re savin’ up. That’s her idea of play money.”
Another good catch.
Play money wasn’t nice clothes or new cars.
Play money was something for the family.
“No behavior changes,” Hix gave his question as a statement.
Another shake of Larry’s head. “She says nope.”
“Finances, who does them and is there anything funny?” Hix asked.
Larry tipped his head Bets’s way and told him, “Bets asked that. Mrs. Calloway does the finances, and no. She hasn’t noticed anything funny.”
“What about Grady? Did Nat Calloway get to work yesterday?” Hix pressed on.
Larry nodded. “When he didn’t come home, Mrs. Calloway called him. Grady told her Calloway came, did his thing, left at around six, which was usual. She called Grady around nine. When her husband still didn’t show around ten, she started calling around the hospitals. Said she didn’t wanna do it before that because she didn’t wanna think anything happened to him. She was still hopin’ he’d just walk in the door.”
“She call any of his buds?” Donna asked.
“Yup,” Larry told her. “All of ’em. None of them had seen or heard from him.”
“Why didn’t she call us?” Hal asked.
Larry looked to him. “Said she figured he was in a wreck or somethin’. Said, after she called the hospitals, she actually put the kids in the car and drove the drive down to Grady’s to check herself. She didn’t find anything. Didn’t think to call us until she got home from her drive and made her second round of calls to the hospitals early this morning. That still got her nothin’ and she heard nothin’ from nobody. That’s when she decided just to come in.”
Hix had been right. She’d come to them in the clothes she’d worn yesterday, clothes she hadn’t yet taken off.
And she didn’t suspect her husband of wrongdoing. She didn’t suspect he’d been arrested. She didn’t suspect he’d been caught in a prostitution sting or a drug deal.
She just suspected he’d been in a wreck.
Nothing else occurred to her until her worry overwhelmed her and she came in but did it only to get reinforcements.
“Drugs? Drink? Gambling? They been fighting?” Donna asked.
Again, Larry shook his head. “No drugs. No gambling, unless his football league constitutes that. She says she’d know. They’re comfortable with money but they wouldn’t be if he was doin’ anything like that. Drink, yeah, but she says it’s the normal kind. A coupla beers after work. He likes bourbon but doesn’t like to drink the hard stuff around his kids. And she was real honest about what it’s like between them. Said it was a bumpy road at first, bein’ young, settin’ up house, havin’ a baby to look after so soon. But they ironed it out. She said they aren’t perfect, they argue some. But they’re in a good place now.”
“Friends who might drag him into something?” Hal put in.
More shaking of Larry’s head. “Not that she knows of.”
“So there’s nothing?” Hal asked disbelievingly. “This loving family man just didn’t show up home one night?”
“Apparently,” Larry answered.
“She give you his phone number?” Hix asked.
Larry nodded.
“Right.” Hix looked to Bets. “Want you to see if you can track down that phone. If it’s got GPS, wanna know where it is. Also want you on the line with Dansboro Police and the sheriff departments in Grant, Hooker, Cherry and Sheridan counties. Give ’em info on Nat Calloway’s truck and a general description of the man. Tell ’em it’s not an official missing person’s case but we got cause for concern so if they can keep their eyes peeled for that truck, we’d appreciate it. Then I want you on the line with all the hospitals in all those counties, see if they got Nat or a John Doe of his description in a bed. The county coroners too. And then I want you to call all the hotels and motels in McCook and those other counties, Bets. Find out if Calloway is registered or his truck is registered. If not, ask ’em if they’ll do you a favor and do a walkthrough of their lots to look for it.”
“Isn’t that a lot of effort for a guy who’s probably pissed his woman let herself go and is likely off with someone who does it for him?” Hal asked.
Everyone looked to Hal, including Hix. “What makes you say she let herself go?”
“Saw her when I got back from Babycakes. She’s fat,” Hal answered.
Christ.
“You’re a tool,” Bets muttered.
She was right.
Hix decided he wasn’t going to bother responding to Hal’s remark.
“Larry, you and me are gonna go down, talk to Grady and see if he’ll let us talk to his hands.”
“Right, Hix,” Larry replied.
He looked between Donna and Hal. “Bets is staying here, want you two in cruisers, eyes peeled for that truck. Parking lots. Camp grounds. Wherever you can think to look.”
“On it, boss,” Donna murmured.
Hal said nothing.
“Okay, everyone, let’s move,” Hix ordered, pushing up from his desk.
They were all moving, Larry in step behind Hix.
T
hey walked through the department, and except for Bets who hit her desk, they all went out the front door and made their way to the side lot.
The county had money, and not much to spend it on, but they felt law enforcement was a priority even if not much happened.
That meant each deputy and Hix had their own cruisers, if you could call them that. They were big, double cab Rams painted white with gold and brown stripes down the sides on which it said Sheriff with a star in front of the word, and under which it said McCook County. The Sheriff was across the tailgate and the hood too.
He and Larry went to Hix’s cruiser and angled in, but the minute Larry’s ass was in his seat, Hix said, “I gotta make one stop. It’s only gonna take a couple of minutes. Then we’ll get on our way.”
“Okay, Hix.”
With that, Hix drove the two blocks to Lou’s House of Beauty and parked in front of it.
He didn’t look at Larry as he folded out of the truck. He looked through the window where he saw Greta’s back to him as she worked on someone in her chair.
He also felt attention from the women in the salon and from Larry in the truck.
He ignored it, opened the door and shoved only his torso through.
Greta turned to him and her eyes got big.
She was beautiful. Funny. Sexy.
And now he saw she could be cute.
“Lou,” he said to a Lou who was smiling so huge, it looked like it hurt. “Ladies,” he said generally. His eyes hit on Greta. “Greta, don’t mean to interrupt but need a minute if you can spare it.”
She looked to him at his place half in, half out the door. She looked out the window at his truck with Larry in it.
Then she looked down at the woman in her chair. “You okay here? I won’t be long.”
The elderly woman, who Hix had seen around but didn’t know, nodded enthusiastically. “I’m okay. I can wait all day. You take all the time you need, darlin’.”
“Thank you, ma’am,” Hix said to her and lifted his eyes. “Greta?”
Greta moved on pale-pink, high-heeled pumps his way.
Today, she was wearing a white, slouchy top with a low vee neck, jeans that hugged her legs to her ankles, where they were rolled up, and some kimono-like thing over her top that was black with big gray, white, green and pink flowers on it.