Chapter 30
I drove into town. There was no sign of Enid Powell. Maybe even he takes a break from harassing tourists. I parked near the newspaper office and walked up to the door. It was locked, and no lights were on.
As I turned to leave, I noticed a hand-written note on a piece of cardboard taped to the front window. It read No paper today, out of town for family emergency. I really wanted to know what he had found. And then there were the meetings with Megan White and Ronald Barnes that he was going to set up. I dialed his cell phone number. It might not be the most appropriate action, to disturb him in a time of a family crisis. But I did it anyway. My call immediately went to voice mail, and I left a message for him to call me.
It was now past 9 o’clock, and my stomach protested. The diner was just across the street. I turned in that direction, and spotted Allison just arriving at the library. She hadn’t seen me since she was scooping up the day’s delivery of newspapers off the front step. I walked up behind her as she stuck the key in the lock.
“Can I interest you in some breakfast?” I asked.
She jumped in surprise, turning around to face me. “Nathan, you startled me.”
Her face was flushed, and her hand was on her chest as if to keep her racing heart from escaping. I felt stupid for being so brash.
“I’m so sorry for scaring you. Are you OK?” I asked.
“I’ll be fine,” she breathed heavily. “I guess that was payback for me startling you in the library the other day.”
“Unintentional,” I offered meekly. “Again, I’m sorry.” And I truly was. Then I repeated my offer. “Please let me buy you some breakfast at the diner.”
She composed herself quickly, and then flashed her bright smile. “Thank you, but I ate at home.” She then lightly touched my forearm, just as she had before. “You could, though, bring me some hot tea, with lemon.”
“As you wish.” I bowed my head slightly, as if addressing royalty. She entered the library still smiling, and I scooted off to the diner.
While I was still hungry enough to eat a moose, I wasn’t going to spend the time to gorge myself here while she waited for her tea. I also was not going to take a gigantic to-go order to the library and stuff it down in front of her.
The diner didn’t have English muffins, which I thought might go well with tea. So I ordered hot tea, toast, and coffee, all to go.
By the time I entered the building, Allison was just finishing placement of the day’s newspapers on the table in the fan shape I’d seen previously.
She looked up, saw the two steaming cups, and said, “Since there’s no one else here yet, you can just set them on the table. We just can’t spill on the newspapers.”
“Fear not, I have been known to go an entire day without spilling.”
She smiled and sat down. “What else did you bring?”
“I wanted English muffins, but the best I could do was lots of toast. We have both white and wheat. And jelly. Let’s see, we have grape, and grape, and another grape….it seems we have any flavor you want, as long as it’s grape.”
“Well, then, I choose grape,” she said brightly.
We sipped our beverages and munched on toast. “Since you already interrogated me, can I be the inquisitor this morning?” I asked.
“Be my guest,” she said.
“What do you do when you’re not being a librarian?”
“I tend my garden of vegetables and can them for the winter.”
The pioneer spirit.
“And I volunteer for food and clothing drives. With the bad economy, there are a lot of people in need, in Willow Run and in other parts of the county.”
“So noble,” I said with conviction, and I truly meant it. When people do such selfless volunteering, I feel somehow inadequate.
She blushed slightly and said softly, “It just seems like the right thing to do.”
I nodded in agreement.
“No more questions? That was the extent of your interrogation?” she quipped. “Some cop you must have been.” The instant look of shock in her face revealed that she regretted saying it. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that.”
“It’s OK. I didn’t take it like that.” A week ago my bruised ego would have been mortally wounded by such a comment. But now I could take it in stride. “I guess I’m out of practice.”
She was silent for a few moments, and then asked brightly, “Is there any Internet searching you wanted to do today?”
I told her I wanted to find the phone numbers for Megan White and Ronald Barnes. She looked puzzled for a moment, and then must have recalled the car thief incident. “Doing a little follow up interview?”
“Joseph Custer was going to introduce me to them for that. But he never set it up, so I thought I would call myself.”
I told her about Joseph not being around. She wanted to see the sign herself, so we both walked to the newspaper office.
“This is not like Joseph to just leave without telling someone,” she mused.
“Does he have any family here to ask?”
“No, Joseph was an only child, and his parents died years ago. And he never talked about any family outside of Willow Run. He was just married to his newspaper.”
“Has he missed publishing the paper before?”
“No, never. Even when we had the big blizzard a few years ago, he came into the office and printed a paper. It was small, but he printed it,” she said.
“When I talked to him yesterday, he said today’s paper was almost done. This sign suggests there’s not going to be one for today. Did the library get one?”
Allison wore a look of concern. “No, it wasn’t in the mail. He delivers the papers early in the morning. When I didn’t see it today, I figured I could just walk over and get one.”
“Who would he tell if he was going to be gone?” I asked.
“Normally he tells me since the library is nearby. But he didn’t say anything to me yesterday about being gone. And there were no messages from him.”
“Curious. I tried calling him this morning, but it went right to voice mail.”
We walked back to the library. I took out my phone and dialed again. It went immediately to voice mail. For the second time in less than an hour, I left my name and cell phone number.
“Maybe he’s in an area with poor reception and just turned the phone off,” I offered.
“That’s probably it,” she agreed. While I made the call, Allison had found the numbers for Megan White and Roland Barnes. She handed me a slip of paper. “Here you go.”
I looked at it quickly. “Thanks. And perhaps two other numbers? For Benjamin Moore and Amanda Sterling.”
“Why would you want to talk to those two kids?”
“I read something about them getting lost in the forest about a month ago.”
“Of course,” she said with sudden remembrance. “Those two were in big trouble for that stunt.”
“I figured.” I could just picture angry parents reading those kids the riot act. “I’d like to ask them about the good Samaritans.”
“Everyone wants to know about them. But you won’t get anything out of those two.”
I had a sinking feeling. People were disappearing at an alarming rate from this small town. Cortina Perez, Ranger Pine’s wife, the two Hispanic men, and now Joseph Custer. I feared what might have happened to these two.
“Why not?” I asked in alarm.
“Oh, nothing dire. But their parents made sure no one was going to talk to them about it. Ben joined the army and was gone soon after the incident. Amanda enrolled in an all-girls school far from here.”
“Their parents’ attempts to rein in the overactive sex drive?” I ventured.
“Bingo!”
We shared a laugh from that.
“Nathan,” Allison said. “Earlier you asked what I do when I’m not being a librarian.” She paused, peeri
ng at me intently. “I also like to go to the county fair. It just so happens to open this weekend. You should take me there tonight.”
The thought of a county fair and the animals there led me to respond, “Moi?” That was what popped into my head. The French word for me, made famous by Miss Piggy of the Muppets.
Allison giggled. “Yes, you.”
“Wonderful. I’d love to. I’ll see you later then.”