~ ~ ~
Sara and Dougie ate dutifully. She could see they were still worried sick about Jace. She ran out of ideas where to look for him. Cam walked in with two other guys on the football team. He smiled and waved at her, coming over immediately to snatch a slice of pizza off the table.
“You still mad at me, Lindsay?” the handsome young blond boy asked as he ate the pizza, straddling a chair. “I thought you knew he wasn’t going. Jace chewed my ass this morning when I saw him.”
Lindsay stiffened. “What do you mean? I thought you went to Helena? That’s what your mom said.”
“Nah, my dad dropped me in town when I ran into Jace.”
“What time was this?”
“It was before ten. He was waiting for Dougie. I had him run me out to Marnie’s house.”
Lindsay made a face. She barely tolerated Marnie Slade and only because her and Jace were childhood friends. The girl lived on the wrong side of the tracks, wore way too much eyeliner, and seemed to hate Lindsay’s guts.
“He’s missing, Cam. He never got back to pick up Dougie.”
Cam’s eyes widened. “He was on his way to pick up Dougie when he left me. Marnie wasn’t home so I hung out on her porch.”
“He never got back there. Mr. Miller took Dougie and Sara home.”
“Did you go tell Sheriff Wilson?”
“I wanted to look for him first. We had a fight. He had a lot on his mind.”
Cam looked a bit worried and glanced at Dougie and Sara. “He wouldn’t blow off the kids, Lindsay.”
“I’m going to talk to the sheriff. I’m worried sick.”
Cam’s friends came back and they also snatched a piece of pizza, acknowledging her with slight leers. She ignored them, her expression tense.
“It’s after eight, Cam. Where could he be?”
Jace’s best friend told the guys to go on ahead of him to a party and offered to help her look. She was relieved, knowing Cam knew where Jace hung out if anyone did.
“What about the kids, Lindsay?” Cam said when the pair left to use the restroom.
“They can stay with me tonight. We have a pullout bed. I don’t know what else to do. If I call Miller, he’ll call the state.”
“Old man Turner is passed out in Hooligan’s. We just finished a game of pool over there. We need to find Jace fast. They find out he’s MIA; they’ll take the kids.”
Lindsay drove and they must have gone up and down every street in town looking for him. Finally, she dropped Cam at his car and the kids at her apartment. Then, she went to the police station.
Sheriff Wilson was nearly sixty and ready to leave for the night when she arrived. He seemed unimpressed with what she told him.
“Lindsay, he isn’t officially a missing person until tomorrow morning,” he informed her as he locked up for the night, leaving a dispatcher inside and a young deputy.
“You know Jace, Sheriff. He’d never leave Sara and Dougie like this.”
The old man frowned. He knew how devoted Little Bend’s best hope was to his younger siblings. He sighed and opened the door back up, gesturing for her to come with him.
“Dan, the Turner boy went missing,” the sheriff told his deputy. “Take a statement from Lindsay and see if Bob will keep an eye out for the truck.”
Lindsay was relieved. Bob was on patrol and Dan minded the store while their aged sheriff went home to sleep. Little Bend never saw more than shoplifters, speeders, and the occasional fender bender.
Dan Dooley was in his mid-twenties, sandy-haired, and a few years older than Lance. Lindsay didn’t like him and never had. Rumor had it he was seeing Marnie behind Cam’s back.
Dan might be seven years older and a cop, but Marnie was eighteen and hardly jail bait. He was good looking, but the smile never quite reached his eyes. He seemed annoyed to have to take a report from her. His pleasant demeanor vanished when the sheriff walked out of the station.
“Don’t you think this is a waste of time, Lindsay?” he asked in irritation as he got all the forms under the counter. “He’s a Turner, for crying out loud. Did you look to see if he’s sitting next to his old man in the bar?”
“He doesn’t drink, Dan,” she informed him coldly. “He’d never leave his brother here all day. Didn’t you think it was a bit odd?”
Dan glared at her. “We don’t sit here and eat donuts all day, Lindsay. I didn’t know Dougie was still here until Miller closed up for the day.”
“I know Jace. Something is wrong. He’d never leave the kids.”
“Ok, just calm down and fill these forms out,” Dan said in irritation. “I have to go in the back and send a patch out to Bob. If we find Jace, I’ll call you.”
“Thanks, I appreciate it.”
Dan eyed her with a knowing grin. “Do you want to know something, Lindsay? I always had a crush on you when I hung out with Lance.”
She gazed at him without expression, not interested in knowing what he thought at all. “Yeah, well had my brother known, he would have nipped it in the bud. He was awfully protective.”
“You hear from Lance these days?”
Lindsay frowned as she took the clipboard from him. “No, he hasn’t called at all. When he calms down, he will. The thing with our dad and Margene was getting to him.”
Dan’s eyes seemed to linger on her in a way that made her aware the sheriff’s deputy still had said crush on her.
“Margene will get bored with him. Maybe he’ll go back to your mom.”
“That’s not happening. The divorce is final in June.”
“I’m sorry Lindsay. I always liked your mom.”
“She’s having a rough time, but she’ll be ok.”
Lindsay filled out the papers as Dan left her to dispatch the missing persons report on Jace. The guy came back after several minutes and looked slightly disturbed. He made a call and took the papers from her. Within minutes, Sheriff Wilson came back through the doors, looking wide awake and alarmed.
“Dan, you tell Bob to get a crew up there from the State Police pronto,” he called to his deputy, eying Lindsay gravely as he approached. Something in his face made her feel cold all over.
She dreaded asking. “What is it?”
Sheriff Wilson looked uncomfortable and ashen-faced. “Lindsay, Bob found the truck. He found Jace. He’s dead, honey. I’m sorry.”
Lindsay stared, too stunned to react. Jace wasn’t dead. This wasn’t happening. One word escaped her.
“How?”
He looked visibly shaken and upset and looked away from her tearful gaze. “Bob said he found him dead. I’m sorry, Lindsay, but you have to go home now and let us handle this.”
She didn’t hear him anymore. Her breath stopped with a painful tightening in her chest. The panic in her expression must have alerted Sheriff Wilson she was about to lose it.
He hollered in the back for Dan. She crumpled against the counter, raw sobs escaping her now. Sheriff Wilson held her while she cried. The old man set her away from him, his kindly eyes meeting hers.
“It’s gonna be ok, Lindsay. I know this is hard for you, but were gonna get the guy who did this.”
Lindsay was too shocked to do more than cry and tremble.
“Dan, we're gonna be crawlin’ with State boys within the hour. Take Lindsay home and go out and help Bob secure that crime scene,” the sheriff hollered.
Lindsay followed the deputy from the building, not aware she still held the clipboard in her hands. She sat frozen in disbelief in the front seat of Dan’s SUV patrol vehicle. He pried it out of her fingers, seeing how pale she was with a concerned look. He said nothing as he rushed to get her home. She resented the excitement he didn’t bother to hide to know he got his first big case since becoming a cop.
Tears flooded her eyes when he dropped her at her stairs. She crumpled at the bottom, hyperventilating in her anguish. What was she going to do without Jace? Who would have done such a thing? Everyone loved Jace. He had no enemies. This was
n’t happening. Dazed, she stared into space with no sense of time.
She had no idea how long she sat there until the headlights of Mr. Merriman’s vehicle alerted her that her mother was home from her dinner date. She felt drained and incredibly empty inside. The horror of her boyfriend being murdered didn’t seem real until Deborah and Mr. Merriman approached. He wisely took his leave, seeing her obvious distress.
“What is it?” her mother asked as she rushed forward, eyes filled with concern. “What’s happened?”
“It’s Jace, Mom,” she whispered hoarsely, her devastated gaze blinded with fresh hot tears. “He’s dead!”