Clint Wolf Series Boxed Set 3 Read online

  I laughed. “If you cut off my arm and count the rings, it’ll show that I’m turning thirty-four in July.”

  “Oh, that’s right, I remember you having your party around the Fourth of—”

  “Wait a minute,” I said, cutting her off. “I see what you’re doing. You’re trying to divert the conversation to me so I’ll stop asking about you and why you’re so happy.”

  She blushed, raised her hands in surrender. “You got me.”

  “It’s fine if you don’t want to tell me.”

  “It’s nothing, really. Trevor just showed up at the house today and surprised me with a new car.”

  I whistled. “That’s nice.”

  “Yeah, it’s a Lexus.”

  I whistled again, but louder. “Damn!”

  “Yeah, but it’s not the car that has me excited.”

  “No?”

  She hesitated, then took a breath. “Just as I was running out of my garage to answer this call, I thought—”

  “Detective Wolf!”

  Amy and I spun to face the house, from where a shrill voice was calling out to me. I saw Laura Murdock running down the steps, waving her hands in the air.

  “Rose’s cell phone is here! It shows she’s at home!”

  Amy and I traded looks.

  “That’s impossible,” I said when Laura—who was breathing heavy with excitement—skidded to a stop in front of us. “The dog tracked straight to the other side of the road and there’s no cell phone in sight.”

  Laura’s face contorted in confusion. “But the man at the phone company told me it’s within a hundred feet of my house. She’s got to be here somewhere.”

  I looked up and down the highway again, and then snapped my fingers. “Call Rose’s phone,” I said to Laura, “and don’t stop until we find it. She definitely got into a vehicle, so the phone has to be along the highway.”

  I then told Amy to stay on the western shoulder of the highway, while I jogged across to the eastern shoulder. “Head north and keep your ears peeled. When we get a hundred feet away, we’ll turn and head south.”

  I could hardly see Amy in the darkness, but the beam from her flashlight was bright and it gave away her position as she walked along the shoulder opposite me. The crunching of her boots in the loose rock was the only sound I heard.

  I made sure to keep pace with Amy, listening as I made my way north. It had gotten considerably cooler with the setting of the sun, and I was wishing I’d brought along a jacket. I had heard earlier that a cold front was coming, but I wasn’t sure when it would get here. I was hoping it wouldn’t be for a couple of days—or at least until we found Rose.

  “Anything?” Amy asked after we’d walked about fifty feet. “The only thing I hear is the wind in my ears.”

  “No, I haven’t heard a thing—” I suddenly stopped and cocked my head to the side. “What’s that?”

  I asked it more to myself, but I heard Amy’s boots stop moving. “What is it?” she asked. “What do you see?”

  I pointed toward my right, through the tall grass along the shoulder of the road. Although it was winter, it was unseasonably warm and most of the grass was still green and growing inches at a time. “I thought I saw a tiny flash of light along the bayou side.”

  Crouching low in an attempt to see through the foliage, I moved forward. I didn’t aim my light in that direction for fear it would drown out the source of the faint glow. I stopped when I reached the edge of the underbrush.

  “Do you see it?” Amy was standing directly behind me. “I don’t see anything.”

  “Nah, my eyes must’ve been playing tricks on me.” I straightened and was about to turn around when I saw the glow again. “There it is!”

  A small rectangular-shaped glow appeared from the utter darkness beneath the bushes. I ducked under a low-hanging branch and pushed some tall weeds apart, which brought the light into better view. As I drew closer to the bayou side, I began to hear a murmuring vibration. As quickly as it had begun, it stopped and the light disappeared.

  “Did you find it?” Amy was on my heels. I could feel her breath on the back of my neck

  I flicked on my flashlight and aimed it where I’d last seen the light. There, resting against a small branch was a pink cell phone. I pushed through the bushes and asked Amy for a glove. When she handed one to me, I pulled it over my right hand and reached for the phone just as it began vibrating again. Once I’d retrieved it, I turned the screen so Amy could see that the call was from “Mom.”

  “It’s Rose’s phone.” Amy’s voice was filled with worry. “What’s her phone doing near the bayou?”

  I sighed. “I don’t know, but I’m betting it ain’t good.”

  CHAPTER 9

  6:27 a.m., Thursday, January 11

  I strode across Old Blackbird Highway and stopped at the edge of Bayou Tail, watching Melvin Saltzman guide the police department’s aluminum hull closer to the bank. Melvin, a seasoned police officer who worked the night shift for Susan and handled all of our water rescues, was my height—five-ten—but weighed close to two-fifty, which was about seventy-five pounds north of where I walked around. His face was thick and tanned from spending most of his time out on the water, but he had a boyish grin—or, rather, used to have a boyish grin.

  I frowned as I considered how different he was since narrowly escaping death. Back when I first met him, he was quick with the jokes and there had always been a sparkle in his eyes, but lately his expression had taken on more of a somber appearance, and his tone was more serious.

  Melvin killed the engine and allowed the airboat to drift in my direction. There was fog on the water behind him and it gave off a spooky vibe.

  “Nothing?” I asked as he removed his New Orleans Saints ball cap and rubbed his shaved head. Although a cold front had blown through in the early morning hours and the temperature was falling, Melvin was sweating—and he was only wearing a navy blue T-shirt and jeans. I had slipped away during the night and retrieved my coat and, although it was thick, I was still shivering a little.

  “Not a thing,” he said, “but that’s not all bad news. If we would’ve found her on the water, it would’ve meant she was dead.”

  He was right. Once we had found Rose’s cell phone, we had called Gretchen Verdin again and she had tried to get Geronimo to pick up a scent, but to no avail. We tried accessing the phone, but it was locked and not even her brother could figure out the password.

  Fearing the worst, we had set up a command post in front of the Murdock home and gone to work. Sheriff Buck Turner, of the Chateau Parish Sheriff’s Office, had loaned us eight of his deputies. Susan was spearheading the search, so that enabled me to focus on the investigation.

  After a quick briefing earlier, Susan had divided the sheriff’s deputies into teams and paired them with her officers. Some of the teams were on the water, some were scouring every inch of the banks of Bayou Tail, and others were going door-to-door along Old Blackbird Highway, working their way north. Since Rose had gotten into the passenger side of a vehicle that had been heading north, and her cell phone was located north of the Murdock home, we figured it was a safe bet to search in that direction.

  “Clint, do you mind?” asked Gretchen, who had been sitting at the front of Melvin’s boat with Geronimo. She was holding up one end of the bow line. I nodded and held out my hand for her to toss it to me. I caught it in one deft motion and secured it to a nearby sapling. When Gretchen and Geronimo were on dry land, she told Melvin she was going to fetch some water for Geronimo and would be back shortly.

  “How’s she holding up?” Melvin was staring across the highway to where Laura Murdock was standing on the front porch of her house. The pale glow from the light above her illuminated her features, but she was too far away to tell if tears were still falling. She had spent most of the morning in that exact spot, just standing there blank-faced. When she wasn’t there or barking orders at Seth and Ronnie, she was balled up on her couch crying.
r />   “She’s not well,” I said.

  “Yeah, I wouldn’t be either. Deli’s my whole world, you know? If anything were to ever happen to her—” He winced openly and clamped his mouth shut. After a few seconds of silence between us, he apologized. “I didn’t mean to say something that might bring up bad feelings.”

  “You can’t bring up what’s already there,” I said. “I think about Abigail every day, but it’s never about the bad part. I only think about the good times we’ve had.”

  He frowned. “Still, I’m sorry.”

  I waved him off and scanned the front yard of the Murdock home idly, stopping when I saw Susan leaning against her marked Tahoe. She was talking to Mallory Tuttle, who was a detective with the sheriff’s office and one of her good friends. Susan had swapped her duty rig for a paddle holster, and her Glock was pressed up snugly against her swollen belly. I smiled at the thought of finally meeting our baby one day soon. According to Susan’s doctor, that day would be May 15, but she also warned us that the baby could come earlier or later. I wondered who it would look like more—Susan or me. We both had brown eyes and hair, so that was probably a given. But would he or she have a dimple like the one on Susan’s chin? Or a raspberry birthmark like the one on the back of my neck? And would it be a boy or a girl? I kept saying we were having a daughter and it irked Susan a little. She wanted it to be a surprise, but I just had this feeling…

  I was still standing there thinking about our baby when I heard a rumbling in the distance. The rumbling grew louder as it got closer. It was approaching from the south, so I stepped away from the banks of the bayou. When I reached the edge of the highway, I turned to the south and sighed when I saw large round headlights positioned high off the ground. It was a bus. I had hoped to see a white pickup truck with a green door barreling toward us, with a despondent Rose sitting in the passenger seat and a terrified Michael—because he thought he was going to jail for kidnapping a minor—in the driver’s seat.

  I was about to turn back toward Melvin when it hit me—it was Seth’s bus. The driver might have seen something yesterday morning. I stepped out into the road and waved my arms for the bus to stop. Although the sun was starting to come up, it was still a little dark outside and the driver must not have seen me right away, because the tires suddenly squealed and the bus lurched as she began applying the brakes. When the yellow vehicle had slowed to a crawl, the bus driver opened the bi-fold door and peered down at me.

  “Are you crazy? I could’ve killed you!”

  I started to tell her she should’ve been more attentive, but I just smiled an apology and showed her my badge. “I just need to ask you a few questions.”

  “Huh? Is everything okay?” She glanced toward the Murdock home. “This is Seth Murdock’s house. Is something wrong?”

  “He’s fine.” I clambered up the steps and glanced toward the back of the bus. It was empty. The driver was younger than any bus driver I’d ever encountered. She couldn’t be older than twenty-two or twenty-three. She had short blonde hair and a porcelain complexion. I shot a thumb toward the back. “Where are the other kids?”

  “Seth’s my first pick-up.”

  “I’m Clint Wolf, by the way. I’m a detective with the Mechant Loup Police Department. What’s your name, if you don’t mind me asking?”

  “Emily.”

  “It’s nice to meet you, Emily.” I pointed toward the Murdock’s mailbox. “Do you remember picking up Seth from here yesterday?”

  “I do. I pick him up from here every day.”

  “What time did you come by?”

  “About this time,” she said. “I always make it here right around six-thirty. It’s easy to be on time for my first stop, but afterward it gets challenging. At some of the stops, I have parents who want to talk to me about everything from the weather to their latest colonoscopy. There are the kids who run out of their house right when I drive up and I have to sit there waiting for them. I even have moms who chase after the bus because their kids forgot something.” She stopped and shook her head. “I wish I could just keep driving, but they would call the school and complain and I’d get in trouble.”

  I chuckled. “Did you notice anything unusual when you came by here yesterday?”

  She was thoughtful. “No, not that I remember. Everything seemed normal. Seth’s sister was standing next to him as usual. She was playing on her phone, which is also normal. I wave to her every morning, but she never sees me.”

  “Did you notice any strange vehicles on the road yesterday morning? Either before you picked up Seth or after?”

  “No, sir, I didn’t notice anything strange at all.”

  I was about to ask my next question when another bus approached our location, but this one was coming from the north. The number on it was 23. I caught a quick glimpse of the driver as she whisked by, but all I could see was the back of her head because she was staring at the police cruisers in the front yard of the Murdock home. The bus was empty.

  “Where’s that bus going?” I asked.

  “Oh, that’s Mrs. Beatrice. She has to drive down the bayou about three miles to the turn-around, then she’ll head back this way to pick up Luke, which is her first stop, and then she’ll stop here to pick up Rose.” Emily turned to look toward the house again. “Well, is Seth coming to school today? I really have to finish my route.”

  “No, he’s not.” I fished a card from my wallet and handed it to her. “If you think of anything else, can you please call me? Anything at all—no matter how trivial you think it is.”

  Emily studied my card for a long moment. When she looked up, her expression was curious. “May I ask what happened?”

  “Rose is missing.”

  She gasped. “Missing—like, she was kidnapped or something?”

  “We’re not sure.” I backed down the steps and thanked her for her time. I coughed on the diesel fumes as she drove off, and then raced for my Tahoe. I fired up the engine—shivering when cold air blew through the vents—and then headed south. This next bus driver would be an important witness. She had to have been in the vicinity around the time Rose was taken, so she must’ve seen something that might help.

  Lord, I sure hope so, I thought.

  CHAPTER 10

  I turned on my flashing headlights and blue grill strobes when I met up with Bus 23. Mrs. Beatrice slowed and pulled as far onto the northbound shoulder, the bus rocking gently from side to side as she navigated the uneven ground. I whipped my vehicle around in the road, pulled up behind her, and exited my SUV in a hurry.

  “What did I do wrong?” Mrs. Beatrice asked when I reached the bi-fold door she had just opened. Her hair looked like black straw and her jowls flapped when she spoke. “I can’t afford to get another ticket. The school board will—”

  “Ma’am, it’s okay.” I raised a hand to reassure her. “I come in peace.”

  Her belly jiggled as she laughed out loud. It was an infectious laugh and it surprised me, because I didn’t think what I’d said was funny.

  “I would tell you that you’re going to go in pieces if you make me late for school,” she said, “but you’ve got a gun—and I’m scared of guns.”

  I waved a hand in the air, but didn’t smile. “It’s not even loaded.”

  She laughed again, but suddenly stopped, and I guessed she recognized my expression wasn’t jovial. “Wait, is something wrong?”

  “I’m afraid so.” I looked toward the north, where I could see a boy in the distance standing on the shoulder waiting for her to pick him up. “Do you know Rose Murdock?”

  “Rose Murdock,” she murmured, turning her head up thoughtfully. “I mean, maybe. This is not my normal route, so I don’t know all the kids yet.”

  I pointed to the boy up the road. “According to another bus driver named Emily, that’s Luke. The next stop is Rose—”

  “Oh, yeah, now I know who you’re talking about. I didn’t know her name was Rose, but I know the house you’re talking about and I
know the girl. I did pick her up along this route on Monday and Tuesday.”

  “Did you pick her up yesterday?”

  Mrs. Beatrice shook her head. “I slowed down when I got to her house, but she wasn’t waiting by the road, so I kept going. My normal kids know they have to be at the road or I won’t stop. I don’t like to be that way, but I’ve got to get them to school. If I wait for everyone who’s late, then none of them would get to school on time.”

  “Did you see anything suspicious around Rose’s house? A stranger lurking around? A car that didn’t belong in the area? Anything at all?”

  Mrs. Beatrice shook her head. “No, I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.”

  “What about when you drove by her house?” I asked. “Did you notice anything out of the ordinary along the rest of your route?”

  “No…nothing.”

  “Did anyone else miss the bus?”

  “Not that I can recall. I think I made all of my stops except that one.”

  I scowled. Mrs. Beatrice wasn’t much help. At least she confirmed that Rose had gone missing between the time Seth’s bus passed and she arrived. Beyond that, she was useless.

  “You said this is not your normal route,” I said. “How long have you been driving it?”

  “I started this route when the kids went back to school on Monday, so I’ve only picked up and dropped off three times this week,” she explained. “I’m semi-retired and I only drive when someone goes on vacation or someone falls ill.”

  “Have you ever driven this route before this week?”

  “No. Katrina Bradberry usually handles this route, but she called our supervisor on Monday morning to say she wasn’t feeling well—which is odd for her—so they called me to fill in. She hasn’t returned to work yet and I don’t know how long she’ll be out. I usually like to have some idea about how long I’ll have to fill in because I watch my grandkids a lot now that I’m retired, but the secretary at school said they haven’t heard from Katrina since Monday.”