Page 10 of Refuge for Cherilyn

The woman pointed to the lounge area in front of the huge stone fireplace. “Just have a seat and I’ll call her.”

He thumbed through a couple of the magazines lying on the coffee table in front of the leather sofa until a shadow fell across the table. “Officer Harrison? MarshaConnors, restaurant manager.”

A very attractive woman stood there, and Shaw popped up off the sofa in record time. “Yes, ma’am. I’m OfficerHarrison, and I really need to speak to some of your employees.”

“And which ones might those be?”

“Maybe the ones who clean up after the restaurant closes?”

She side-eyed him, her lids slitted. “What is this in regard to?”

“I’m not sure. I’m just trying to locate the owner of the car that’s out in the parking lot, and they’re the only ones I can think of who might’ve seen someone.”

“Gotcha. Yeah, I noticed that car too, but it’s not there now.”

“I also noticed that. I just want to ask them some questions. They’re not in any trouble.”

“Okay. Let me get a couple of them up here. That’s all I can spare. If they can’t help you, send them back and I’ll send up a couple more people until you have one of them tell me to stop.”

“Will do. Thank you very much.”

“You’re quite welcome. Always willing to help out law enforcement.”

“Thank you, Ms.Connors. I appreciate it.” He also appreciated the swish of her hips as she walked away, and he kept watching as she made her way down the stairs to the dining room.

In a couple of minutes, two young women clomped up the stairs, whispering as they came. They stopped right in front of him. “Uh, OfficerHarrison?”

“Yes, ma’am. Have a seat, please.” The ladies sat down side by side on the adjacent sofa. “I just wanted to ask you a couple of questions. You haven’t done anything wrong. We’re just trying to figure out something. There’s been this car in the parking lot and?”

One of them blurted out, “Car? We ain’t seen no car.”

“Yes, ma’am. That’s okay. I’m just wondering, have you seen anybody hanging around? Like, oh, maybe a woman?” The furtive glances between the two girls didn’t go unnoticed by Shaw. “She’s not in any trouble. Matter of fact, we’re trying to help her. But we can’t help her if we don’t know where she is.”

The other girl glared at him. “Are you her husband?”

“No, ma’am. I’m not. I’m not related to her in any way. I’m just afraid she might be in danger, and she’s got two kids with her who also might be in danger.” They looked like they wanted to speak, but they didn’t, so he threw out another trick. “Look, the sheriff’s office is looking into this too. I’d like to be able to tell them you cooperated, but I can’t if you don’t.”

“Sheriff? We don’t want no trouble,” the dark-haired girl whispered.

“No. We don’t. We ain’t done nothing wrong,” the blond added.

“I don’t think you have. Just help me, please? I can’t help them if you don’t help me. How would you feel if you had to hide out in the woods with your kids and nobody tried to help you?”

“But we been helping?” The minute the words came out of the brunette’s mouth, the blond elbowed her in the ribs. “Owww! Damn, Amanda!”

“Shit, Maddie, you gone and done it! Look, OfficerHarrison, she ain’t done nothing wrong. We just been givin’ her scraps and stuff for them to eat. She had to have some, um, personal items for one of the girls too, and I found her a few. If my boss knew all this, I’d get fired. That’s the only reason why we didn’t want to say nothin’.”

“I get it, and it’s fine. Your boss doesn’t have to know about this. Personally, I know the health department would have a fit if they heard me say this, but if you can find somebody who can use the scraps, I’d rather that than just throwing them out to go to the dump. At least somebody’s benefitting from them. Now, what can you tell me about her? This woman. Her name is Cherilyn.”

“She said it was Sherry. She’s just been comin’ down and gettin’ the scraps. That’s all. We don’t see her no other time.”

“Not during the day?”

Maddie shook her head. “No, sir. We ain’t seen the kids neither. Just the woman.”

“Got it. And can you tell me where she comes from? Does she come off a trail?”

“Yeah, but I seen her turn and go up.”

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