Page 9 of A Touch of Murder
"I've never gone to see him, but I'll tell you about half this town would sing his praises. Believe what he does or not, he gives people the answers and results they seek. He saw enough just touching a saddle to send Kyle over to Edith." Gary shrugged.
"Maybe Adam had seen Edith or Ray with the saddle before and was able to lead Kyle there by that. I'm not believing for a minute he got some kind of vision about who the saddle belonged to." Barret rolled his eyes. "Visions and feelings from touching something. The only time I got those was when Ilearned not to put my hand on the stovetop when I was three." Even as he said the words, he recalled what Adam had seen with the handcuffs. He still couldn't explain it.
"Believe him or not. I don't care. But Edith said the saddle and horse were what Ray was on when he left the ranch this morning. Time will tell if the rest of his visions come true. This once, I'm praying that Adam was wrong." Gary held out his hand. "No point in going up those trails if Edith puts him on the other side of the highway. It will take about twenty to thirty minutes for Fish and Game to get up to Two Drop. If we find nothing there, we'll start searching over here."
"Please tell me that Kyle didn't go over there and tell Edith her husband is dead." Barret wanted to scream at the insanity.
"Of course not. He just told her that Adam had recognized her in a vision when he touched the saddle and he'd come to see if it was hers. No one is going to tell her the rest, though if it's true and Ray is dead, I'm sure the story will get out there and everyone will be talking about it." Gary turned away as another searcher walked up.
"Wrecker really gets to you, doesn't he?" Vance asked. "What happened last night at the table when he read your handcuffs? And don't tell me it's nothing. You freaked out and were out of his apartment in seconds. Something he said got to you."
Barret shook his head. "I just don't like him scamming people."
"Is he? If that was true, don't you think we'd have people complaining about him? We'd be called to his store every afternoon when customers get upset. If he's scamming people, he's the best scammer I've ever met. He knows things, Barret. He sees things. I don't know how, but you've heard people around here talk about him. He gets results that no one else can." Vance sighed. "You and I have been partners for a long time. I've seenyou react to a lot of things, but I've never seen you react the way you did last night when Adam held your handcuffs and said the things he did."
"Just let it be." Barret wasn't going to discuss this. Not here with others around. He didn't want his personal life flaunted in public. Besides, he wasn't sure what had happened. Somehow, Adam had known about his grandmother. He didn't know how, but there was no doubt in Barret's mind that was who Adam was talking about. "We've got bigger issues. We need to find Trina Wilson. We should be back at the station working, not here wasting time if they think Ray is up Two Drops Trail."
"We'll get back there and find her. I'm more worried about finding out what happened to her. Someone took that girl. She didn't just leave her car with the doors open and all her things inside. If she took off, she would have had her purse and her phone. Hell, no teen goes anywhere without their phone nowadays," Vance said.
"We need to sit down and go through all the evidence again. We had to miss something. I want to talk to her co-workers again, reinterview the parents. Someone had to have heard or seen something. She's been missing for nearly two weeks. That isn't acceptable. We need to find her." Barret didn't want to think that Adam Wrecker could be right and that young woman was lying in some refrigerated shelf at one of the county morgues in the area.
He'd investigated murders before, but never had the victim been a teenager. He'd seen his share of bar fights or even domestic violence murders, but there was something about knowing someone hurt a child that just changed everything.
Damn it. Now he was thinking of it as a murder, not a kidnapping. Damn, Adam for putting that in his mind.
He walked back to their car and leaned against the trunk as they waited to hear if they found Roy. He stared out over thearea. They were parked in a large lot that many hikers used. From the parking lot, you could choose several trails, some easier than others. Barret had taken them all at some point in his life. He didn't get out as much now as he had when he'd been younger, and as he looked out over the forest, he decided that needed to change. He needed to take the time to go for a run or a hike. He wasn't getting any younger. At thirty-four, he was starting to see and feel the changes in his body.
He watched searchers come and go from the area. He loved this community. They always came together. Even after two weeks, there were still search teams randomly going out looking for Trina, even after the official search had been called off. And if Roy was really dead, the community would come together to help Edith and make sure she was taken care of. He couldn't live anywhere else. This was home.
His radio came to life, and he listened as the call came in that searchers had found Roy Rowin and the search was being called off. His condition wasn't announced over the radio just in case his family was listening, but Barret saw the way Gary's shoulders slumped as he talked on the phone, and he knew that Roy was gone. Somehow, Adam had been right. One of the pillars of the community was gone. His heart ached for the family. He'd gone to school with several of the Rowins' kids. They'd all moved away since then, but he still felt the death deeply.
"Damn, I was hoping for a better outcome." Vance walked over and opened the car door.
"So was I." Barret looked over the people lingering around. No one looked happy. "Nothing more we can do here." He got into the car. "Let's go see what we can do about finding Trina Wilson. We can drop by the Rowins' tomorrow and offer our condolences and see if Edith needs anything."
They drove back to the station in silence. Barret replayed memories of gatherings at the Rowins' ranch. At least once a year, the family threw a large barbecue to celebrate their anniversary. They invited the town, and everyone brought food and drinks as they sat under large tents and talked about life. He wondered what would happen now that there wouldn't be an anniversary to celebrate. What would happen to Edith? It was too soon for those questions. They'd all be asked and answered over the next few weeks.
"I'll get back to the Jane Doe files. I'm looking at everything before the Wilsons spoke to Adam. It narrows the timeline a bit. If I don't find anything there, I'll expand my search," Vance told him.
"You're so sure that she's dead? Don't you think we should still consider her missing until a reliable source confirms she's deceased?" Barret asked as they walked into the station.
"The law might not consider Adam a reliable source, but the likelihood of him being right is high. If we strike out contacting morgues in the area, then we'll continue like we have." Vance went to his desk.
"A Jane Doe hit should have come up right away if she was found." Barret went to his own desk, glad everyone else was out of the station for now.
"If it was in the surrounding area. She could have been kidnapped and taken halfway across the country before they killed her. I'm focusing on surrounding states, but we may have to go farther out. I'd just started inputting her information in the database when we called it a night yesterday, then we got called out this morning. Let me do my job and see what I can find. You go back and focus on the crime scene again. We'll find her."
"God, I hope you're right. Dead or alive, I want to give her family answers." Barret hadn't ever thought about having kids, but he figured the not knowing was worse for parents thanknowing, even if it was bad news. At least they'd have some closure. What he wanted to give the family was answers. Who took their daughter and why?
"I didn't expect you to be here."
Barret glanced up to see his sister walking into the room, carrying three of the large boxes she used when selling stuff from her bakery. "Beck, what are you doing here?" He got up and went to his sister, taking the boxes from her hands.
"I heard everyone was out looking for a lost hiker and thought I'd take muffins out for everyone at the base camp but got word on my way there that they'd found him. I already had this stuff packed up, so I brought it here." Becky smiled over at Vance. "Hey, Lou."
Vance smiled back. "Good to see you, Becky. Thanks for the delivery. I'm sure everyone will enjoy them once they get back here."
"That's my hope." Becky opened one of the boxes Barret had set down on his desk. "You two get first pick." She glanced at Barret. "Rumor going around town the missing man was Roy Rowin."
