Page 28 of Swerve
“No.”
He blows out a rush of breath, concedes with, “It won’t happen again.”
“The senator’s wife or the questionable judgment in general?”
“Both.”
“I’d like to believe you.”
“You can.”
She makes a pretense of shuffling some of the papers on her desk, suddenly changes course with, “The missing girls case. You spoke to the sister of the Benson girl?”
“Earlier this afternoon.”
“What’s your gut?”
“About as devoted as a sibling could be. Parents died when the younger sister was eight. Oldest had just started college and moved back home to raise her sister. No other immediate family.”
Chief Parker raises her eyebrows. “Damn.”
“Yeah.”
She glances out the window to the side of the desk. “I don’t have a good feeling about this one.”
“Me either,” he admits.
“I’d like you on it full-time until further notice. Get with the uniforms and find out where they are with the door to door. And then you need to start looking under rocks. Get online with the pervs and see who knows something. Let’s give it the gas. You know we don’t have much time.”
“I’m on it,” he says, standing up and adding, “That it?”
“For now.”
He’s just reached the door when she says, “Helmer?”
“Ma’am?” he says, turning back with a neutral expression.
“It sure would be nice to see you reach your potential.”
“I’ll see what I can do.” He turns the knob and walks out, wondering what she would say to the fact that he no longer thinks the word applies to him.
Emory
“You can’t stay in your corner of the forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.”
—A. A. Milne
I AM A DOER.
I have to do something.
I can’t sit and wait for my phone to ring.
My next online search is “what to do when a person is missing.”
WikiHow brings up “How to Find a Missing Person.” I read through the thirteen suggestions, making a list on the notebook beside my keyboard.
I long ago figured out that lists are my friend when life feels out of control. Making a box to check off beside each task will at least give me the illusion of doing something that might make a difference.
