by David Archer
Lizzie nodded. “Yeah, he called the cops, but they said there was nothing they could do. They said she’d have to be missing for more than twenty-four hours, so he’s supposed to go back to them today, when he gets off work.”
I sat there, thinking furiously. Waiting twenty-four hours is not a rule, but it’s a common custom with many police departments unless there is reason to suspect the person may be in some kind of danger. Most people who go missing, about ninety-five percent, either were thoughtless and didn’t tell anyone they had other plans or just don’t want to deal with something at the moment, but they tend to show up completely unharmed within that time frame. Unless there was some evidence of foul play or a medical reason the person had to be found right away, most cops would naturally think it was not an urgent situation.
But what about the fact that she’d been coming to me about her abusive husband? If she wasn’t making police reports about her situation, and I knew she hadn’t been, there was nothing that would seem dangerous.
Could I have been so wrong about Lester? Was it possible that he could have been capable of murdering his wife? Lester was an extremely intelligent man, I knew, and worked for a major construction company. His job was actually supervising the pouring of structural concrete, which meant he probably wouldn’t have any trouble getting rid of a body if he wanted to.
The thing was, Lester was what we called a quick, short fuse. He would get mad and slap Wanda, maybe push her away from him, but then he was done. If she would leave him alone for a couple of minutes, he would actually seem to forget all about whatever made him mad in the first place. Men like that don’t usually have enough violence in them to resort to murder, and I sincerely doubted he would go to the police if he had done anything to her. Most people find it very difficult to lie to the police, because we have a tendency to think of them as almost omniscient. Trying to talk to a cop after committing a crime tends to make people fear that their own faces are giving it away. Lester, because of his volatile nature, would probably break down and cry if he had to talk to a cop after doing something that was seriously wrong.
“Lizzie, you said your dad went to look for her yesterday? Wasn’t he at work, then?”
“Yeah, but she went to the store early, like right after Daddy left for work at eight. When she wasn’t back by lunchtime, I tried calling her, but her phone just goes straight to voicemail, so I called Daddy to ask him what to do. He went down to the store to see if she was still there, and that’s when he found her car. He thought that was pretty weird, so he called the police.”
I nodded. “Yeah, that’s weird. Did the police check the store security video? Make sure she actually went in?”
Lizzie looked at me with wide eyes that said she wasn’t even sure what I was talking about, then shrugged. “I don’t know. Daddy didn’t say anything about that.”
I forced myself to focus on Lizzie for a moment. “Okay, how are you doing? Do you guys have food and everything?”
She shrugged again. “We’ve got a little stuff,” she said. “Mom was supposed to get more yesterday, but…” She didn’t need to finish the sentence.
It was getting close to lunchtime. “Okay, how about if I buy you guys some lunch? Do you all like pizza?”
Lizzie’s eyes got a little bit of sparkle in them. “Yeah, we love it.”
I grinned at her and took out my phone. I happen to love pizza myself, so I had the local delivery place on speed dial. A half hour later, we were all sitting around the table chowing down on cheese-stuffed pepperoni.
From the kids, I learned that their parents’ fighting hadn’t gotten any worse in the last few weeks, and that Lester seemed to be genuinely worried about Wanda. That was confirmed to me when the house phone rang, and Lizzie answered it to find her father on the other end asking if she had heard anything.
“No, she hasn’t called or anything,” Lizzie said. “Ms. Cassie is here, though.”
The look on Lizzie’s face told me that Lester knew exactly who I was, and he probably wasn’t very happy to have me in his house. I caught her attention. “Ask him if he wants to talk to me,” I said.
“Ms. Cassie wants to know if you want to talk to her,” Lizzie said, and then she looked at me with relief and nodded. I got up and took the phone while she sat down and started eating again.
“Lester? This is Cassie McGraw.”
“Yeah, I know who you are,” he said. “What I don’t know is why you are at my house. Has Wanda been talking to you? Do you know where she is?”
“No, I don’t. Actually, she had an appointment to come see me this morning and didn’t make it. I think you’re aware that she comes to see me now and then, right?”
“Yeah, I know. She says you make her feel better. If you ain’t heard from her, why are you there?”
“Like I said, she had an appointment to see me and didn’t make it. That’s unlike her; I don’t think she’s ever missed an appointment before, so I called to see if she was okay and Lizzie told me she was missing. By the way, I hope you don’t mind, but I bought your kids some pizza for lunch.”
He was quiet for a moment, then thanked me. “I haven’t made it to the grocery store yet,” he said. “I keep thinking she’s gonna come walking in, like always.”
“No problem,” I said. “I was ready for lunch, myself. Lizzie said you talked to the police yesterday? Do you know if they checked the store security video?”
“I don’t think they did anything,” he said bitterly. “They just told me they couldn’t even take a report until she was missing for at least twenty-four hours. I guess they don’t watch TV, where they tell you that whenever somebody goes missing, you only got a short time to find them.”
“Do you have any idea where she might have gone, if she decided to run away?”
He made a scoffing sound. “Ms. McGraw, you of all people ought to know she wouldn’t run away. I mean, she tells me the stuff you two talk about, so I know you know about our—our problems and stuff. The thing is, she knows good and well she could leave anytime she wants; she wouldn’t need to run away, because she knows I’d never hurt her and I’d even help her if that’s what she wanted. I know I can be an asshole, but I do love my wife.”
Strangely enough, I knew he was right. Wanda would never have run away. Despite the fact she occasionally got smacked, her home was the safest place she knew. The rest of the world might turn against her, but she always had a safe place to run back to when it did.
“I agree with you,” I said after a moment. “She might complain about you from time to time, but she isn’t afraid of you, not really. You’re right, she wouldn’t run off.”
“Damn straight,” Lester said.
“Mr. Sparks, what do you think happened to her?”
“Well, hell, you see it on TV all the time. Wanda’s not a bad-looking woman, so I’m a little worried that somebody decided to grab her. I’m supposed to go back to the police after I get off work today, that’ll be more than twenty-four hours, but God only knows how far away she could be by now.”
I nodded into the phone. “Yeah, I agree. By the way, I had a coupon for the pizza,” I lied, “so I bought enough to let you all have it for dinner, too, so you don’t need to worry about that. Listen, I’m going to call a police detective I know, see if maybe I can build a fire under them. Do me a favor and let me know if you hear anything from her, would you?”
“I’ll tell you what,” Lester said. “I’ll do that if you promise to do the same for me.”
“You have a deal,” I said. I hung up the phone and turned back to the kids at the table, then handed Lizzie one of my business cards. “I’ve got to go,” I said. “Lizzie, this has my cell number on it. If you need anything, or if you hear from your mother, you call me. Okay?”
The girl nodded, her mouth full of pizza, and I headed out the front door. I got back into my Kia and started it up, then took out my phone and called Alicia.
“It’s Cassie,” I said. “I th
ink I need your help with something.” I told her what was going on and asked her to look into it. She agreed and promised to call me back as soon as she knew anything, and I put the car in gear and headed toward Walmart.
It took them a few minutes to find the manager, and the poor man looked like he was ready to panic when he realized I was the one who was waiting to speak to him. I explained the situation and asked if I could take a look at the security video from the previous morning, but then he got nervous.
“I don’t know if I can do that,” he said. “That’s supposed to be kept private, except for the police. I don’t know if I could actually let you see it.”
I let Freda out, and she smiled at him. He swallowed nervously.
“Mr. Bayer,” I said, “I’m trying to locate a woman who has three children nervously waiting at home. Now, you have to follow whatever rules the company sets for you, I understand that, but I have a few rules of my own. One of those is that anyone who doesn’t cooperate with me when I’m trying to protect a woman who is known to be abused is going to find that I’m the wrong person to be on the bad side of. Just in case you’re not aware of it, St. Mary’s Outreach is a favored darling of all the local newspapers and TV news programs. I’m not sure if it would hurt your business if I were to say publicly that you refused to cooperate, but are you willing to take that chance?”
Bayer ran his hands over his face. “Look, corporate has a policy of trying to keep us out of any news stories that might cast us in an unfavorable light. If you do that, I could get fired.”
“Which probably gives you a pretty good incentive to keep yourself on my good side,” I said sweetly. He stared at my one good eye for another moment, then seemed to deflate.
“Come on,” he said grudgingly. I followed him through the store to the back wall, then through a door that led into the offices. He took me down the hallway and tapped on the door of the security office, then told the man inside—his name was Rory—to show me whatever I wanted to see.
Rory started to balk, but Bayer cut him off. A moment later, I was looking at the video that started at eight a.m. the previous morning. It was running at three times normal speed, but I could see pretty clearly anyway. I was watching the two monitors that covered the entrances closely, but an hour later I had to admit that there was no sign of Wanda coming into the store.
“What about in the parking lot?” I asked. “Don’t you have cameras out there, too?”
“We do,” Rory said, “but we actually have some that aren’t working at the moment. Any idea where her car was parked?”
“No, but I’ll know it if I see it. Her husband said it was in the parking lot when he got here yesterday afternoon.”
He gave a sigh, then switched to the outside cameras. Several of the monitors were completely dark, but the ones that were working failed to reveal Wanda’s Chrysler minivan. I’m afraid I cursed in frustration.
With that failure tucked into my pocket, I wasn’t sure what else to try. It was getting close to two o’clock in the afternoon, and I didn’t really feel like going back to the office. Besides, I’d already cleared my schedule for the rest of the day, so I decided to go home and relax.
Alicia called while I was pulling into my driveway.
“I’ve talked to Detective Niles,” she said. “He’s the one who handles missing person cases, and he’s agreed to list her as missing for now, but he thinks she just decided to run off with a boyfriend or something. Unless something else comes up, there isn’t much more we can do.”
I groaned. “I appreciate it,” I said, “but I’m pretty sure that’s not what happened. I know this woman pretty well, she comes to see me about once a week. Her husband gets a little slap-happy sometimes, but she’s not in any real danger. She loves her kids to pieces, there is no way I can believe she would run away and leave them. Something about this just doesn’t feel right.”
Alicia sounded sympathetic. “Wish there was more I could do,” she said, “but I’m afraid there isn’t. If something comes up, I’ll give you a call.”
“Thanks,” I said. I ended the call and dropped the phone back into my purse, then climbed out of the car and went inside the house. Critter, my cat, told me how glad she was to see me, especially when I went to the kitchen and opened the cabinet where I keep the cat food. The can opener sang her favorite song and I popped open a bottle of beer.
FOUR
The next day was pretty normal, and I ended up placing another family into a shelter. This was one of the more serious cases of abuse, the poor woman looking like she’d been in some kind of a car wreck when she walked through my door. She was bruised all over her face, and actually seemed to be having trouble walking. Her husband had beaten her fairly severely, then kicked her legs repeatedly while she was laying on the floor.
The police picked up her husband on battery charges, but he had been through that before. The last time, he had beaten her even worse the day he was released, and she had been too afraid to call the police again. The only way she was going to be able to stick to her guns and get away from him would be by not having to face him again. I put her in what we called the hidden shelter, a place that was never mentioned publicly. She and her children would be safe there until arrangements could be made for them to move away.
I checked with Alicia late in the morning, but she hadn’t heard anything about Wanda. I also called Lizzie, but she was even more worried than she had been the day before. I promised to keep in touch, but I’ll confess that a small part of me was beginning to wonder if maybe Wanda actually had decided to take off.
Most women won’t abandon their children when they leave an abusive husband, but some do. Lester had never been known to be abusive with the kids at all, so it was possible that she felt they would be safe if she left them behind. I had to consider that, just maybe, she really did have a boyfriend who took her away, or she might have been trying to get a place set up so that she could come back and get the kids later. Without more information, there really wasn’t anything I could do.
What about her car? Abby said in my head. How far would she go without her car? I hate it when she makes sense, but I still didn’t have anything else to go on. All I could do was hope Wanda was safe somewhere and would eventually come back to her kids, if not her husband.
As the day drew to an end, I started thinking about what I would have for dinner, and that led me to remembering that my own groceries were getting pretty low. I gathered up my things and went to the car, then headed toward Walmart again. Mr. Bayer wouldn’t have to worry about this visit, though. I was simply coming to stock up on microwavable meals and coffee.
I had the radio on my favorite news station as I drove, listening to all the talk about what was going on in city government and who was most recently accused of sexually harassing whom, when the announcer said something that caught my attention.
“Police are currently searching for two women who have gone missing over the last few days. Wanda Sparks and Bernice Montoya have both been reported missing by their families. Ms. Sparks was last seen on Tuesday morning as she left home to go grocery shopping, and her car was later found in a Walmart parking lot. Ms. Montoya was reported missing yesterday when she failed to arrive at her daughter’s school to pick her up after class. Her vehicle was found at a convenience store not far from the school, where she often stopped to buy snacks for her daughter. No one at the store reported seeing her, and police are treating both disappearances as suspicious.”
I took out my phone and called Alicia. “Hey,” I said, “I just heard that Bernice Montoya is missing. That struck me as pretty odd, since she’s another of the women who have been to see me. If it’s the one I’m thinking of, I’m starting to get a bad feeling about this.”
“Bernice Montoya has been to your office? What can you tell me about her home situation?”
“It’s a little worse than Wanda’s,” I said. “She lives with her boyfriend, Emilio Ramon, and he’s been known to get
pretty violent with her. I’ve tried to talk her into leaving, but she won’t even consider it unless he gets thrown in prison again for something.”
“Niles will check him out on general principle,” she said, “but he’s gone ahead and listed her as missing because her car was running when they found it, a little detail they haven’t given to the press. That makes it seem a bit less likely she walked away voluntarily, so after I pushed him on Wanda Sparks, he decided to bump her up to an active case, too. I’ll let him know that there’s a history of violence. Can you think of anything else?”
I nibbled on my bottom lip for a moment. “Yeah, there is something else,” I said. “I got this weird phone call the other day at the office.” I told her about the call, then reminded her that all the calls are recorded. She wanted to hear it immediately, so I turned the car around and headed back to the Outreach. She got there a moment later and we walked inside together.
Only Angie’s computer has direct access to the recorded calls, but it only took her a moment to find the one I was looking for. Since there was nobody in the lobby, we went ahead and played it for Alicia right then.
When it finished, Alicia looked at me like she wanted to kick me in the britches. “Why am I just now hearing about this?” she asked. “Cassie, you should have called me as soon as you heard that.”
“I didn’t think it was real, okay? I thought it was just some grumpy husband trying to scare me, and I don’t scare too easily.”
“I know you don’t,” Alicia said, “but maybe sometimes you should. Did you hear the part about trying to show you the error of your ways? If there is any way in the world this guy could get hold of your client list, this could be connected to the women that are missing.”
“Which I thought of, which is why I’m telling you about it now.” I was glaring right back at her, but inside, I was feeling a lot like the kid who broke mom’s favorite vase. If it turned out this guy was behind Wanda and Bernice disappearing, I was going to be blaming myself for a long time to come.