The woman regarded her for a few seconds, and Sadie’s hopes began to build until the woman spoke again and dashed those hopes on the rocks. “You can leave a message for him, and then he can contact you if he wants to.”
Him? Sadie felt a tingle go all the way to her toes, and she noticed Caro straighten as she, too, picked up the detail. Did the fact that this woman would take a message mean he came in regularly? “Do you know when he’ll be in next?” Sadie asked casually, not wanting to betray how much this woman had said without meaning to.
“You can leave a message for him,” the woman said, this time with feigned sweetness that wasn’t all that sweet.
“This is kind of urgent,” Sadie said. She had to shake off some of her seeming neutrality so she’d have a solid motivation to continue her questions. She decided to proceed the way she would if she had some kind of proof that the “him” they were talking about was in fact Dr. Hendricks. It was a heady thought. “I think he’s in trouble and I’m trying to help him. Will he be coming in today?”
Candace wasn’t thawed. “I said you can leave him a message. That’s all I can do to help you.”
Sadie considered grabbing the woman by the collar to prove how serious she was, but that only worked in the movies. Not that Sadie had actually tried it herself. Instead, she nodded and asked to borrow a paper and pen, which the woman handed her. She wrote a quick note explaining she would like to talk to him and wrote down her number. She knew that this option was not likely to succeed if this man were trying to be stealthy about something.
Sadie thanked Candace, and she and Caro went to the breakfast area, where they sat across from one another at one of the three small Formica-topped tables.
“If he’s been hiding for months, won’t the note just make him run?” Caro asked.
The thought had crossed Sadie’s mind, but she’d dismissed it in favor of the possibility that he might call her. Hearing Caro verbalize the potential failure of this plan, however, made it seem much more likely that he wouldn’t call. But Sadie couldn’t ask for the note back. “I don’t know,” Sadie said with a shake of her head. “But even without the note, this Candace woman would certainly tell him we were looking for him, which would chase him away as well as the note would. I wonder why she’s so protective of him.”
Caro shrugged, and a moment later, her phone rang. She fished it out of her purse, then said “Tess” before lifting it to her ear. She stood and headed toward the front doors.
Sadie’s stomach growled, and she decided now was as good a time as ever to make herself some waffles. Maybe food would help her figure out what to do next. Other than sitting here in the lobby all day hoping this mysterious caller would return, she couldn’t think of any other options.
There was still a minute and a half left on the timer for her rotating waffle machine when a young couple came into the lobby. They set about getting cereal and fruit, making eyes at each other and stealing kisses every chance they got. By the time the cooker announced the waffle was done, Sadie had pegged the couple as newlyweds. Sadie’s own engagement ring caught her eye and she felt her cheeks heat up. Zing.
While she put butter into each perfect square of her waffle, the young woman came up beside her to spread peanut butter on the toast that had just popped up from the toaster.
“Hi,” Sadie said.
“Hi,” the young woman said back.
“Beautiful day, isn’t it?”
“Sure is,” the girl said, smiling even wider as she looked out the window at the bright summer morning. The valley was a beautiful sight, full of sunshine, surrounded by pine-tree-covered hills, and with a calm serenity that made you want to hike or fish or simply lie in the middle of a meadow and soak it all in.
“I guess every morning is beautiful around here, though,” Sadie continued.
“Probably,” the young woman said. She began to turn away but then seemed to realize that Sadie wasn’t finished talking.
“Were you here yesterday?” Sadie asked, trying to ease into this but not feeling particularly smooth.
“Yep, been here since Tuesday.” She leaned in a bit conspiratorially. “We got married on Monday—this is our honeymoon.” Her cheeks reddened, and Sadie offered her sincere congratulations. The new groom came up behind his new wife and snaked an arm around her waist. Sadie felt sure if she hadn’t been here he’d have nuzzled the girl’s neck. As it was, Sadie was glad he restrained himself. Otherwise she’d have been blushing, too.
“Did you happen to see that guy who came in yesterday morning—I think he used the phone or something?” She reached for the syrup but poured it very slowly. She was so hungry at this point it felt as though her stomach were eating itself, but it would just have to wait.
“The kind of scruffy one?”
The girl’s easy answer startled Sadie, and she dripped some syrup on the counter. Sadie looked up at her. “Yeah, do you know who he was?”
“Why would we know that?” the groom answered for her, but his tone was kind.
“Um, I don’t know, I just wondered about him. Do you remember what time you saw him?”
“You must have seen him, too, right?” the groom asked rather than answering her question.
“Well, I thought so, but I couldn’t remember what time it was.” Not that she could think of why the time would be important.
“Is the time important?” the groom echoed her internal question. He regarded her a bit closer. “I don’t remember seeing you here.”
“Uh ...”
Caro pushed through the front doors, giving Sadie an excuse to make her escape. She smiled genuinely at the young couple. “Congratulations on your wedding. Have a great day.”
They both watched her more than she was entirely comfortable with, but she pretended not to notice as she took her plate back to the table. She wasn’t having a great morning so far.
“That looks good,” Caro said, nodding toward Sadie’s waffle. “I’m going to get one and then I’ll give you Tess’s update.”
Sadie nodded and used the time it took Caro to fix her plate—only half a waffle—to try to renew her confidence while she filled her belly. The waffle was okay, but it was obviously from a mix and was too sweet—more like cake. She missed her own buttermilk waffle recipe and wondered wistfully how long it would be until her life got back to normal enough that she’d be cooking her own favorites again.
“How are things going with Tess?” she asked when Caro sat down.
Caro smiled, genuinely excited to impart the news. “She talked to both of Dr. Hendricks’s parents at the luncheon and got an extensive interview with Dr. Waters’s medical assistant last night, too.”
Sadie was glad to hear one of them was having success. “Has she discovered anything significant from these interviews?”
“Yeah. Dr. H called his mother a few days before he disappeared and left a voice mail telling her that he loved her.”
“And that was unusual?”
“I get the impression that there had been a lot of strain between him and his parents. It seems like it was improving in the last few years, but the fact that his mom was so touched by the message seems to mean that it didn’t happen on a regular basis, right?”
“Or that she focused on it because it was the last communication she’d had with him,” Sadie pointed out.
“I guess that’s true,” Caro said, though she didn’t seem to like Sadie’s answer. “I saw you talking to that couple—did they know anything?”
Sadie imparted what she’d learned without telling Caro how she’d bungled the conversation. Caro listened with wide eyes, and then she leaned forward. “It has to be him, right? It’s got to be Dr. H.”
“We don’t know enough to be even close to certain of that,” Sadie said. “All we really know is a scruffy man was here, and Candace let a man use the phone. We don’t even know that it’s the same man.”
“But it seems like it is,” Caro pointed out.
“
That’s not enough,” Sadie said.
Voices caught their attention and they looked toward the front desk. A young woman with a lip ring and jet-black hair that hung in her face was talking to Candace about needing to order more glass cleaner. Sadie noted the spray bottle in the girl’s hand and the rag sticking out of the back pocket of the girl’s impossibly tight jeans. “I like the kind that foams up on the glass, not just the blue-colored ammonia.”
“I’ll put it on the list,” Candace said, not sounding particularly friendly. Maybe she wasn’t very nice to anyone.
“Thanks,” the Goth girl said before turning and heading back toward the hallway of guest rooms. Before she disappeared around the corner, Sadie noticed that her charcoal-colored T-shirt had the lodge’s logo on the back. Sadie turned to look at Caro. “Housekeeping?” Sadie suggested. Caro nodded.
“We might have another shot,” Sadie responded. She glanced at Candace to make sure she wasn’t somehow overhearing their conversation. If she were, she might put a stop to any attempts they made to have a conversation with Goth Girl. But she was bent over some paperwork.
Sadie gave Caro a quick nod and took one last bite of her waffle before standing up. She kept her gait unhurried and her expression a picture of innocent intention as they followed Goth Girl. She and Caro took turns casting quick looks at Candace. When she turned toward the back office, they smiled at each other and picked up their pace, slowing once they cleared the corner of the hallway.
A housekeeping cart stood against the wall about halfway down the hallway, across from an open doorway into one of the guest rooms. They approached slowly, then stopped when Goth Girl came out of the room. She had headphones in her ears and bobbed her head along to the music.
“Hi,” Sadie said when they were within a few feet of the girl. Caro was half a step behind her. The young housekeeper looked up at them and plucked the earphone out of one ear.
“Hi, can I help you with somethin’?” the girl asked.
“I hope so,” Sadie said, willing Candace to stay at her desk and hoping that the third time would be the charm in her approaches for the day. She didn’t know of any other way to address this than straight on, even though that hadn’t worked yet. She took a breath and laid it out there. “Yesterday a man made a call from the lobby phone and I’m trying to find him.”
The girl scrunched up her nose. “I’m just housekeeping, so I don’t deal with the guests much.”
“I don’t think he was a guest. The call was made around 9:30 in the morning and lasted several minutes. Maybe you saw him come in around that time and use the phone?”
“I didn’t see anyone use the phone,” Goth Girl said, shaking her head. “But you must be talking about Wednesday Man, right?”
2 1/4 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
2 eggs
2 1/4 cups milk*
3/4 cup salad oil
Sift together dry ingredients. Combine remaining ingredients; mix well. Just before baking, add flour mixture, beating only till moistened. Batter will be thin. Cook in preheated, greased waffle iron until golden brown.
Makes 4 4-square waffles.
*Substitute up to 1/2 of the milk with buttermilk for a tangy buttermilk waffle.
Note: Our family’s favorite way to eat these: fried diced Spam, whipping cream, and syrup over the top. Yum.
Chapter 20
“Wednesday Man?” Sadie and Caro said at the same time. Sadie wondered if the same rush of energy was coursing through Caro’s veins.
“Yeah,” Goth Girl said, swishing her black-dyed bangs to the side, even though they fell back into exactly the same position. “He comes in on Wednesdays to use the computer.”
Multiple Wednesdays? “Do you know his real name?” Sadie asked.
Goth Girl shook her head. “As far as I know he’s never talked with anyone, which is why we call him Wednesday Man.”
“What does he use the computer for?”
She shrugged. “I’m not looking over his shoulder or anything. Besides, I only see him if I’m cleaning the lobby and he’s here at the same time.”
“Did you see him here yesterday?” Sadie asked.
“I said hi to him when he came in like I always do—customer service, ya know. He just nods and stuff.”
“You don’t know if he used the front desk phone yesterday?” Sadie asked.
Caro pulled out her cell phone and started toggling for something.
Goth Girl shook her head. “I was almost done vacuuming the lobby when he came in, and then the people in room four checked out, so I got to work on their room. So do you know him or something?”
Sadie quickly made up a cover story. “We’re trying to determine if he’s a friend of ours.”
Goth Girl smiled somewhat conspiratorially and leaned closer to them. “I bet he has some tragically mysterious past, right? Like, the love of his life killed herself on their wedding day or he suffered a mental breakdown after his family burned to death in a fire.”
This girl was cute—lip ring notwithstanding—but a little creepy. Then again, she couldn’t be more than nineteen years old and had no idea how truly tragic both of those scenarios were in real life.
“We’re really not sure,” Sadie said. “Um, how long has he been coming in on Wednesdays?”
Goth Girl shrugged her skinny shoulders. “I only came home from school a month ago, and I know he was coming in before then, but I don’t know for how long. You should ask Candace at the front desk—she’s the one who kind of gave him the name Wednesday Man, and she’d know if he used the phone yesterday.”
Yeah, Candace was a problem.
“Did he look like this guy?” Caro said, turning both Sadie and Goth Girl’s attention to the phone she held up. The screen showed Dr. Hendricks’s picture, the same one that had been front and center at his memorial service yesterday.
“No,” the girl said, shaking her head. “Wednesday Man looks kinda homeless. Scraggy beard. Camo jacket and pants. Real skinny. Tragic-like, ya know?”
Dr. Hendricks losing weight and growing a beard in the course of the last two months wasn’t unlikely, and Sadie had to take a deep breath and consciously calm herself down. It was growing more and more possible that Wednesday Man was Dr. Hendricks. She forced herself to remain focused on this conversation. She could consider reacting emotionally to all of this when she’d gotten everything she could from this girl.
“He’s not a guest, then?” Sadie asked to make sure she was clear.
Goth Girl shook her head.
“Does he live around here?” Caro asked.
Goth Girl shrugged. “I guess, since he walks here every week, but he must not have internet wherever he’s staying, right?”
“And you don’t see him around town or anything?” Sadie asked. There was a good possibility that this was the only somewhat public computer in town. She really wished someone had looked over his shoulder a little more so they could know exactly what he’d been doing online.
Goth Girl shook her head again. “I’ve only ever seen him here on Wednesday mornings. I noticed he’s always showered and stuff. He’s not stinky or anything.”
“Have you ever seen him talk to anyone?”
Again the girl shook her head. “Candace has talked to him. See, the computer’s supposed to just be for guests, ya know. But he was so pathetic and sad and stuff that she told him it was okay as long as there weren’t any guests needing to use it. Oh, and I heard he does some cleanup work at the lodge, so maybe Robert knows him better.” She nodded toward the front of the motel, reminding Sadie of the business she’d seen across the street.
“Lodge? There are two motels here?” Caro asked.
“Well, it has camping cabins, but mostly it’s a store and a little café. Robert Moore owns it, and I heard he gave Wednesday Man some work in exchange for food and stuff.”
A door down the ha
ll opened, and they all looked to see an older couple coming out of the room. He held a bag over each shoulder and dragged a wheeled suitcase, while she carried only her purse. Sadie could imagine that she had offered to carry some of the load, and he had insisted that he had it taken care of. They were cute in a different way from the newlywed couple.
Goth Girl moved her cart closer to the wall so the older couple could pass by. Caro and Sadie stepped to the side as well and nodded their farewells. “Step ahead of me, Mother,” the older man said. “I don’t want to slow you up.”
Adorable.
Sadie turned back to Goth Girl and asked a few more questions, trying to eke out any bit of information the girl might not realize she had. Finally Goth Girl lifted both shoulders and gave Sadie a sympathetic look. “I’ve got to get back to work,” she said. She was already moving toward the housekeeping cart.
“Thanks for your help,” Sadie said as the girl started gathering towels and washcloths and stacking them on the top of the cart.
“No problem.” The girl pulled shampoo and conditioner packets from the box on top of the cart. She turned toward the room and put her earphone back in.
Sadie and Caro looked at each other with giddy smiles. “The day is looking up,” Sadie said as they headed toward their room. She suddenly stopped and turned back toward the lobby, saying, “But I’m going to finish that waffle before we head to the store.”
Chapter 21
As it turned out, there was no need to hurry. The store across the street didn’t open until ten-thirty, and it was barely nine o’clock. Sadie decided to update her notes while they waited. She was up to three pages of information when Officer Nielson finally called her. During the two rings she let pass before answering it, she considered how much she should tell him about this morning’s discoveries. Did he want possibilities and supposition or just solid leads?
Rocky Road Page 16