“Get back to you right away if there’s anything you should know.”
After we rang off, I conveyed the gist of the conversation to Runyon. He said, “I wonder if the deputy knows anything about this Fechaya?”
“One more thing to talk to him about.”
We drove on into Six Pines. Broxmeyer was at the substation when we entered, talking on the phone in his cubicle. He frowned when he saw us through the glass, gestured for us to wait until he finished his conversation, and then took his time doing it. When he finally came out, he looked tired and harried. And none too happy to see me again so soon. He tried to cover it with a pasted-on half smile, but the first words out of his mouth were underscored with irritation.
“No need for you to come by. You’d’ve been informed right away if there were any developments.”
“Some things we wanted to talk to you about.” I introduced him to Runyon, watched him struggle not to lose the half smile as they shook hands.
“Another city private detective won’t be of much help, I’m afraid.”
That didn’t sit well with either of us. Runyon said, “You’d be surprised how many missing persons we’ve found, some in more remote places than this.”
“I’m sure you’re a competent investigator, but in a case like this-”
I cut that off by saying, “Mr. Runyon’s here at my request. You mind if we continue this in your office?”
He minded, but he didn’t refuse. “It’ll have to be quick. I’m busy as the devil right now… search for your wife, people pouring into town for the Fourth, a dozen other things.” He opened the gate for us, led us into the cubicle, shut the door. But he didn’t invite us to sit down or sit down himself.
I said, “Do you know a local resident named Fechaya, Donald Fechaya?”
“Fechaya? Why?”
“You do know him?”
“I know who he is, yes.”
“Do you also know he’s a convicted rapist?”
“What does that have to do with- Oh, I get it. That’s why you brought your man here up from ’Frisco. You still haven’t let go of the abduction idea.”
“No, I haven’t. You told me none of the registered sex offenders in this area had histories of violence against women. What about Fechaya?”
“I didn’t see any reason to mention him.”
“Why not? You already talk to him, find out where he was Monday afternoon?”
“I don’t have to talk to him. He had nothing to do with your wife’s disappearance.”
“How do you know he didn’t? He a friend of yours?”
“Hardly.”
“Then how do you know?”
“Because he’s not capable of committing another rape.”
“Why isn’t he?”
“Well, for one thing, he’s a born-again Christian.”
“So? Doesn’t mean he’s lost his violent urges against women. Not even castration can do that.”
“All right, that’s enough,” Broxmeyer said. “I know you’re upset, but I don’t appreciate having my word or my authority questioned. Fechaya is not guilty of anything except being an ex-felon, and you’re not going to find your wife by hassling him or anybody else in Six Pines. Now if we’re done here, I need to be on my way.”
I wanted to hit him. Stupid impulse, but powerful enough to put heat in my face and make me clench my fists.
Runyon said quickly, “We’re trying to be thorough, that’s all. Covering every possibility. You’re a law officer, you understand how that is.”
“Not when it amounts to interference in the performance of my duty.”
Interference. Duty. Christ!
“We have no intention of stepping on your toes,” Jake said. “But we have the right to investigate alternative possibilites as long as we stay within the boundaries of the law. That’s right, isn’t it?”
Broxmeyer admitted it, but not without hesitation or reluctance.
“Until Ms. Wade is found or we know differently, kidnapping is still a possibility. There’s another one, too, maybe unlikely, but we think it needs to be addressed if only to put it out of the running.”
“And what would that be?”
“The explosion Monday evening. At the Verriker place.”
“What about it?”
“How sure are you it was accidental?”
That almost set Broxmeyer off again. He said, scowling, “What kind of question is that? Of course it was accidental.”
“What caused it?”
“Gas leak, ignited by a spark.”
“Gas lines can be tampered with.”
“For God’s sake, are you suggesting somebody planned to blow up the Verrikers’ house? That’s ridiculous!”
“Is it?” I said. I was all right now, my control buttoned up tight again. “I told you about the trail I followed from the logging road that came out on the hillside above the Verriker property. It started near those tire marks I showed you, and it could’ve been made by whoever owned the parked vehicle. Wouldn’t have been difficult to slip down to the house, get inside with nobody home, loosen a fitting to fill the house with gas. Somebody who had it in for the Verrikers.”
Broxmeyer was looking at me as if he thought I’d taken leave of my senses.
“My wife could have been on the road when he came back up,” I said.
“And then I suppose he grabbed her and made her another victim?”
“She’s not dead.”
“I hope not. But she’s not in the clutches of some phantom killer, either. In the first place, the explosion was an accident, plain and simple. No question of that. In the second place, Ned and Alice Verriker were and are good people… no enemies, no reason anybody would want to harm either of them.”
“All right.”
“Another thing. Even if it had happened that way, why would this phantom think your wife was a threat? She’d be a stranger to him and he’d be a stranger to her. All he’d’ve had to do was drive off and leave her there to finish her walk and she wouldn’t have thought twice about it.”
“I said all right.”
The deputy shifted his gaze to Runyon. “Possibility out of the running for you now?”
Jake had nothing to say.
“It better be,” Broxmeyer said. “What happened on Monday was a real tragedy, and I won’t have you going around cutting into Ned Verriker’s grief and stirring people up with a lot of unfounded nonsense.”
Still nothing to say, either of us.
“So okay then. My advice is to stop trying to make something sinister out of a simple disappearance and join one of the search teams… two now, by the way, working separate sections east and west of Ridge Hill Road. But if you insist on conducting a private investigation, I won’t try to stop you, only keep it quiet and don’t make waves. Are we clear on that?”
I said, “We’re clear,” and he nodded and waved us out.
The midmorning heat and sun glare smacked me a little as we came outside. That, and my elevated blood pressure brought on a touch of vertigo. I took a couple of faltering steps on the way to the car, had to lean against an old-fashioned lamppost to steady myself.
“You okay?” Runyon asked.
“Just a little woozy. Give me half a minute.”
He knew better than to try to help me. The dizziness passed, and I walked ahead to the car. When we were both inside with the windows rolled down, I said, “The sheriff ’s department isn’t going to be any help, and you know there’s not enough kidnap evidence to bring the FBI into it. It’s up to us.”
“Looks that way.”
“Thirty hours, Jake.”
He knew what I meant. Anybody who has ever worked in law enforcement knows that if an abduction victim isn’t found within seventy-two hours, the odds jump against the person ever being found alive. And Kerry had been missing more than forty hours now.
“More than that, maybe,” he said.
“But not a lot more.”
“Where do you want to start?”
“With Fechaya,” I said. “Where else?”
15
PETE BALFOUR
He had plans now. Oh, baby, did he have plans now!
Felt real fine when he got up Wednesday morning, no hangover even though he’d put away pretty near a fifth of Jack Daniel’s yesterday and last night. Slept like a baby. Rarin’ to go, full of piss and vinegar, blood and fire.