He didn’t have an answer for her. It was the killing, though. It was the killing that kept him going back out there. He couldn’t do it, but he wanted to see it.
Chapter Nineteen
Maggie was overdue. Lewis looked at his watch. It had been only three minutes since his last glance. It was five-thirty-seven. If Maggie had left Albuquerque as late as one-thirty, she was still overdue. He considered that she might have stopped to shop, though it seemed unlikely. Perhaps there had been yet another mass escape from the state prison in Santa Fe and she was being delayed by road blocks. He switched on the radio and found a station with news. The woman giving the report talked about a young boy’s body being found floating in a ditch, then a story on the building water in the Elephant Butte and Cochiti dams. No jail break. He watched out the window and listened. Maybe she’d had car trouble. She would have called. He switched off the radio and went to the phone in the kitchen. He called the state police and asked if there had been any accidents reported involving a maroon Mazda pickup. A woman told him there had not been any such accident. He thanked her and hung up. He was sure that if he left the house the phone would ring and it would be Maggie needing help, but he felt an urge to leave and search for her. He reached for the receiver again, this time dialing the sheriff’s number which was written on the pad in front of him.
“May I speak to Sheriff Mondragon?”
“Who’s calling?”
“Lewis Mason. Tell him it’s important. Please.”
He was put on hold.
“Prof?” It was Manny.
“Manny, I need your help. At least, I think I need your help. You know Maggie Okada.”
“Yes.”
“Well, she drove my granddaughter to the airport in Albuquerque and left there at noon or so and she’s not back yet.”
“Probably stopped to shop,” Manny said.
“I don’t think so.”
“You think she’s having a problem or something?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well, if she’s just a couple hours late—” Manny paused. “I don’t see why you’re worried enough to call me.”
“I guess I’m just over-reacting.”
“I can have a man drive the road, take a look. I can’t do much more than that.”
“Okay, thanks, Manny.”
“Call me back if she doesn’t show.”
“Right.” Lewis hung up. It was six o’clock now. He grabbed a jacket and went out to his car. He got in and turned the key and nothing happened. He remembered he’d moved the battery to his truck. He got out and wondered if it would be faster to unhitch the trailer or get the battery. He laughed at his thinking. If the guys in the van were looking for his truck, then he should take the car. On the other hand, if they knew his car and his truck, then it would be better to be in the truck because it was more powerful and faster without the trailer. He shook his head as he began to undo the chains on the hitch. He pushed the trailer back and let it down.
He slid and skidded his way down the dirt road to the highway, driving too fast. He came to his senses as he pulled onto the black top. He’d be of no use to Maggie dead or maimed himself. He drove into town and out the other side. He stopped for gas before the pass, watching the road while he pumped in case Maggie drove by.
He made his way over the mountains and into the town of Española. It was here that he would really have to be alert. Maggie might pass him in this traffic easily. A maroon vehicle would not be the easiest to see. He was beginning to have the feeling that Maggie was all right, that after a drive all the way to Albuquerque and back he would find her at home worrying about him.
He left Española and stopped along the side of the road outside of Santa Fe. He would have to think this through. There was not only a great deal of traffic in Santa Fe, but the freeway began here. And it was getting dark. There were just too many ways they could miss each other, so he decided to get through town as quickly as possible, drive to Cochiti and turn back.
It was dark when he finished the loop and was again in Santa Fe. He continued toward home, still scrutinizing the roadside. Then, at Camel Rock, parked with the last tourists’ cars, was a small, maroon pickup. He stopped, got out and approached the vehicle. It was a Mazda. It was Maggie’s.
He walked across the road to the Camel Rock. A woman was yelling at her husband that it was too dark to take a picture. A teenager had almost finished his climb to the top of the Camel’s head. Lewis called out.
The highway patrolman didn’t seem all that concerned. Of course, it was not his friend who was missing. He walked around the truck, shining the beam of his flashlight at the tires, into the cab, at the grill. He studied the hood, then bent to see more closely.
“What is it?” Lewis asked.
“I don’t think she had any kind of engine trouble,” the officer said.
“Why do you say that?”
“Look at the dust on the hood. Hasn’t been disturbed. Even people who don’t know anything about cars open the hood when something’s wrong. If she had opened it, she’d have left prints, smudges in the dust.” The patrolman seemed pleased at his deduction.
“So, what do you think?”
“I’d say she stopped here, met someone and left with that person or persons-unknown.”
“What now?”
“If she doesn’t call or show up in twenty-four hours, she becomes a missing person.”
“She’s a missing person now,” Lewis said. “You find somebody’s car abandoned on a highway a hundred miles from her home and that somebody is also overdue after having told a friend when she expected to arrive and that somebody’s car has not failed her in any apparent way and that somebody is not missing? Is that what you’re telling me?”
The patrolman leaned against Maggie’s truck. “I understand what you’re saying and you and I are well aware that each set of circumstances is unique, but the law can’t take into account every individual case. The rule says that a party must be missing for twenty-four hours before considered missing. In some places it’s forty-eight hours.”
Lewis looked at him. “You said that very well. In the meantime, while I’m waiting for my lost friend to become missing, what do you suggest I do?”
“Go home and wait. She’s probably waiting for you.” The officer looked at the truck. “She may have heard a sound that she wasn’t familiar with, knew she couldn’t fix and didn’t bother to raise the hood.”
“She would have called.”
The patrolman shrugged.
Lewis was wishing that he had lied about how long Maggie was overdue. The younger man gave him a “keep steady” slap on the shoulder and went to his patrol car where he sat with his door open and his dome light on and used the radio. Lewis looked at the highway. The silhouette of Camel Rock stood against the lavender night sky.
The patrolman came back. “Listen, unofficially, we’re considering your friend missing. We’re keeping our eyes open, but no one is assigned to finding her. Okay?”
Lewis nodded. “Thanks.”
“We’ll just leave the car here. She might come back for it.”
Lewis got into his truck and headed home.
Lewis didn’t think there was any chance Maggie would be waiting for him. Perhaps she’d had car trouble that she recognized, like the cop said. Maybe she hitched a ride with a crazed rapist. Lewis shook his head and wondered what other kind of rapist there was. He started up the mountain. The night seemed darker than usual. Lewis had never felt so lost, so helpless. All of it was his fault, too. He parked by the corral and looked at his house. He remembered leaving a light on, but it was pitch black. He climbed the steps, opened the door and walked in. He paused, his finger on the switch to the light in the kitchen, and listened. Nothing. He turned on the light.