Caching Out (17 page)

Martin
stepped back into the house to grab his gun, keys and hat. “Sorry, hun,” he
called to his wife, “but I’ve got to make a run over to Walt Mabry’s. Jewel
called the station a little bit ago and said she hadn’t been able to get a hold
of Walt all day.” 

Drying
her hands on a faded kitchen towel, Barbara stepped out of  the dining room, a
worried frown creasing her forehead. “I sure hope Walt is okay, it would just
kill Jewel if something happened to her daddy.”

Nodding,
Martin said, “Jewel’s been out of town for two days and she’s worried that Walt
may have had another heart attack and not been able to get to the phone. It’s
not like him to ignore Jewel when she calls.” 

He
kissed Barb’s forehead. “This shouldn’t take long and I’ll be back in time to
watch that movie you rented.” 

Wrapping
her arms around his thick middle, Barbara gave Martin a tight squeeze resting
her head on his shoulder for a minute.

Twenty
minutes later dust flew behind the patrol car as Martin turned into Walt’s
driveway and sped up to the house.
Hmm, no lights on and no truck in the
driveway.
Martin got out of the cruiser and grabbed his police issued
flashlight. He cautiously stepped up onto the porch and knocked on the door. No
answer.

Shining
his flashlight through the living room window Martin thought,
Everything
looks in order, at least in this part of the house.
Martin made his way
around to the back, and then reached above the door frame for the spare key
that Jewel had said was there when she called the station. Unlocking the door,
Martin entered the house. If Walt were here, he didn’t want to scare him or
have Walt pull out that old shotgun of his, thinking that there was an intruder.

“Walt.
It’s Martin Crawley. You here buddy?”  Not getting a response, Martin moved
from room to room, searching the small frame house for Walt or signs of trouble.
Turning his flashlight off, Martin flipped the kitchen light on illuminating the
small room. No mess, no signs of foul play, nothing out of the ordinary.
Maybe
Walt was just out later than usual and Jewel missed him when she called.
Leaving
the house the same way he had entered, Martin locked the door behind him. He
hit redial on his cell and had the dispatcher forward his call to  Jewel as he
walked around the house to his cruiser. He assured her that he would come back
by the house in the morning to check on Walt and she promised to call if she
heard from her daddy. Martin backed out of the drive and drove home to his
waiting wife.

The
following morning, Martin kissed Barb goodbye on the porch and took the travel
mug of hot coffee that she always had ready for him. He waved goodbye. Since he
hadn’t heard from Jewel the night before or this morning, he planned to stop by
Walt’s on his way to the station. Taking a slug from his cup Martin thought,
Maybe
I’ll get a refill from Walt. Anything is better than that watery coffee that
comes from the machine in the break room.
He was sure Walt would have
turned up by now.

Pulling
into the driveway, Martin was shocked to see that Walt’s truck still wasn’t
parked in its usual spot. He got out, knocked on the back door and then let
himself in when he didn’t get an answer. Martin was greeted by the same empty
house he had walked through the night before. Not a thing had been disturbed.
Once back in the cruiser, Martin took a small dirt road that went down the east
side of Walt’s property. Maybe he was down at the barn. Martin hadn’t checked the
barn last night but now he was worried. It wasn’t like Walt to be out all night.
There must be something wrong.

After
a quick trip down to the barn turned up nothing, Martin drove back the way that
he had come. As he was leaving, Martin called the station and asked Kevin
Walker, the desk clerk on duty if there had been any reports during the night
regarding Walt Mabry. There hadn’t. “Kevin, do me a favor and call the county
hospital to see if by some chance Walt was admitted. Check for John Does as
well since he may have not been able to ID himself. I sure hope we find him
because I don’t want to have to call Jewel and tell her that her daddy is still
missing.” 

Martin
was disappointed when he arrived at the courthouse a few minutes later and
found that there had been no record of Walt being admitted to the hospital and
there were no John Doe’s either. He couldn’t put it off any longer, he had to
call Jewel. Martin closed his office door and dialed Walt’s daughter.

CHAPTER 27

Silently,
Emma slid into a chair across from Tate at the small table in his kitchen. The
tension of last night’s encounter in the garage had lessened, but still stood
like a wall between them.

Looking
over the morning paper, Tate announced, “Your plate is in the oven.” He let the
newspaper slide back up so that the morning news blocked his grin. Emma had
barely spoken ten words to him last night after the kiss, but he could almost
see her mind as it analyzed and compartmentalized the events that occurred in
the garage.

You’re
getting to her Echo, just don’t push her too hard or you know she’ll run.

Emma
opened the oven door, and pulled a plate rounded with bacon and eggs out of the
warm box. She slid it onto a placemat, then sat down and picked up her fork. She
paused and cleared her throat, “Tate, I know that it was a little awkward last
night, but can’t we just move forward?  We need to push everything but the case
to the back burner for now and find the killer. What do you say?”

Letting
the paper drop a few inches Tate’s grey eyes bored into Emma’s blue ones from
across the table, one corner of his mouth lifted in a half smile. “Whatever you
think SSA Gage-Echo.”

Emma
breathed a sigh of relief that Tate wasn’t going to make a big deal about the
kiss. Thank God for that. She had been afraid that one little kiss was going to
be a dark cloud hanging over them for the rest of her trip. Pushing another
fork of eggs into her mouth she smiled back at Tate. “Glad to see that you know
who’s in charge, Chief Echo,” she teased. Emma’s smile broadened and then she
giggled.

Tate
stared at her in puzzled surprise, “What the heck is so funny?  You’re losing
it.” 

Emma
continued to laugh, pushing back from the table and hugging her middle as the
giggle turned into a full out laugh. “Oh, Tate, I just realized that you’re now
Chief Echo. Chief as in Indian Chief!” 

Catching
her meaning, Tate scowled at Emma from across the table. Laying the paper aside,
he warned, “Do not laugh at my heritage Em. The chief will have to order you to
be staked to the bed and tortured if you keep it up, and I promise, you
will
enjoy the particular torture that I have in mind.”

Forcing
the laughter down Emma giggled, “Bet the guys at the office give you hell with
that that one, huh?” 

Standing
to rinse his plate Tate said, “Not to my face they don’t, but I’ve heard rumors.
So what’s on the agenda for today, Em? You still want to see the Parker scene?”

“Yeah,
I do. Also last night I got a call back from the owner of the geocaching
website. He agreed to email me all the information for people that logged finds
in the county the last two months. I already downloaded the finds that the
Babcock family logged that were within a fifty mile radius of Pine Ridge. I
wanted to cross reference the logs and see if anything pops.” 

Tate
leaned against the counter with his coffee cup in hand. “Sounds like a solid
plan. Did he say how long it would take?  I left a message to that damn place
two days ago and they haven’t even returned my call, what’d you say to get them
on the ball?”

“Simple,
F-B-I. That got me to the right person in about three seconds.” Emma continued,
“Mr. CEO promised he would get the information to me no later than one p.m.
this afternoon. Seems it’s a pretty easy process for the website owner. I also
thought that we should check the bureau database to see if there have been any
similar cases recorded at other State or National parks. As many parks as there
are spread across the country, what’s to say that this guy is specific to South
Dakota?”

Tate
frowned as he rinsed his cup and placed it into the dishwasher, “Well, I did
check the systems that I have access to with no results but I was searching
based on the killer’s signature. Now that we are aware of the park’s link and
the geocaching, maybe we could come up with some tighter search parameters.”

Stepping
around Tate, Emma rinsed her plate and placed it neatly into the dishwasher
next to his. “Let me grab my computer and I’ll be ready.” Emma headed down the
hallway to Tate’s office where she had left her computer to charge. As she
pushed the office door open she heard Tate’s cell phone ringing in the
background.

Tate
glanced at the caller idea then answered, “Good morning Sheriff. What’s up with
County?”

“Tate,
it seems that Walt Mabry is missing. Jewel called yesterday and said she hadn’t
been able to get a hold of him all day. I went by the house and his truck is
gone and appears that King is with him wherever he is. No sign of foul play at
the house.”

Cutting
in, Tate asked, “Slow down a minute. Have you checked the hospitals?  We all
know that Walt has a weak heart maybe he drove himself over and got checked
in.”

 “Negative
on that, Martin replied. “We checked the hospital both here and in White River
with no Walt and no John Does either. Jewel says that she talked to him the
night before last and he was fine.”

Tate
looked up as Emma entered the room with her bag in hand. Holding up one finger
he signaled that it would be just a minute.

“With
Walt’s known medical condition, I think you should go ahead and issue a Silver
Alert. Walt isn’t exactly over the hill, but he is considered elderly. Did
Jewel say what Walt had planned for the day yesterday?” 

“She
didn’t know if he had any plans or not but she did mention that she’d given him
a hand held GPS for his birthday last week and thought he might be out looking
for geocaches. Said she gave it to him hoping that he’d get out and walk more. Jewel’s
real worried that he got out and had an attack and wasn’t able to get back into
town. I didn’t want to scare Jewel more than she already is, so I didn’t
mention the possible link in the Parker and Babcock murders to geocaching, but
I’m real worried about Walt. I’ve got patrols on the county roads now hoping
that we can locate him. I was hoping that you could add a couple cars to help
broaden the search.”

Tate
agreed, “That goes without saying. I was just about to run by the Parker house
and let Em have a look at the scene, but we’ll table that for now. I’ll call
dispatch and have all available patrols assigned to the search. Keep the line
open so that they can reach out to coordinate directions with you. Em and I
will join the search as well. Any particular place you want us to start?”

After
coordinating an initial search area with Martin, Tate hung up and turned to see
Emma staring at the newspaper he’d left on the table, a frown creasing her brow.
“Did you see the picture in today’s paper?” Folding the paper backward on the
crease she handed it to him.

“Son
of a bitch!” Tate cursed. Page three featured a picture of him and Emma
embracing when he’d picked her up at the airport. “Police Chief cavorts with an
unknown woman while killer runs free.” Slamming the paper down on the table
Tate seethed. “I’m going to kill him for this.”

Emma
placed one hand on Tate’s forearm. “Kill who?  Why does something like this
warrant a picture in the paper?”

Disgust
lacing his voice, Tate fumed, “Em, we have a leak in either my department or
Martin’s. Someone has been feeding information on the murders to the locals,
stirring up trouble and hard feelings and generally trying to make a fool out
of me. Martin thinks he knows who it is and has someone from internal affairs
assigned as the guy’s partner hoping to flush out some proof but that’s not
helping me solve these murders or maintain my standing as police chief. Damn it.”

“So
why does someone want to undermine your position or the investigation?”

“Pretty
simple, Em, I’d been gone a few years and one of Martin’s guys, Pete Green, had
a son that just graduated top of his class from the academy. Seems he thought
his son was a shoo-in for the job and then I got in the way. I can’t believe
the Mayor hasn’t called yet. Rumor around town according to a waitress over at
the diner is that I must have been a lousy FBI agent if I had to come back to
Pine Ridge to get a job.”

 “So
you didn’t tell them about our divorce or that the Bureau practically begged
you to stay and even offered you a transfer if you’d take it?”

“I
didn’t tell them anything, Em. It’s none of their damned business why I moved
back home. Right now, I have more important things to worry about. Walt Mabry has
been missing since yesterday. His daughter just gave him a GPS for his birthday
and thinks he may have gone caching and had a heart attack. Since we were at
the lake yesterday and know where some of the caches are out there, Martin
asked that we patrol that particular area in case Walt went there to search for
caches too. He’s got all available staff searching the back roads and I’m
adding city staff to the search as well.”