Dark Powers (6 page)

The chief’s thinning hair was cut short. His eyes were close-set and steely. And his ears looked like they’d been taped back to hold them next to his head.

“I’m Chief Judd,” he said, glancing at Sage before addressing Ben.

“Pleased to meet you. Ben Walker from Decorah Security.”

“Which is located where?”

“Between DC and Baltimore.”

“What brings you all the way over here?”

He refrained from pointing out that he’d already told that to the desk officer. “We’re trying to get a line on Laurel Baker who didn’t come home from work two nights ago and hasn’t shown up since.”

“Runaway most likely.”

Beside him, Ben could see Sage reacting. “She didn’t run away,” she blurted. “She had no reason to run away. She was in school, and she had a job working at the Crab Shack.”

“And you are?”

“Her sister.”

“Your mother is Angel Baker?”

“Yes.”

“And your name is?”

“Sage Arnold.”

“I’m guessing you don’t know that your mother came to the Crab Shack two days ago to speak to Laurel?”

“No. About what?”

“They were having a right good argument. Your mother was yelling at her that she was working too many hours and letting her grades slip, and she’d better shape up or ship out. She yelled back that if that was what your mom wanted, she didn’t have to live there anymore.”

Sage looked shocked. “People heard all that?”

“Well, I got it from Bettie Henderson, the restaurant hostess. She heard the whole thing.”

Sage nodded numbly, and Ben wondered if her assessment of her sister’s disappearance had been all wrong. Yet there was something about the smug expression on the chief’s face that set Ben’s teeth on edge. The man looked like a master chess player who’d just checkmated his opponent. Which made him wonder if Chief Judd really believed Laurel had run away or if he was more interested in a quick solution to the problem.

“Let us know if you get any more information,” Ben said.

“Of course,” the chief answered, his tone upbeat. “Where can I contact you?”

He handed over a card with his cell number.

Judd studied the card. “You got a local address?”

“You can get me on my cell.”

“You going back to Beltsville tonight?”

“We don’t have firm plans,” Ben answered, continuing with his evasive answers.

“I wouldn’t want you to waste any more of your time. If she wants to be found, she will be.”

“You’re sure it’s not a kidnapping?” Ben asked.

“We have no evidence of that.”

Beside him Ben could almost feel Sage vibrating with the need to speak. Before she could, he took her arm and led her outside. The minute they stepped onto the porch, she opened her mouth, but he tightened his grip on her, and she got the hint.

She gave him a quick look, then nodded.

As soon as they got into the car and closed the doors, she turned to him.

“My mother lied to us! She said that the last time she saw Laura was when she left for work.”

“Maybe she felt bad about her part in Laurel’s disappearance.”

“Or she knew I’d get mad when I found out. All she cares about is herself.”

“She did call to ask if Laurel had shown up at your house.”

She sighed.

“In any case, I’m not going to take the chief’s word for the shouting match at the Crab Shack. He looked pretty pleased with himself when he gave us the information.”

“I didn’t notice.”

“You were upset.”

She nodded and said, “I want to go over there now.”

“Agreed. Where is it? I didn’t see it on Main Street.”

“It’s one block closer to the town dock.”

“You know Bettie Henderson?”

“I don’t think we ever met. I guess she moved to town after I’d already left.”

They retraced the route to the main drag, and he found a parking space in one of the many lots designed to make shopping easy for tourists. The restaurant, a large building of weathered wood, was on the harbor side of the street, with a bank of windows looking out over the moored boats. There was a private dock where patrons who came by water could tie up. As Ben and Sage walked toward the door, seagulls wheeled overhead.

“A prime location,” he said.

“It’s been here since before I was born. The ownership changed about twenty years ago.”

“You really are up on local history.”

“In Doncaster, everyone knows everyone else’s business. The guy who used to own the restaurant killed his wife.”

Ben winced. “I guess they couldn’t cover that up.”

“I guess not. Because of the scandal, the current owner got it cheap.”

They stepped inside. The interior continued the nautical theme with captain’s chairs, fishnets and floats on the wood-paneled walls. There were also pictures of Doncaster in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

The dinner hour was just starting. A slender, efficient woman with short-cropped dark hair was seating a pair of customers. When she came back to the podium, she looked at Ben and Sage.

“I still have some nice tables available by the window.”

Ben hesitated. He hadn’t come here intending to actually have a meal, but it struck him that both he and Sage had missed lunch. “Yes, that would be great,” he answered.

Sage gave him a confused look.

As the hostess led the way to the table he said in a low voice, “We do need to eat dinner.”

“Yes, but . . .”

“This gives us a chance to judge the atmosphere here.”

The hostess turned toward them. “Something wrong?”

“Not at all,” Ben answered.

They sat down and waited until the woman had left.

Ben leaned toward Sage. “I know you’re anxious to find Laurel.”

“And I feel like we’re wasting time. We could grab hamburgers from a fast-food place if you’re hungry.”

“We could, but this is a working dinner.”

Just then the waitress approached their table. Her name tag said “Sonja.”

“Can I get you something to drink?” she asked.

He caught her accent and smiled. “Where are you from?”

“The Czech Republic.”

“That’s interesting. Your English is very good.”

“Thank you.”

“How did you happen to end up in Doncaster?”

“There are companies that hire women to work in the United States. You must have good English skills to get accepted.”

“Are most of the waitresses here part of the program?”

“About half of us.”

“Do you know Laurel Baker?”

Her expression changed. “Why do you ask?”

“I’m her sister,” Sage blurted. “We’re trying to find her.”

The woman’s gaze swung toward her, and a look of sympathy crossed her face, but her words didn’t match her expression. “I have to get back to work. I’m sorry. Did you want something to drink?”

Ben chose a beer from a local brewery. Sage opted for iced tea.

When the waitress had left, she leaned across the table and said with exasperation in her voice, “We didn’t learn much.”

“Quite the contrary.”

Chapter Five

Ben kept his own voice even. “We know that a lot of the waitresses are from out of the country. And we know that Sonja is reluctant to talk to us about Laurel.”

“She could be reluctant to slow up her waitress duties.”

“Is that what you really think?”

“No,” she admitted.

He could see other diners looking at them, particularly a casually dressed, gray-haired man and woman. Were they locals who might know something about Laurel? Or tourists who had picked up on the conversation?

Sonja came back with their drinks, looking wary. “Are you ready to order?” she asked.

“Sorry,” Ben apologized. “We haven’t really looked at the menu.”

“A lot of people like the crab cakes. Or the crab imperial. Or the crab-stuffed rockfish.”

He laughed. “Well, this is the Crab Shack.” They both ordered the shellfish specialties, and Ben added a side order of onion rings.

Ben took a swallow of his beer. He didn’t usually drink on the job, but he figured one beer wasn’t going to blur his judgment. While they were waiting for their dinners to arrive, the hostess came over, looking slightly wary.

“I overheard you talking to Sonja about Laurel,” she said. “I’m Bettie Henderson.”

After the introductions Ben said, “I hope we didn’t get Sonja in trouble.”

“Of course not. And there’s nothing she can tell you about the night Mrs. Baker came here because she wasn’t on duty.”

“But you were?”

“Yes.”

“Can you tell us about it?”

She looked uncomfortable. “I don’t like spreading gossip.”

“I need to know what happened,” Sage said.

Bettie gave her a sympathetic look. “All right. Laurel had taken some extra hours, and apparently her mother wasn’t happy about that.”

“Why not?” Sage asked.

“She said that Laurel was letting her grades slip.”

“I can’t believe that’s true,” Sage answered.

“I guess you’d have to ask her professors at the college.”

“Yes, if they’re not going to claim the information is confidential,” she answered.

“Was Laurel having any problems at work?” Ben asked. “Apart from her mother showing up to castigate her in public.”

“She wasn’t having any problems here. She was a good worker. She got along with the other girls.”

“Anything you can tell us that might point to a reason why she could have run away?”

She thought for a moment. “If I had to name anything, it would be her relationship with her mother.”

“She talked to you about that?” Sage asked.

“All of the girls know they can come to me with their personal concerns.”

“Has anyone else on the staff run away or disappeared?”

Bettie Henderson hesitated, then said, “I’d like to say no, but I’m sure you’ll find that two other girls went missing. One six months ago and the other about a year ago.”

“Who?”

“Two of the guest workers.”

“Did they find out what happened to them?”

“I don’t think so, but they could have thought that working in this country gave them an opportunity to disappear into the American landscape.”

“Maybe. Anything else you can think of that Laurel and her mother said to each other?”

Bettie waited a beat before lowering her voice. “Laurel said that if her mother was going to ‘ride her’ she could always move out.”

“Did she say where?”

“No.”

Before Ben could ask another question, their meal arrived.

“I should let you eat.”

“If you think of anything, please call,” Ben said, handing her a card.

She stuck it into a pocket of her lavender shirtwaist, then went back to the podium.

Ben began to eat, finding he was hungry. “This is good.”

Sage made a sound of agreement, but he saw that she was less enthusiastic about her crab cakes.

“You should eat.”

“I know.”

She forked up some more of the crab cakes, then took one of the onion rings.

Frank had brought it up earlier, but now that they were in town, Ben asked, “Does Laurel have any friends she could move in with?”

“I don’t know.” Sage thought for a minute. “And if she did, wouldn’t she still be going to work?”

“I’d assume so. Unless there’s something going on we don’t know about.”

They ate the rest of the meal in silence.

When Sonja came back to clear their plates, he told her they didn’t want dessert. “Just the check, please.”

“Certainly,” she said, and he had the impression she was glad to see them leave.

As he paid the check with a credit card, Ben noticed the older couple was still looking at them.

“It’s too late to do any more poking around,” he said. “We’ll start again in the morning.”

“I want to go back to my mother’s.”

“And accuse her of lying?”

“I won’t put it that way, exactly,” Sage answered, but he wondered what she would do in the heat of the moment.

oOo

Police chief Everett Judd drove several hundred yards down a gravel road that led to a vacant house. He cut the engine, turned off his lights, and waited in the darkness under the shade of an old maple tree. He didn’t like being ordered to a meeting at the pleasure of the two men who had summoned him, but he’d gotten himself into this situation, and he didn’t see an easy way out.