Fancy Gap (28 page)

“Daddy, I want a Happy Meal!” she squealed.

All of this was outside the realm of the possibilities he had imagined for this trip. This was the kind of risk that might get him caught. But he had no choice. After all, he wanted to be a good daddy.

He pulled his baseball cap down and put the little hat he had bought for her. She walked with a little bounce as they headed toward the restaurant. He immediately headed to the men’s room. Luckily, it was empty. He took her into the stall and closed the door. He emptied his bladder first, then sat her on the toilet. She peed for a long time and then let him wipe her clean. Then the door to the restroom opened.

Fuck,
he thought.

He waited until the man started to urinate before he opened the stall door. The man didn’t look up until he heard Katie’s voice.

“Daddy, I need to wash my hands.”

The man tilted his head and looked at them both. He was an older looking gentleman who had hung his cane on the top of the privacy wall.

Katie washed her hands and laughed when he started the hand dryer for her. The old man looked at them both as they left the men’s room.
That guy looks too old to be her father,
he thought.
But you never know these days.

They went up to the counter and ordered a Happy Meal. She squeezed his hand when he paid for the meal. As he took her hand and turned to leave, he noticed that the man from the men’s room was watching them.

Katie stopped just short of the door and pointed to a large poster in the window.

“Is that me, Daddy?” she asked.

He looked at her picture and realized it was reward poster for her safe return.

“No, that’s just someone who looks like you.”
I didn’t expect this
, he thought.

He looked over his shoulder as they walked through the door and saw the old man looking at them and looking at the poster.
This is not good,
he thought as they walked back to the van. He quickly strapped her in and closed the door. He pulled out near the drive-through lane to exit on the other side of the restaurant. As he stopped to check for traffic, he saw the old man still watching them.

The old man went back to the booth where his wife and daughter were sitting.

“Mildred, I think I just saw the little girl who’s missing,” he said as he sat down.

“And you just saw Elvis Presley too, I suppose,” his wife said. His daughter smiled. Her father suffered from bouts of dementia, but when he was normal, he was very observant.

“Dad, why do you think that?” she asked.

“Well, I saw her real good in the men’s room with an older man. She called him daddy, but he was too old to be her father. They left in a brown van with Virginia license plates.”

“Are you sure, Dad?”

He looked her straight in the eye.

“I am.”

* * *

He checked the rearview mirror as he continued to drive toward Winston-Salem. He thought about heading back to Virginia but changed his mind. The old man looked to be more than eighty years old. He couldn’t possibly connect the mental dots.

He kept driving south.

* * *

The old man’s daughter studied the poster. She had seen the man leave with the little girl but hadn’t paid any attention to them. She saw only their backs as they walked across the parking lot. She went back to the table and sat down.

“Dad, are you sure the little girl looked like the little girl in the picture?”

He leaned over the table and said, “I know what I saw. It’s the same little girl who’s in the picture.”

She leaned back and drank the last sip of coffee in her cup. A Mount Airy police patrol car parked near the main entry door. A young officer got out of the car and came into the restaurant. He placed his order at the counter. When his tray was ready, he picked it up and sat down in the next booth. She looked at the police officer and then at her dad.

“Officer, can I talk to you for a minute?” she asked.

“By all means. What can I help you with?” he replied.

She told him what had just happened. She mentioned that her father sometimes had memory lapses.

“Do you mind if I talk to your dad?” he asked.

“Please do.”

The young officer got up and slid into their booth and introduced himself to her father, who recounted the whole occurrence while the officer took notes.

“Did you notice anything else about the van?” the officer asked.

“Why, yes, I did.” He reached into his pocket and took out a folded McDonald’s napkin. “I wrote the tag number down as the van left. It’s RA-4256. I knew I’d better write it down ’cause the girls think my mind is leaving me, if you know what I mean.”

The young officer smiled.

“That was very observant of you, sir. This might be a big help in finding that poor little girl. Let me get your telephone numbers in case we need to talk to you again.”

After he had written down the information, he stood up. The man put his hand on the officer’s sleeve.

“Just so you know, I would donate the reward money to charity if it ever came to that.”

His daughter rolled her eyes and thanked the officer for his time.

“Oh, no, thank you and your father for this information. This could be a very important piece of the puzzle. We’ll follow up on it immediately.” Just then, his walkie-talkie buzzed. He turned and walked toward the window as he spoke into the receiver. He returned to his table and grabbed the McDonald’s bag.

“’Gotta go! Bad accident with injuries in town.”

* * *

The Lion King
was about to end.

“Are we almost there, Daddy?”

He looked into the video camera and said, “We’ll be at Toys“R”Us in five minutes.”

She smiled back at him.

His Garmin system led him off Highway 52 at University Parkway in Winston-Salem until he reached Silas Creek Parkway. He thought he was close when he saw Forsyth Hospital on his left. He soon recognized the Hanes Mall complex on his right. He drove a little further and entered the Toys“R”Us parking lot. He parked near a pole where he didn’t think he would be under video surveillance. He looked around and didn’t see any parking lot security vehicles patrolling the area.

He opened the back door and unbuckled Katie. She jumped into his arms when she saw all the toys in the store window. He put her down as they entered the store. He quickly took a shopping cart and led her to the doll aisle. She giggled with excitement as she examined as many dolls as she could. She handed him a Justin Bieber doll, a Crumbs Sugar Cookie Lalaloopsy Silly Hair doll, a Disney Tween VIP doll, and a Bimini Crab doll.

“Katie, this is all we can get right now, because this will take all of Daddy’s money. We can come back another time.”

She smiled and said, “Thank you, Daddy!”

A female clerk who had been watching them walked over and asked, “Can I help you find anything else for your granddaughter?”

He forced a smile as he answered, “No, I think we have everything my daughter needs. But thanks for asking.”

“My new daddy is so good to me.” Katie chattered to the clerk.

He held Katie’s hand tightly as he steered the cart toward the checkout lane. The clerk followed closely behind. She watched as the cashier rang up the dolls. The man paid cash for them. She waited until all of his items were bagged and in the cart before she said, “Now, darlin’, you make sure you come back real soon.”

Katie waved to her as they went through the automatic door to the parking lot. The clerk watched through the window as he opened the back door of the van and went in with the little girl. She waited a moment and saw him come out, close the rear door, and get in again through the front driver’s door.
That’s odd,
she thought.

When he backed out of the parking spot, she saw the plate number. She instinctively took out her pencil and wrote down the number: RA-4256. It was a Virginia tag.

She approached the cashier who had checked them out.

“Sheila, did you think anything was unusual about the man and the little girl who just checked out?”

“Well, she was a cutie, and she sure seemed to like her Grandpa.”

“Sheila, that wasn’t her Grandpa. She called him daddy. Did you wonder why he was wearing sunglasses while he was in the store? The man grew more uncomfortable the longer I hung around and asked questions. Then he put her in the back of a panel van, closed the back door, and got into the driver’s seat.”

“Patty, there was something seriously wrong about all of that. What are you going to do about it?” the cashier asked.

“I don’t know yet. My gut instinct is that something’s wrong. But I could be completely off base here, and my imagination is running wild. I just don’t know…”

* * *

He sensed that the bitch clerk was suspicious. He wished Katie hadn’t talked to her. This had not gone well so far, and he still had to drive all the way back to Virginia. He watched his speed closely as he left Silas Creek and turned on to University Parkway. He would more comfortable once he melded with the traffic north on Highway 52.

* * *

Patty sat down in the break room at Toys“R”Us to think about what had just happened. The local five o’clock news was on the TV. She bit her fingernails, as was her habit when she was nervous. She paid no attention to the news until she heard a reporter say that the police hadn’t developed any new leads in the killing of Pete Preston or the whereabouts of his missing sister, Katie. She looked up and saw a picture of the little, blond girl she had just seen in the store.

She ran out of the break room and found Sheila.

“I just saw the little girl on the news. She’s the one was who abducted up in Fancy Gap. And her poor brother was killed. Sheila, I think the killer was just in your checkout line!”

“Patty, are you sure?”

“I’m sure as shit that the little girl was just in here,” Patty practically screamed. She reached for her cell and dialed 911.

“Nine-one-one operator. What is your emergency, please?”

Patty told her what had just unfolded at the store.

“Are you sure it was the little girl?” the operator asked.

“As I live and breathe, there’s no doubt that little girl and the killer were just in our store.”

“Please stay where you are, and a police officer will be there shortly.”

* * *

He drove slowly through the Mount Airy intersections on 52 going north. The sun was beginning to go down. It had been a beautiful afternoon, but he didn’t give a sweet shit about the weather. This little trip had been a total fuckup. From the old man in McDonald’s to the redneck bitch clerk in Toys“R”Us, this day had been a disaster. Katie was happy, but he had just plain screwed up. He couldn’t wait to get back to the safety of Virginia. He smiled as he saw the last traffic light he would go through in North Carolina before he crossed into Cana, Virginia. He couldn’t believe his eyes as the light went from green to yellow in a heartbeat. He was way past the point of stopping, so he stepped on the gas to get him through before the light turned red.

He relaxed as he slowed back down to fifty-five. A smile finally crossed his face until he heard the police siren behind him. The police cruiser pulled right up on his tail. He had no choice but to stop. He could see the Virginia state line and the Exxon station a mere one hundred yards in front of him.

He bit his lip hard to regain his composure. He watched his rearview mirror, waiting for the cop to get out of his car. He reached under his seat to make sure his three-fifty-seven Magnum was where he thought it was. He also shut off the video feed from the back of the van. He opened his window as the officer approached.

“May I see your license and registration, sir.”

He looked at the officer and smiled, then reached over and took the registration card from the glove box. He pulled his driver’s license from his wallet. The officer took the license and registration and returned to his car. He entered the information into his computer and waited to see if any warrants returned. None did. This guy didn’t appear to be a drug runner transporting drugs between North Carolina and Virginia.

The officer returned to the van. “The reason I stopped you, sir, is that your left brake light is out. It’s important that all safety equipment on your vehicle is in good order.”

“By all means officer, I had no idea the brake light isn’t working. I’ll certainly get it fixed when I get back home.”

“That’s a good plan. Mister Franklin. With the fog that comes in on top of that mountain, it’s important to have all of your lights functioning properly.” He handed the license and registration back to him. “You’re free to go.”

“Thank you, officer. I’ll get that taken care of today.” He smiled as he closed the window, slowly pulled back onto 52, and promptly crossed the state line into Virginia.

The officer wrote Mr. Franklin’s name and Hillsville address in his notebook. He thought he had seen that man’s face somewhere. He just couldn’t place where it was.

A good half hour passed as the officer continued his patrol in Mount Airy. The dispatcher sent out an alert to all local officers concerning a possible sighting at the McDonald’s off of Highway 52 of the missing five-year-old abducted in Fancy Gap. A tall, older man and a young girl matching the description of the missing girl were seen leaving in a brown panel van with Virginia tag number RA-4256.

“Do you have a description of the man?” the officer responded to the dispatcher.

“He’s an older white male, wearing a Green Bay Packers shirt, a baseball cap, and dark-rimmed glasses.”

“I stopped that van no more than thirty minutes ago. The driver matches that description. But I didn’t see the little girl in the van.”
She could have been in the back,
he thought. “Suggest you alert the Carroll County Sheriff ’s Department and the Virginia State Police on this and tell them that he crossed over into Cana heading north thirty minutes ago.”

The officer sat in his car and racked his brain, trying to remember where he had seen the man. He just drew a blank.
Shit
, he thought.

* * *

Some twelve miles away, he sat in the room with Katie. He had locked the van away and knew that he probably could never use it again. He also knew he couldn’t use the fake driver’s license he had shown the Mount Airy officer. He wished he had set up another false identity. He took advantage of Mr. Russ Franklin’s death in Hillsville several years ago. He knew Franklin was a single man who didn’t have any relatives. It was easy to get a replacement driver’s license since they looked very much alike.