Rocky Road

by Josi S. Kilpack

  Sadie wondered if this was how Pete felt when he’d tried to be “reasonable” in the past and she’d been caught up in the drama of a situation. “Look, I understand that this is frustrating, and it’s not what you expected, but—”

  The sound of music from the kitchen area behind them cut her off. Tess hurried to get her phone. “This is Tess. ... Hi, Lori.” Her expression fell, and she turned away from Sadie and Caro, who stood watching her and listening to her side of the conversation. “Oh, really? ... I see ... Would you like to set up another time? ... Oh ... No, I understand ... Um, you’re welcome ... Yeah, you, too.”

  She hung up the phone, looked at it in her hand, then put it back on the counter before turning to face Caro and Sadie. “Lori’s not coming.”

  “Why?” Caro asked before Sadie had a chance to.

  “She said she has a school assignment she’d forgotten about that she has to finish up this morning. I tried to set up another time, but she said she couldn’t spare even five minutes.”

  “Maybe we can talk to her at the luncheon,” Sadie said, trying to create a plan B. “Once the service is over, she might be less anxious.” Assuming it was anxiousness that inspired the change.

  “Except I will have talked to the police and we’ll be officially off the case,” said Caro.

  Oh yeah, Sadie thought to herself. “Why would she cancel? She’d seemed so invested last night.”

  “You don’t think it’s a school assignment?” Caro asked her.

  “I suppose it could be, but it does seem strange. Maybe the police called her before they called you. Or maybe someone else told her not to come.”

  “Why would they do that?” Tess asked.

  “I have no idea, and maybe I’m wrong, but it seems really strange—she wanted to see those photos. She wanted to be a part of finding out why the photos didn’t match up.”

  “Well, then, I’ll talk to her about it at the service,” Tess said with resolution. “If she’s lying about the school assignment, then we’ll figure out the real reason.”

  “Except we’ll have already talked to the police,” Caro repeated.

  Tess lifted her chin. “I don’t see why we can’t continue working on this regardless of the meeting with police,” she said, coming around the counter. “We’ve already done so much and have a lot more we can do.”

  Tess’s determination caused Sadie’s defenses to rise. “This has always been a police matter, and if—”

  “That’s obviously not what you thought last night when you questioned Lori.”

  Sadie felt her face grow warm. “I’ve already explained about last night, and I’ve said from the start that this is a police investigation.”

  “And why do we have to do this your way?” Tess challenged as Caro looked back and forth between them. “You’re the least interested in what’s going on here—you’ve made that very clear—but we’re supposed to just listen to you?”

  “I have experience with this kind of thing,” Sadie said. “And I know the consequences of pushing farther than you should. The reason you asked for my help in the first place was because of my experience.”

  “Well, I feel like we should keep working on it. I feel that very strongly, and I don’t appreciate you trying to dictate everything.”

  “Okay,” Caro said, putting up her hands. “This isn’t helping anything.” She turned to Tess. “We did agree to stop when the police called us back.”

  Tess folded her arms over her chest and looked to the side, out the back window. Her expression was tight. Sadie, while sympathetic to the younger woman’s position, liked her less than ever.

  “We need to focus on what’s going on right now, which is that the police want to talk to us. Will you come with me to talk to the police?” Caro asked.

  Sadie wasn’t sure who she was talking to until she realized Caro was looking at both Sadie and Tess. She wanted all three of them to go?

  “I really have no reason to be there,” Sadie said. “And I might just make things worse.”

  “Worse? How?” Caro asked.

  Sadie took a breath, noting that Tess was watching her now. She tried to think of how to say this without drawing even more of Tess’s censure, but she couldn’t come up with anything that would defuse the tension between them. “I have an official record, and it doesn’t make me look very good. I worry that if I’m connected to all of this, it might hurt things more than help them.”

  Caro knew what Sadie was talking about, and she looked embarrassed for putting her on the spot. Sadie caught the briefest look of satisfaction on Tess’s face before Tess turned and went into the kitchen, where she set about washing dishes. Caro followed her.

  “Will you come with me, Tess?” Caro asked.

  “No,” Tess said stubbornly. “I think you going to the police at all is a mistake.”

  Sadie let out a breath, hating everything about this and having no idea how to fix it. She went back to her computer and finished typing in a summary of the case-that-almost-was. She consciously blocked out whatever Tess and Caro were talking about. She felt conflicted and frustrated and suddenly eager to be done with this whole thing, though she knew that was simply a reaction to the negativity. It would be very hard to truly walk away.

  “Will you please come with me?” Caro asked. Sadie was startled because she hadn’t realized that Caro had returned to the table. She glanced past her friend and noted that the kitchen was empty. Where had Tess gone? Caro continued, “I really don’t want to go alone, and I’m not worried about you hurting anything—I mean, that won’t even matter if we’re just turning things over, right?”

  Sadie focused on Caro’s pleading gaze and remembered that it had been Sadie’s idea to take everything to the police in the first place, and it was Sadie who was insisting that this was the right course now that they had responded to that information. With those things in mind, how could she send Caro there alone?

  “Sure,” Sadie said with a smile.

  Caro looked instantly relieved. “Oh, good—thank you. He’d wanted to meet with me around ten-thirty, but I put him off because of our meeting with Lori. Do you think I should call and see about coming in earlier? I kind of don’t want to put it off any longer than I have to.”

  2 cups boiling water

  5 teaspoons baking soda

  1 cup shortening

  2 cups sugar

  4 eggs

  1 quart buttermilk

  5 cups flour

  1 teaspoon salt

  4 cups All-Bran cereal

  2 cups bran flakes

  1 cup walnuts, chopped

  Add soda to boiling water and set aside. Whip shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs slowly; mix well. Add buttermilk, flour, and salt; mix again. Very slowly add soda water. Gently fold cereals and walnuts into the mix. Spoon 1/8 cup batter into greased muffin tins. Bake 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool 5 minutes.

  Muffin mix must sit in the refrigerator overnight before baking. Mix will last one week, covered and refrigerated.

  Yields 3 dozen muffins.

  Chapter 10

  Despite having agreed to go with Caro, Sadie had hoped that she could wait in the car or the waiting room. But it became obvious during the drive to the police station that Sadie would be accompanying Caro every step of the way. Caro became increasingly nervous the closer they got to the actual interview. Caro had given an official statement to the police after the situation they’d involved themselves in the year before, so she had experience with police interviews, but that made her even more nervous. Sadie did her best to talk down the significance of this meeting, but at the same time she was increasingly anxious, too. Oh, how she hated these interviews.

  Would Sergeant Woodruff be the kind, understanding, and gentle type of cop she rarely encountered? Or, instead, would he be the chip-on-his-shoulder, hard-nosed detective who used intimidation and in-your-face declarations to ensure everyone knew who was in charge? A quick glance at Caro�
�s white-knuckle grip on the steering wheel and tight-lipped expression left Sadie praying for the former option. Please let him be nice.

  For the first time ever, Sadie was disappointed when they were not asked to sit in the waiting area. Instead, they immediately followed a female officer down a short hallway, where she initiated a series of stops and signatures before Caro and Sadie were led into what Sadie knew to be an interrogation room. Rather than a mirror-sided wall that would allow them to be watched, two video cameras were attached to opposite corners of the light grey room. There were two chairs on one side of the table, and no chair on the other side.

  “Shouldn’t there be a third chair?” Sadie asked the officer who had served as their guide up to this point.

  The woman just smiled and waved them to their seats. “Officer Nielson will be with you shortly. Please have a seat.”

  “Nielson?” Sadie asked quietly once the door had closed and she and Caro were alone. They each pulled back a chair and sat down at the table. Sadie’s chair legs weren’t even, and the chair wobbled slightly.

  “We’re meeting with Officer Nielson,” Caro confirmed. She looked at the camera set in the corner closest to them and swallowed nervously.

  “I thought it was Sergeant Woodruff.”

  “Nielson is the one who called me back.”

  How had Sadie not realized that? She, too, eyed the cameras and decided not to talk about it right now. She settled back in her seat and restated in her mind the goal of this meeting: to discuss what they knew without drawing too much interest in themselves.

  The doorknob turned, and Sadie took a breath before looking at the area where the face of this Officer Nielson should be if he were of average height. However, once the door opened, the spot she’d focused on was a few feet too high, and she felt her eyes travel lower and lower until they met the blue eyes of a man in a wheelchair. Sadie tried to hide her surprise, but she knew he’d seen it all the same, and she felt her cheeks heat up in embarrassment. He gave her a slight smile of acknowledgment and steered himself into the room with one hand while the other held the door open. It wasn’t until he was completely in the room that Sadie realized she should have offered to help. But would that have offended him?

  Caro hadn’t looked up as Officer Nielson entered the room, and she was slightly startled when she did look up to see him wheeling up to the other side of the table. Sadie noted a thick file resting on his lap and a fanny pack secured around his waist. Just like that, they were suddenly eye to eye, and, except for his unexpected means of arrival, he had the demeanor of any other officer Sadie had encountered. That she felt sorry for him bothered her a lot. She knew he wouldn’t want her sympathy, but she also worried that being taken off guard by him had already put her at a disadvantage.

  He put the file on the table and a moment later took a bottle of hand sanitizer from his fanny pack. He squirted some into one hand and then rubbed it into both hands. “Don’t let the chair intimidate you,” he said with a half smile. “I won’t hold it against you that I’m twice as fast as you are and have the upper body strength of a god.”

  Both Sadie and Caro were quiet for a moment and then smiled anxiously at the joke.

  He snapped the sanitizer’s lid back in place and returned the bottle to the fanny pack. Only then did he extend his hand across the table. He did have incredibly well-muscled arms, and Sadie found herself blushing for the second time since he’d entered the room. When he met her eye, she could swear he knew what thoughts had inspired her reaction, just as he had the first time. Caro and Sadie introduced themselves in turn, and Officer Nielson immediately opened the cover of the file and asked about the photos Caro had indicated in the note she’d left with the articles the day before. At first, Caro seemed hesitant to answer the questions he asked, but when Sadie didn’t jump to answer in her place, she stumbled through the explanation and after a few sentences seemed to find her groove. Sadie was grateful that Officer Nielson did, in fact, seem to be one of those detectives who led with confidence and authority.

  He asked about the origins of the photograph of the two women, and he wrote down what Caro told him, letting her know he would need to verify the dates with Kathryn. Caro told him to turn the photo over and see where Tess had written Kathryn’s contact information a few days earlier.

  He asked good questions that established why Caro and Sadie were there, their connection to Dr. Hendricks, and what they thought the photos meant. Sadie couldn’t have been more proud of how Caro handled everything. She was professional and well-spoken.

  Officer Nielson opened the file and thumbed through the rest of the papers. “And these other items?”

  “We gathered all the information we could about Dr. Hendricks in hopes of figuring out any other discrepancies in the case.”

  “And did you find any?”

  When Sadie and Caro didn’t answer immediately, he looked up at them expectantly.

  “Maybe not a discrepancy,” Caro said. “But there were some strange things that stood out to us after Sadie talked to Lori Hendricks last night.” She motioned toward Sadie, turning Officer Nielson’s attention to her for the first time. Sadie cringed but tried not to show it on her face.

  “Lori Hendricks is Dr. Hendricks’s first wife, correct?” the officer queried.

  He didn’t already know that? Why wouldn’t he be familiar with the details of the case? His ignorance seemed to confirm that a call from him hadn’t been the catalyst for Lori changing her mind about wanting to see the photos this morning.

  “Um, yes,” Caro said, possibly thinking the same thing.

  “Why don’t you tell me about what you learned from Lori Hendricks.”

  Sadie and Caro were both silent for a beat or two until Officer Nielson raised his eyebrows. Caro looked at Sadie and raised her eyebrows, too. Sadie took a breath before giving a quick recap of events from last night, ending with the fact that Lori Hendricks had cancelled the appointment.

  By the time Sadie finished, Officer Nielson was leaning to one side of his wheelchair, with one elbow resting on the arm of the chair and holding up his chin. He held her eyes longer than she wanted him to. It felt too searching, too much as though he were making conclusions about her. She looked away first.

  “Are you somehow employed by law enforcement?” he asked her.

  “No, sir.”

  “You use the lingo.”

  “Well, I, um, have some experience with investigative work.”

  “But you’re not a law enforcement employee?”

  “No, sir. I, um, used to be a private investigator.” She kept to herself that most of her investigative experience had little to do with the actual business she’d run for less than a year.

  He looked at her a few seconds longer, and Sadie knew that as soon as she left this office, he would type her name into his fancy-pants computer and learn everything about her. She didn’t know what her official file said, but Pete had described it as “extensive” when she’d pushed him for information. With that in mind, Sadie wondered what she had to lose in this interview. “Can I ask you a question, Officer Nielson?”

  “Certainly.”

  “Is Sergeant Woodruff no longer working the case? We’ve read all of those articles and your name never came up.”

  “Sergeant Woodruff was the investigator on the disappearance case, and he was over things until about two weeks ago, when the file was given to me. I’ve been employed with the department for sixteen years, but about four years ago, I was injured in a search and rescue and was taken off of active duty. I now work here in the station, closing out cases, doing phone work for other investigators, and anything else that doesn’t require legs.” He smiled to soften the impact of the words, but Sadie felt her sympathy rising again. “I was given this case to close, but it hasn’t been a priority—I expected to finish it off by the end of the summer. Until these came in.” He tapped the top of the folder. “I’ve spent the morning reviewing the file, but I’m certai
nly not yet familiar with the intricacies of the case. I’d like to review it some more and, perhaps, ask you some follow-up questions. Would that be all right with the two of you?”

  “Sure,” Caro said with a nod.

  “Of course,” Sadie confirmed.

  He put the file back in his lap and pulled back from the table. “Great. I’ll be in touch then, if both of you would kindly leave your contact information, including where you’re staying while you’re here in town, with the officer at the front desk, I would appreciate it.”

  He reached the door and pulled it open before either of them could do it for him. The same female officer that had escorted them inside was waiting for them outside the door and led them to the front of the station. They retrieved their purses and left their contact information, as Officer Nielson had instructed, and headed through the front doors.

  “Well, that was ... ”

  Caro didn’t finish the sentence, and Sadie wasn’t sure she knew how to finish it, either, so she simply agreed. “Yeah.”

  They got into Caro’s car, which was already hot from the morning sun. Caro started the car and turned the AC all the way up. “They’re closing the case already. That must mean that they really aren’t working on any leads, right? They didn’t find anything in their investigation that warranted keeping the case active.”

  “That’s what it sounds like,” Sadie said, turning to smile at Caro across the seats. “And giving them this brought it back to life. Well done.”

  Caro smiled and shifted into reverse, catching Sadie’s eye as she looked over the seat to pull out of her parking space. “I’d have never done it without you telling me to. Maybe it will help Tess feel better to know the police are picking things up from here.”