State of Life: A Mystery Thriller Novel (Virgil Jones Book 12)

by Thomas Scott

  Virgil ran out the door, jumped into the driver’s seat, and had the car rolling before his door was closed. He took it easy on the gravel road—sliding into the ditch only a mile from home wouldn’t be good for anyone—but when he hit the highway, he turned on the flashers and floored the accelerator.

  They spoke little of the ongoing incident during the drive. There simply wasn’t much of an opportunity. Virgil was concentrating hard on the road ahead, as was Murton, calling out the dangers and potential threats as they drove. ‘Two on the right…got one coming up the on-ramp, slow mover in the left lane a quarter-mile ahead, motorcycle on the right, watch your closure rate…’ Like that, all the way there. It was ninety-eight miles from Virgil’s front door to their destination.

  They made it in fifty-seven minutes.

  Virgil took them straight to the Orange County Sheriff’s office, located in Paoli, Indiana. The building was squat, with red bricks, low windows, and a gray metal roof. Even though it was dark outside, Murton thought the place looked like it might have been converted from a funeral home. When he said as much to Virgil, the reply he got back made him wish he’d kept his thoughts to himself.

  “Let’s hope that’s not a harbinger of things to come,” Virgil said.

  They got out of Murton’s squad car, their badges visible hanging from chains around their necks. When Virgil pushed the buzzer to gain access to the building, a red light winked at them from above. Both men looked up, and when they did, the lock on the door clicked, and Murton pulled it open. Once inside the building, they found a single female deputy out of her element, trying to contain a situation that looked like it was going from bad to worse. Two adult men were arguing with each other, while a young teenaged girl sat on a visitor’s bench, her face lined with tears. For a brief instant, Virgil thought the girl might be Jodie Carter, and that they’d wasted a trip down to Orange County. But as he listened to the argument between the men, he quickly learned his thoughts were nothing more than wishful thinking.

  The female deputy slapped her palm—hard—on the reception counter, then told everyone to shut up. When she looked at Virgil and Murton, she said, “Are you the detectives from the state? I was informed by a woman named Becky Wheeler that you were on the way here.”

  “That’s us,” Murton said. “I’m Murton Wheeler. Becky is my wife, and an operational member of the Major Crimes Unit.” He tipped his head at his brother and said, “This is my partner and lead Detective of the MCU, Virgil Jones.”

  The deputy dipped her chin…a single tight nod, and said, “I’m a reserve deputy with the department. My name is Tracy Dunn. Everyone else from our department, including the sheriff, is out searching the county right now, looking for Jodie Carter.”

  Jodie Carter’s father, Eugene, took a step forward and pointed at the other man. When he spoke, his voice was full of rage and panic. “They wouldn’t have to be out looking for my daughter at all if that asshole knew how to properly raise his little bitch sitting right over there on the bench.”

  Emma Brady’s father, Lee, stepped up, and said, “Call my daughter a name like that again and see what happens. You’ll be eating out of a feeding tube for the next six weeks.”

  Virgil and Murton got between the two men and pushed them away from each other. Once they had them separated, Virgil said, “Everybody take it easy. That’s not a request. I know you’re all frightened, but name-calling and arguing aren’t going to help anyone. I’m asking you to act like adults. If you can’t do that, we’ll be interviewing you in an interrogation room, handcuffed to the table. Now, I want someone to tell my partner and myself exactly what happened.”

  Emma Brady stood from where she was seated, wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her shirt, and said, “Mr. Carter is right—though he didn’t have to call me a bitch. This is my fault. I lied to cover for Jodie. She wanted to spend the night with her boyfriend.”

  “What’s the boyfriend’s name?” Virgil said.

  “Bobby Thompson,” Emma said. “His parents are out of town and he had the place to himself. Jodie told Mr. and Mrs. Carter that she was going to spend the night with me, but she was really going to go over to Bobby’s house. All I was supposed to do was go home after work and keep my mouth shut. But when I left the store—Jodie and I both work at Dollar General in French Lick—I noticed that her car was still parked on the side lot, even though she left a half hour before I did.”

  “What did you do when you saw her car was still at the store?” Virgil said.

  “I’ll tell you what she should have done,” Eugene Carter said. “She should have acted like an adult and—”

  Murton walked over to Mr. Carter, grabbed his arm, and spoke quietly into his ear. “I’m only going to say this once, sir, so I suggest you listen carefully. I know you’re upset. I know you’re scared. I would be too. But you’re not helping us, and more importantly, you’re not helping your daughter. Say one more word to anyone without being asked to speak, and I’ll lock you up and deal with you later. Have I made myself clear?”

  Carter tried to pull his arm free, but when he did, he discovered that Murton had no intention of letting go. The end result was Carter’s struggle only pulled him closer to Murton.

  “I asked you a question, sir. Have I made myself clear?”

  “You have,” Carter said. He spoke through his teeth.

  “Good,” Murton said. “Now go sit on that bench and cool out. We’ll speak again in a few minutes.”

  Carter did what he was told, and Murton turned back to the conversation. Emma glanced at Carter, then her own father, and finally Virgil. “I’m sorry. What was your question?”

  “I asked what you did when you saw Jodie’s car was still at the store,” Virgil said.

  Emma closed her eyes as she replayed the events in her mind. “I got out of my own car and looked around to see if…if…I don’t know…I guess to make sure everything was okay. I think I was looking for Jodie, or her keys or her purse or something like that, though I wasn’t really thinking those things at the time.”

  “What were you thinking?” Murton said.

  Emma looked at Murton, and said, “I guess I was simply wondering why her car was still parked at the store even though she’d been gone for over half an hour. I thought maybe Bobby had picked her up or something.”

  “Did you try to call, or text your friend?” Virgil said.

  “I did. I also tried to call and text Bobby, but neither of them answered. Then, even though I didn’t want to intrude, I thought I’d better go over to Bobby’s house to make sure everything was okay. When I got there, I discovered it wasn’t. Nothing was okay. Nothing at all.” Emma began to cry again, and her father put his arm around his daughter and pulled her close.

  Tracy Dunn, the reserve deputy looked at Virgil and Murton, and said, “The 911 call came in at 9:23 pm. Miss Carter’s boyfriend, Bobby Thompson, was unconscious and non-responsive. He’s at the IU Health hospital here in Paoli right now.”

  “What’s his current condition?” Murton said.

  Then, as if the mere asking of the question could connect the cosmic strings that held the universe in check, the phone behind the counter rang. Deputy Dunn answered, listened for a few minutes, said, ‘thank you,’ then gently set the receiver back in place. “That was the hospital,” she said. “Bobby Dunn died ten minutes ago from a combination drug and alcohol overdose. They want someone to make the notification.” She was looking at Virgil and Murton when she spoke her eyes pleading in a way that needed little, if any explanation.

  Emma pulled away from her father, ran outside, and screamed. Eugene Carter glanced at Murton, then looked at Emma’s father, and said, “I’m sorry, Lee. I shouldn’t have said those things about your girl. She’s a fine young woman, and Jodie has never had a better friend.” When he looked at Murton, he said, “I know you told me not to speak, but I don’t care. My daughter is missing. I’ll spend the rest of my life to find her if that’s what it takes.” Then
he walked out the door without another word.

  Virgil and Murton took a few minutes to let Dunn bring them up to speed on the search efforts thus far, then got the sheriff’s cell phone number. When they went outside they found Lee Brady sitting on the front steps of the sheriff’s office, trying to comfort his daughter. Virgil looked at Brady and said, “If you don’t have any objections, sir, my partner and I would like Emma to come with us.”

  “Where?”

  “Back to her place of employment, for one. We’d like to retrace her steps from the time she left work until she arrived here. We’ll drop her at your house when we’re finished.”

  “I don’t see what good that can do for Jodie,” Brady said. “And it sure as hell isn’t going to help Bobby, is it?”

  “No, sir, it won’t help Bobby at all,” Murton said. “But with respect, it sounds as though he made his own choices.” He was looking at Virgil when he spoke.

  Emma looked at her father and said, “It’s okay, Dad. I want to help.”

  “What about the search for Jodie?” Brady said.

  “We’ll do what we can to help in that regard,” Virgil said. “But the truth of the matter is this: We don’t know the county or its residents the way the sheriff and his deputies do. Our efforts would be better spent investigating Jodie’s abduction instead of taking part in a general search operation.”

  Brady looked at his daughter. “Are you up for this, honey?”

  Emma seemed to have pulled herself together during the conversation. She nodded at her father and said, “I am. I’ll do whatever I can to help.”

  “What should I do?” Brady said. “Believe it or not, Eugene Carter and I are friends. At least we were. Now? Who knows? But it feels like I should be doing something.”

  “I think the best thing you can do right now is go home,” Virgil said. “Let us do what we do. Your daughter will be safe with us, and we’ll have her back at your place in two hours or less. Why are you looking at me like that, sir?”

  Lee Brady ran his fingers through his hair, then said, “Because my daughter’s life-long best friend was abducted only hours ago. No one knows who took her. I don’t mean to offend you, or your partner, but could I please take a closer look at your IDs?”

  After addressing Lee Brady’s concerns and convincing him his daughter was safe, Virgil and Murton drove Emma back to the Dollar General in French Lick. The first thing they did after they arrived was take a close look at Jodie’s vehicle and the surrounding area. “Did you touch her car at all when you noticed it was still here?” Virgil said.

  Emma shook her head. “No, but if you’re thinking about fingerprints, or whatever, you’d find mine all over anyway. I’m in her car as often as she is in mine.”

  Virgil and Murton took out flashlights, got down on their hands and knees, and looked under the car and very carefully around its immediate area. They found absolutely nothing of evidentiary value. Murton turned to Emma and said, “Does the store have security cameras?”

  “Yes, but only for the front entrance…and the inside, of course. But not out here on the side of the building.”

  “How about we take a look?” Virgil said. “Maybe we’ll catch something.”

  They all walked around to the front of the building, and Emma unlocked the door. Once they were inside, she relocked the door and led them to the back of the store where the manager’s office was located. She brought up the security system and was about to run the video back when she paused.

  “What is it?” Virgil said.

  “The system runs twenty-four hours a day. That means it’s going right now. It’s some sort of insurance thing, I guess.”

  “That’s not uncommon,” Murton said.

  “I know,” Emma said. “But if I stop it to run it back, then there will be a gap in the coverage. If something happens while we’re looking at the video, I’m responsible.”

  Virgil had to smile to himself, and the innocence of a young teenage girl not wanting to get in trouble. “Except that’s what the system is for, Emma. If you can’t ever shut it down to look at what it might have captured, what good does it do to have it at all?”

  Despite the situation, Emma shook her head and laughed at herself. Then, even though it wasn’t necessary, she added, “Duh,” then pressed the button on the keyboard.

  “Run it back to just before Jodie left,” Murton said.

  Emma did as Murton asked, and they watched a split screen that showed the front entrance and parking lot, as well as the checkout lanes inside. “There’s me and Jodie right there,” Emma said. “I told her she could leave early because I knew she was eager to meet up with Bobby. See…she took off her smock, tossed it under the checkout lane, then headed for the door. But the camera only shows the front lot.”

  “Can’t even see the street,” Murton said.

  Virgil shook his head. “Okay, it was worth a shot, but this isn’t going to get us anywhere. Let’s head over to Bobby’s house.”

  “What good is that going to do?” Emma said. “As far as anyone knows, she never even made it there.”

  Murton jumped in before Virgil had a chance to answer Emma’s question, and said, “What’s Jodie’s phone number? Bobby’s too.”

  Emma told Murton the numbers, and as soon as he had them, he called Becky. “Can you get to work on a couple of phone numbers?”

  “Yeah. You guys okay?”

  “We’re good,” Murton said. Then he quickly explained the situation, gave Becky the numbers, and said, “We need a last known location on the Carter phone. That’s the first number I gave you. We need account information on the second. Fast as you can, Becks.”

  After Murton ended the call with Becky, Emma looked at Virgil and said, “You didn’t answer my question. If Jodie never made it to Bobby’s house, how does that help us find her?”

  “That’s not why we’re going, sweetheart,” Murton said.

  “Then why?” Emma asked.

  “Because we need to find a way to get in touch with Bobby’s parents.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  When Virgil and Murton and Emma Brady arrived at the Thompson residence, they saw an Orange County Sheriff’s deputy sitting in an unmarked squad car at the front of the house. Virgil walked over and introduced himself, then informed the deputy why they were there. “Is the house still unlocked?”

  “As far as I know,” the deputy said. He looked tired, like he might have been pulled out of bed to help with the search. “I was asked to wait here in case the Carter girl shows up. Why are you looking at me like that, Detective?”

  “Because in all likelihood, the Carter girl has been abducted. She won’t be showing up here. Your efforts would be better spent helping with the search.”

  “Take it up with the sheriff. I just do what I’m told, especially when I was supposed to go off-duty three hours ago.”

  “Have you spoken with any of the neighbors?” Murton said.

  “Only to tell them to go home and mind their business. After they pulled the Thompson boy out of here, you’d have thought the circus had come to town.”

  Virgil looked at Murton and said, “I’m going to take Emma through the house real quick. You know what to do.”

  Murton nodded once, then as Virgil and Emma went through the front door, he turned back to the deputy and said, “We’re trying to locate Bobby Thompson’s parents. Any idea where they might be?”

  The deputy shook his head. “I’ve never met them. They could be anywhere, for all I know.”

  Murton didn’t respond. Instead, he jogged over to his car, turned his flashers on, and burped the siren a few times. Then he ran back over to the deputy and said, “Light it up.”

  “What the hell for? We’ll wake half the neighborhood.”

  “That’s the point. I want everyone out on their porches or in their front yards. C’mon now, hit the lights and get on the horn. I need to talk to some people.”

  The deputy shook his head, like mayb
e the state cop who was ordering him around had lost his marbles. But he did what Murton asked, and a few minutes later the circus was back in town.

  Virgil and Emma were looking through Bobby’s house, checking for anything they could find that might help them locate the Thompsons. When Emma heard the sirens, she looked at Virgil and said, “What’s going on?”

  “We might need the neighbors’ help. If we can’t find anything in here, maybe one of them will know where Bobby’s parents are right now.”

  They spent a quick five minutes checking the obvious places for information…a note stuck to the refrigerator, a destination brochure in the home office, a printed itinerary…anything. But in the end, they found nothing that indicated where Bobby’s parents might be.

  “You’re sure Jodie didn’t tell you where they were going?” Virgil said.

  “I’m positive,” Emma said. “I don’t think she knew. Even if she did, it’s not really something we would have talked about. The fact that they were going to be gone was all that mattered to Bobby and Jodie.”

  Outside, the sirens suddenly went silent. Emma looked at Virgil and said, “Why did they stop?”

  “Probably because it worked,” Virgil said, the hollow tone of his voice an expression of what waited for two parents who didn’t yet know they’d lost their only son.

  Except it didn’t work. Outside, Virgil asked Emma to wait by the car, then he ran over to Murton, who was standing in the street, speaking with a group of neighbors who had gathered around him. He caught the tail end of Murton’s questions.

  “Any idea at all where they might be? Even a guess would be welcome at this point. Someplace they’ve gone before, perhaps.”

  Everyone shook their heads, and an elderly gentleman spoke for the group. “We mostly keep to ourselves around here. The Thompsons are nice folks, but they just didn’t interact with any of us that much. They’re friendly and all, but not friends, if you understand what I’m saying.”