Vic sniffled and nodded.
Volunteers began arriving in the church parking lot to check in with the police department coordinators to get their routes checked off. Terry and Willie had organized everything, but then left it in the capable hands of Clara Jones and Melissa while they left to help with the search. K9 might be able to track Roger, and Willie was an accomplished outdoorsman and might be able to find Roger’s trail if he ran across it. Everyone was hoping that Roger hadn’t gone wandering in the deep woods. A few hours of walking, and they might never get him back.
After checking in, the volunteers dug into the sandwiches, sloshed hot cups of coffee down their throats at a speed that made Erin wonder how they were not scalding themselves, and then headed out again. They had started early, so there were a lot of daylight hours, and Erin was hoping that Roger would be found before nightfall. How would Mary Lou get through the night if they hadn’t found him yet?
“Has Mary Lou come by?” asked one of the men who had stopped to eat, wiping his mouth off with the back of his sleeve.
“No. She’s staying at the house in case Roger goes back there. I don’t imagine she could deal with everyone else right now, either.”
“No, maybe not,” the man grunted.
“She’ll be happy when we find him,” Vic said firmly.
Erin nodded. “Yes, she will. Any time now.”
“We’re praying for her,” the volunteer said. He put down his empty coffee cup and walked away.
“Do you remember when we were searching for you?” Vic asked Erin, when the latest batch of volunteers walked away again, ready to continue their searches.
Erin remembered the excruciating hours in the pitch-black tunnel, injured, her body trying to shut down while she tried to keep it going. She had kept going, worried Vic was down there with her, also hurt, needing Erin’s help. She remembered the relief at finally seeing Terry’s and Willie’s headlamps, knowing that she was found and that she wasn’t going to die down there in the dark, her body left entombed there for an eternity.
“Oh yeah,” she agreed. “I remember.”
“We knew you were down there, but the tunnels can go on for miles, and they twist all over the place. I didn’t know if they’d be able to find you in time, or if you were already dead.”
“It wasn’t so great for me either.”
Vic giggled. “I guess not.”
“There aren’t any caves close by here, are there? You don’t think Roger’s gone anywhere like that?”
“No. There aren’t any mines within walking distance, not that I know of. And no one has reported their vehicle missing. He has to be in town, or not far from it.”
If he’d walked out of town, he could have hitchhiked. He could disappear into some other part of the country. Start a new life where he didn’t have a reputation. He could have a new family. Or he could decide it was better to live alone and not drag anyone else down with him. What if he hadn’t just wandered off, agitated or confused, but had planned it out? What if he had decided that the kindest thing he could do for Mary Lou and the boys was to get out of their lives? He’d tried once before. Maybe this was his second attempt to remove himself from their lives. Instead of killing himself, just walking away from them forever.
Erin kept her thoughts to herself. No one wanted to hear her speculation.
Chapter 20
It was almost the end of the day. People were talking about what they were going to do when night fell. Would the search be called off until morning, and then they would regroup? Would some of them search through the night, using flashlights or night vision goggles, calling Roger’s name and hoping for a response?
Then Erin detected a change in the body language of the volunteers near the check-in table. She nudged Vic.
“Is something happening?”
Vic followed Erin’s gaze to the group of townspeople. Her eyes were quick. “Yeah… it looks like something is going on.”
“They’re not calling it off, are they? It’s not dark yet, we still have time.”
“No. I don’t think it’s being called off.” Vic clasped her hands together and closed her eyes. “Come on,” she urged. “Come on…”
Erin didn’t know if it was a prayer or a wish, but she echoed the sentiment in her own mind. Mary Lou deserved a break. After working so hard to take care of her husband and keep her family together, she deserved to get good news, not a death notification or a missing persons case that remained open indefinitely.
Terry’s truck sped up the road to the church. He had a police light stuck to the top, a rotating red cherry. He skidded into the parking lot, spraying gravel. He drove past the cluster of volunteers, up to the refreshment tables that Vic and Erin still manned, exhausted after a day on their feet on the unforgiving asphalt. Terry jumped out his door, and then went around to the passenger door, and helped out a man who was wrapped in a gray woolen blanket.
A cheer went up from the volunteers.
“It’s Roger?” Erin asked. “They found him?”
But Vic didn’t know Roger by sight any more than Erin did. He was always at home, out of sight, and had never been by the bakery or any social events in Erin’s time in Bald Eagle Falls.
Erin’s mind was buzzing with questions, not the least of which was why Terry had brought Roger to the church instead of home to his family.
Terry led Roger over to the table, Roger resisting and trying to pull back from Terry’s grip the whole way. Terry positioned Roger in front of a platter of drying sandwiches and grabbed a water bottle from the chest of ice, mostly melted. He cracked the bottle open and handed it to Roger.
Another truck was speeding toward the church, and this one Erin recognized as Willie’s. It raced up to the church to stop beside Terry’s, and Willie jumped out. K9 was in the back of Terry’s car and barked a greeting at Willie. From his tone, Erin figured he was probably annoyed at being relegated to the back when he was used to riding with Terry in the cab, and at not being released as soon as Terry stopped and got out.
Willie ignored K9 and went over to Roger and Terry. He took Roger’s wrist, fingers expertly placed to check Roger’s pulse. He spoke to him in a low voice and started a field test to determine Roger’s condition.
Roger seemed somewhat dazed by all of the unusual activity to start out with, but his confusion quickly grew into anger and irritation.
“What’s going on here?” he demanded. “Who are all of these people?”
The crowd was growing rapidly, word obviously spreading that Roger was safe and had been brought to the church. An ambulance rolled up, and the paramedics talked to Willie, but then climbed back into the ambulance and sat there waiting, not disturbing Roger.
A stream of cars was headed up the road toward the parking lot, their lights coming on as dusk drew closer. Erin saw Mary Lou’s car, and breathed a sigh of relief. She had been afraid everyone in town was going to see Roger before he had a chance to be reunited with his family. Mary Lou pulled up close to her husband and got slowly out of the car. The two boys were with her and followed. Erin couldn’t understand why Mary Lou and Roger weren’t running into each other’s arms.
Terry tried to turn Roger to focus him on Mary Lou and her cautious approach, but Roger didn’t seem to even see her.
“What is everyone doing here?” he demanded. “Why can’t I go home?”
“You can go home,” Mary Lou promised, getting closer to him. “It’s fine, Roger, they just wanted to make sure you were okay before they brought you home. You can come with me now, I’ll take you home.”
“Why? I don’t understand what’s going on.”
Roger’s voice was aggrieved. Erin tried to analyze him. She’d dealt with Alzheimer and dementia patients, but there was something different about Roger. He didn’t act vague and uncertain. He acted ready for a fight. Was he sundowning? Some patients changed their behaviors dramatically in the evening and seemed like different people from who they were during the d
ay.
He was a tall man with wispy brown hair and a thin build. Taller than Mary Lou. His face was red, but she didn’t know whether that was his normal complexion, sunburn from being out in the sun all day, or his anger at not knowing what was going on. He looked around impatiently.
“Where was he?” Mary Lou asked Terry, ignoring her husband’s complaint.
Terry looked around. “Can we get some space here?” he asked the crowd. “Move back to the check-in table, please. We need a little more room.”
The excited volunteers were not happy to be told not to crowd so close, and getting them to move back and give the Coxes some space was not easy, but eventually, they cleared a perimeter.
“He was in a wooded area close to the river,” Terry told Mary Lou finally. “Like you said, just out on a nature walk to clear his head.”
“Was he lost?”
Terry shook his head. “Hard to say. I don’t think he was aware of how long he’d been away. Or that you would be worried about him.”
Mary Lou sighed and nodded. “We’ve tried to explain it to him, but that part of his brain just doesn’t seem to be working. He has no idea why we get so upset.”
“These sandwiches are dry,” Roger complained. “I have a casserole ready to put in the oven at home. Let’s just go home.”
“Come on,” Mary Lou agreed. She looked at Terry, as if expecting him to object. “It will be okay,” she assured him. “He’ll be tired tonight after being out for so long. He’ll sleep soundly.”
“He seems to be fine physically,” Terry said, with a nod toward Willie. “But at this point I think it is fair to be considering whether he should be left without supervision.”
“He won’t be,” Mary Lou promised. “Someone will be with him. I don’t know what’s been going on lately, he’s been a lot more agitated than usual. I promise we’ll keep a close eye on him.”
Terry nodded. Erin wasn’t sure whether there was anything he could do about it even if he wanted to. What would he do? Call social services and report them? That would cause all sorts of problems that he probably didn’t want to be responsible for. “Let us know if you need anything,” Terry told Mary Lou. “Look around you. There are a lot of people who care about you and are willing to help you out. You don’t need to push everyone away.”
“You’re right.” Mary Lou wiped at the corner of her eye. “I can’t believe how many people came out to help look for him. This really is a great community.”
“It is. And you and Roger and the boys have a lot of friends here. Don’t shut them out and insist on doing it by yourself.”
“Okay.” Her voice was hoarse. She nodded and sighed, giving her husband a sad sort of smile. “Come on, Roger. Let’s go home.”
Roger put down the half sandwich he’d taken a few bites of and walked alongside Mary Lou. She put her arm around his waist, and he reflexively put his arm around her shoulders. They looked like any ordinary couple, just out for an evening stroll, sharing a few minutes together. They went to Mary Lou’s car, and it took a minute for Mary Lou to redirect Roger to the passenger seat, as he apparently thought he should be able to drive. Erin didn’t know how disabled his accident had made him. She knew that he tended toward depression and that the brain damage he had sustained left him unable to go back to the work he had previously been doing, but she didn’t know what functions had been affected and which had not.
Roger got into the car and, once he was settled, Mary Lou went around to the driver’s side and got in. Erin watched her pull on her seatbelt. Then Mary Lou just sat there for a minute. Erin was too far away to see if she was crying, praying, or just breathing. Or maybe all three. The boys were in the back seat and reached up and patted their father on the shoulder and the back, welcoming him back. As far as Erin could tell, he didn’t reach back to them, but he might have been talking to them. Mary Lou turned her car around and headed for home. The volunteers waved and called out after them, and then the Coxes were gone.
“So that was Roger,” Erin said.
Terry looked at her. “You haven’t met him before?”
“No. How would I? He’s always at home, and I gather they don’t take visitors.”
“Well… they do still go out to church as a family. Mary Lou goes to the ladies’ tea afterward and the boys take Roger home. But you don’t go to church, so how would you know that?” His gaze drifted to Vic. “Either of you.”
Erin frowned at this comment. “From what I understand, you don’t go to church either, Officer Piper.”
He grinned. His face was tired, but the smile brought out his dimple and made Erin’s heart skip a beat. “It wasn’t meant as a criticism, Erin. Just an observation. You’re right, I don’t get there very often either. My work prevents it.”
Erin shook her head. “You told me before that work was just a convenient excuse. You wouldn’t be going regularly anyway, would you?”
“No. Not regularly,” he admitted. “I get there once in a blue moon. Which is how I know that Roger still goes with his family.”
“It’s good he gets out for something. I imagine it would be pretty stifling for him to be shut up in the house all day.”
“That isn’t why he wandered off.”
“I know… but it might still help to take him out places more often.” At Terry’s skeptical look, she defended herself, “I have had some experience as a caregiver, you know. You ran background on me, so I’m sure you know that. I’ve taken care of a lot of elderly people who needed a companion. Roger’s not elderly, but it seems like he has some of the same problems as some of my patients did.”
Terry shrugged. “You could be right. But I’d be careful about how you approach that topic with Mary Lou.”
“I doubt I’ll say anything about it. She hasn’t exactly been open to suggestion lately.”
“She’s probably been worried about him.”
Erin nodded. She started gathering up the leftover drying sandwiches. “I don’t imagine anyone is going to be interested in these now. If anyone is hungry, they’ll be heading over to a restaurant or home to cook something.”
“I’ll take one of those.” Terry helped himself to a couple of half-sandwiches. “I’m still on duty for a while yet.”
“You’ve been on since this morning. Can’t one of the others take over?”
“Everybody’s been working hard. I have a double shift today, but it will be fine. I’ll be off in a couple more hours.”
“Do you want me to bring you something else?” Erin said, looking down at the sandwiches doubtfully. “These have been sitting out for a while, they’re not really that nice.”
“They’ll do fine for now.”
Chapter 21
Erin didn’t take a direct route home, but the scenic route around her woods. Across the bridge, close to the cottage that Joelle had rented, and as close as the road got to the old summer house that was Adele’s home. Erin looked through the trees but didn’t see any lights. Of course, that didn’t mean anything. The house was set back a good way from the road, with a screen of trees in between, and Adele could have it lit with a low lantern or a few candles, and no one would be able to tell until they were right up to it.
“She didn’t come out for the search,” Vic observed, noting the direction of Erin’s eyes. “Do you think anyone even told her what was going on?”
“I doubt it. She chooses to be more isolated back here, so she doesn’t really have any neighbors. Someone could have phoned her and told her. Or Terry or Willie might have stopped in during the search. I don’t know if she would come out and help with something like this.”
Vic agreed. Adele wasn’t exactly antisocial, but she was different from her neighbors and chose to spend most of her time alone. She didn’t follow the same rules as the rest of Bald Eagle Falls. Erin thought about Mary Lou. At least she would be able to sleep soundly for once.
“Maybe Adele could give you something to help you sleep,” Erin suggested to Vic, reme
mbering how she had confessed to not being able to sleep since shooting Alton Summers.
Vic looked at her. “I already have something to help me sleep. And no matter what you say, I’m not going to go to a witch for a sleeping potion.” She shook her head. “I have visions of Snow White or Sleeping Beauty.”
Erin laughed at the image. Adele was certainly no wicked old witch. Erin would trust her. Or Erin always had trusted her. With all of the talk about poisoning and poultices, Erin wasn’t sure who she trusted anymore. Adele had never given her any reason to be suspicious. She’d never given Erin anything that had harmed her or given her adverse symptoms.
But she thought of Joelle’s pale, pinched face and Mary Lou’s tired, swollen eyes. There was someone in the community who either didn’t know enough about herbs and poisons, or who knew too much.
Erin was just feeding Orange Blossom a few treats before bed when she heard a truck coming down the lane. Looking out the kitchen window, she saw a familiar truck pulling in behind the garage. It was a truck that she had seen earlier that day.
She didn’t mean to be snoopy, but she was standing there watching as Willie let himself into the yard and headed up the stairs to Vic’s apartment. Willie looked at the house, and Erin realized that he could probably see her standing there with the light of the living room shining behind her. He raised his hand to wave.
Embarrassed, Erin waved back, and turned quickly away from the window to head back into the living room. She wasn’t going to stand there to watch what happened between Willie and Vic. Would Vic refuse any approach from him? Or would Willie apologize for the secrets he had kept from her and persuade her to take him back? Erin wouldn’t know, because Erin was going to bed, and Vic could tell her—or choose not to tell her—in the morning.
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