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“What brings you to Warren County?”
Sheriff Brad Danzig’s cadence reminded Angel of far western North Carolina where she and Bones had grown up. She knew better than to make the mistake of assuming a slow drawl meant a slow brain. Danzig motioned to her to sit in one of two plush chairs across from the desk in his office. His mustache twitched when he asked the question, and Angel could see curiosity etched in his brown eyes.
“It’s about the disappearances.”
All levity vanished from Danzig’s expression. Angel had decided to just show up rather than call in advance. She’d slept through the red-eye flight and then arrived in Front Royal, Virginia mid-morning. Her only concern was that the sheriff might be out of town, but he had ushered her into his office within minutes after she gave her name to the civilian staffing the front desk.
“What all do you know about them disappearances?”
Danzig hadn’t taken a seat. Despite a stature no bigger than Angel’s own 5’9”, his body now carried a tension which presaged possible violence. Angel took a deep breath.
“I only know that my brother and his best friend have been gone since yesterday morning, and they were last seen in Shenandoah River State Park. Their names are Uriah Bonebrake and Dane Maddock.”
Danzig relaxed, taking several seconds to sit and position himself behind his desk. He leaned back and crossed his hands behind his head.
“Those boys is probably just hiking and having a good old time.”
“Maybe. Except I found out that the reason they came here in the first place was that someone convinced them that I had been kidnapped and that they needed to show up if they wanted to see me alive again.”
Danzig scoffed. “And how would you know this?”
Angel bit back the urge to say something counter-productive. “My brother and his friend run a marine salvage company. They’re former Navy SEALs who also occasionally work with the U.S. Government. Don’t ask me exactly what. They’re not allowed to tell me about it. I called a guy they sometimes work with... He was tracking their phone and that’s how I know where they were last.”
She related everything that Letson had told her, but not the computer geek’s identity. Danzig’s eyebrows crept up a fraction. “This fellow have a name?”
“He does but it’s not one I can share with you.”
Danzig turned his hands palms-up. “Then I reckon I’m plumb out of time. Once they been gone for forty-eight hours, file a missing persons’ report.”
“That waiting period isn’t mandatory.”
“It’s how we do things here.”
Danzig stood up and extended his hand. Angel didn’t move. She met his gaze and stared until he glanced away. Danzig scowled.
“You win the staring contest, Miss Bonebrake. But it’s time for you to skedaddle.”
“I was told that there have been nearly a dozen disappearances in the past ten years. The FBI doesn’t think they are connected. Other law enforcement doesn’t think they’re connected. But you do. You think they’re idiots for ignoring the similarities. I agree with you. If you turn down the opportunity to get more information on another similar disappearance, within twenty-four hours of it occurring, what does that make you?”
Angel’s heart raced like it did in the seconds before the bell rang in a fight. She couldn’t read Danzig’s expression, and she prepared herself for a more forceful removal from the office. Instead, Danzig’s face lost its intensity and he slowly lowered himself back into the chair. Angel knew he was thirty-nine years old, but for just a moment he looked eligible for Medicare.
“If I were of a mind to help you, what all do you want?”
Angel slowed her breathing. “I just want to find my brother and my boyfriend.”
“They ain’t one person are they.”
“Of course not.” Angel sighed. “One is my fiancée, actually. It’s been almost two days since we were supposed to head to the Smokies for some hiking. We were both looking forward to it.”
Danzig’s tone contained less of a challenge now. “Not meaning any disrespect, but maybe the fellow got some cold feet.”
“No way! But even if he did, no way would he just vanish without letting me know.” She allowed herself a small smile. “Even if I didn’t kill him, my brother would.”
“How about that government work you said they did? Think something came up that they ain’t allowed to talk about?”
“It’s not that kind of work. They’re more like free agents, taking jobs when work comes up and they want to do it.”
Danzig rubbed three days’ worth of stubble on his chin. "I assume that fellow who tracked the phones told you about our disappearances."
Angel nodded.
"He probably also told you that no one but me puts any stock in it being anything other than coincidence."
"That’s why I came to see you."
"Thing is, them disappearances is an active investigation. Wouldn’t be right of me to share anything with you even if I was inclined."
"But—"
"Before you get all riled up, let me finish. You have the location where those boys were last seen, am I right?"
"Well, at least the last place their phones were active."
"Right, right. Well, ain’t nothing stopping the two of us from heading out there to check it out. This here’s a big tourist area, and I got to make shore nothing interferes with that. Can’t rightly be having former Navy SEALS go missing on my watch, if you take my meaning."
Angel released a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding. She closed her eyes for several seconds to get herself back under control. When she opened them, Danzig was watching her without expression.
"I really appreciate it, Sheriff Danzig. When will you be able to go?"
Danzig stood up and grabbed his hat, gray with a wide brim and gold braid that wouldn’t have looked out of place perched atop Robert E. Lee’s head. "Ain’t no time like the present, Miss Bonebrake."
"You can call me Angel."
He raised his eyebrows. "I don’t rightly know if I can do that. Folks might get the wrong idea."
She laughed. "I guess I can see that."
As he moved around the desk toward the door, Angel stood up and put a hand on his shoulder. "Thanks for taking me seriously. Am I wrong or is there something personal for you about these disappearances?"
Danzig’s eyes turned hollow at this, and Angel could almost feel the pain reflected in them. When he responded, she had never heard a whisper quite so forceful.
"Nothing was ever more personal."