CHAPTER 19

Back at headquarters, Connor is holding down the fort and says it has been quiet. “You look like you’ve got a fire under your tail.”

“An idea.”

I sit down at my desk and dial Luke Schoppe’s number. He’s an old friend who has been a Texas Ranger from the time when it used to be a separate organization. Ever since it was put under the umbrella of the Texas Department of Public Safety, he keeps threatening to retire, but he never gets around to it.

He isn’t in the Bryan office, but I reach him on his cell phone. “Schoppe, I could use your help.”

“Tell me what’s up.”

I fill him in on Loretta and Elaine Farquart going missing. “Both women were set up to meet men they contacted through a dating website.”

At that Schoppe grunts. “That’s so risky.”

“Risky is right. The Farquart woman was found dead this morning. She was run down by a car.”

“I heard that, but I didn’t know somebody from your neck of the woods was also missing.”

I bristle at the idea that he hasn’t heard that Loretta is missing. He works out of Bryan. He should have known. “I don’t understand how you can’t have heard about it.”

“I’m not in the office. I’m up in Austin and have been for the past week. Someone called me with the news about the Farquart woman just before I left to head home. They called because it happened on the highway out from Bryan.”

“I don’t understand why there hasn’t been more action from the Department of Public Safety. They aren’t paying enough attention to this!”

“Samuel, that isn’t like you. Now you have to calm down. It won’t do your friend any good if you have a stroke.”

“Listen, Schoppe, you know as well as I do that time is of the essence here.” As soon as I say it, I’m stabbed by the memory that at first I didn’t take Loretta’s disappearance seriously myself.

“Do you know for sure the same person took both women?”

“No, but the MO is the same, and it seems damn likely to be the same person.”

“Samuel, I’m telling you, you’re too agitated.”

“Of course I’m agitated. This woman is a personal friend. I have to find her, and I’m no closer than I was when she went missing.”

“You’re too close to the victim. You aren’t thinking clearly. You caught me driving on my way back to Bryan, but I’m coming to you. Hold tight.”

“Wait. I had a specific reason for calling. Does the DPS use drones for surveillance?”

“Drones? Not that I know of. The FBI might. What are you thinking?”

“Nobody has spotted either woman’s car. And there hasn’t been any activity on their credit cards, so the likelihood is that Loretta is still around here. I’m thinking if her car is out in the open, a drone might be able to spot it. Or maybe a helicopter.”

In the background, I hear the hum of his car. “You know they aren’t going to send out a helicopter for that, and the drone is an unlikely scenario too. Like I said, I’m coming over there. We’ll talk it over when I get there. Should be forty-five minutes.”

When I hang up, Connor says, “I thought kidnapping was a federal offense. You’d think the FBI would get involved.”

“That’s only if a victim is taken across state lines. Or if it’s a child. I phoned them as soon as we knew Loretta was missing, but they have to have more evidence that someone was actually kidnapped, and the county sheriff in Bobtail has to ask for help before they’ll do anything.” But another thought strikes me. It would be appealing to turn over the search to a big federal organization, but would they have the same urgency that Maria and I do?

When Schoppe arrives, he swoops in like a hero on a white horse, striding in with purpose in his step. He doesn’t waste time on small talk. “Tell me everything you’ve done to find her.”

I take him through it from the beginning, starting from when she didn’t show up to meet Ellen last Wednesday, finding dishes left undone in her house, and noting the missing suitcase and toiletries. I tell him that none of her relatives has heard from her, but that was no real surprise. “It took a while before we took it seriously. And that’s when we found out she had met a few men through the Internet dating site.”

“Okay, you’ve threaded all the needles so far. No leads at all?”

“A couple that fizzled out.” I tell him about the professor and the man whose daughters plugged him into the website.

He laughs, but it’s mirthless. “I know it’s not funny, but I can imagine how aggravated that poor man must have been. What about another connection between the women? Any chance that Loretta and this Farquart woman knew each other?”

“I’m working with Brent Hogarth in Bobtail. We haven’t been able to come up with any real connection between them. And there might not be one,” I say. “Hell, for that matter, whoever killed the Farquart woman may not have contacted her through the dating site at all. But we’re working on that assumption for now.”

“Makes sense.”

“At the moment, Maria is off at the outlet mall showing photos of the two women, hoping somebody remembers seeing both of them—seeing them together would be even better. And there’s a posse of women putting up flyers in Bobtail asking if anyone has seen her. My deputy and I have been questioning men she had contact with on the website, but nothing has popped out. Beyond that, I don’t know what to do. The Department of Public Safety was supposed to be on the lookout for Loretta’s car, but I don’t know how much manpower they’ve put into it. I’ll be glad for any suggestion you might have.”

“And you were hoping that you could send a drone around to go from house to house instead of driving around.” Schoppe smiles kindly. “You understand how unlikely it is that her car is out in the open, right?”

“I do. I guess I’m clutching at straws.” I haven’t felt like a rookie in long time, but I’ve been acting like one. I’m beginning to realize that in my agitation, I’ve lost my usual steady way of doing things, and Schoppe is helping me get it back.

“I’ll tell you what we ought to do,” Schoppe says. “Let’s go back through that dating site and zero in on anybody who lives around here.”

“The addresses aren’t available to users,” Connor says. He has been following our conversation eagerly. “People have to volunteer information on where they live, and they don’t usually do that until they get a match.”

Schoppe’s face gets red. I’ve seen that in him, that he doesn’t like it when he gets snagged by a bureaucratic roadblock. “We’ll see about that,” he says.

He gets on the phone to an office in Austin, but when he gets off the phone, he shakes his head. “It’s a privacy issue. I should have known that.”

“I wonder where the dating site is headquartered?” I say. “Could we appeal to them to do a civic duty?”

“Ha! Good luck with that,” Connor says. “All those people are interested in is money. Civic interest doesn’t enter into it.”

“Okay,” Schoppe says. “If you need to, you can try to get a court order, but for now there’s no use getting hung up on something we don’t have control over. Let’s move on. Have you heard how the Bobtail Police Department’s investigation of the Farquart woman’s murder is going?”

“Haven’t had a chance to talk to them since Hogarth called me this morning. I’ll tell you one thing I can do,” I say. “I’m going to question some of Elaine Farquart’s close friends. Maybe they’ll know if she ever met Loretta.” I’m sure Hogarth will talk to the friends, but I want to focus on Loretta.

“Look into whether they both went to the same professionals— eye doctors, dentists, podiatrists, that sort of thing.”

“Good thought. And I sent Maria to the outlet stores because I know Loretta liked to shop there, but we’ll talk to clothing stores in Bobtail too.”

“You have to look into women things too. Did Loretta go in for manicures? Maybe they went to the same place. And how about her hairdresser? According to my wife, a woman’s hairdresser knows everything there is to know about a client.”

“That’s an interesting thought.” I remember a few months ago, when Loretta started wearing her hair different, she told me she went to Houston to have it done and was going to look around here for a hairdresser who could do it the same way. She said she knew she couldn’t find anybody here in Jarrett Creek, but that’s the last I heard of it. Maria will know whether she found somebody. If her new hairdresser is in Bobtail, then maybe both she and Elaine went to the same one.

“Even if they didn’t go to the same salon, it’s possible one of them told her hairdresser something that could be a lead.”

“I’ll get right on it. I knew talking to you was a good idea.” All at once, I realize that Schoppe looks tired. He said he’d been in Austin all week, probably been working hard on another case. “Listen, I’ve called you away from getting back home. I appreciate your putting in your two cents. It helped me focus.”

“I hope it helps.” He pulls himself to his feet, and I notice the effort. “You didn’t say what you were up to in Austin.”

He settles his hat on his head. “No, I didn’t. But I’m tired and ready to get home. Glad I could help, although I’m not sure what good it did. Don’t hesitate to call me if you want to discuss it more.”

When he walks out the door, I’m left with an uneasy feeling that I missed something. But my problem with Loretta shoves it away.

I call Maria and get her on her cell phone. “Do you know if Loretta ever had manicures or pedicures?”

“She didn’t. She said it was a waste to get manicures because she works in the garden every day, and she didn’t like people fooling with her feet. Besides, she said nobody ever sees her feet because she doesn’t wear sandals. Why do you ask?”

I tell her what Schoppe said. “You know where she gets her hair done?”

“I don’t. But I’ll bet she has a telephone number in her house.”