NEWS OF ANOTHER GIRL GONE MISSING SPREAD THROUGH town like a barn fire. Two days later half the state of Washington was out there with the state patrol and the FBI asking questions to anyone they could. The murder of Dani was also in question. The newspaper had a front-page shot of both Dani and Eunice with a predictable headline. Missing posters brandishing Eunice’s young face were everywhere.
Fielding had to stop watching the news. Instead, he busied himself with the animals. Taking Snake for walks both morning and night. He’d brush Buckshot like he was a dog shedding its winter coat. He put a little radio in the barn and he’d play them Vivaldi and Chopin and a lot of the time he’d bring a metal folding chair in and just sit with them, drinking some whiskey or coffee or both and listening to the music.
A week went by and one afternoon the phone started ringing. Fielding let it go. Then it started up again. Finally he picked it up.
Yes?
Thought you’d hit the road, Batey said.
No sir.
What are you doing?
Mucking stalls.
You going to be there in ten minutes?
I’m goin a be here all day. And all day tomorrow. And probably the day after that.
On my way.
A little before three in the afternoon Batey’s Bronco pulled into the drive and seeing the bay doors of the barn open and the lights on Batey parked it there. Fielding was pitching forkfuls of hay into the stalls. He turned and saw Batey get out and then he saw Rawlings get out of the passenger side. Fielding stood the pitchfork on its tines and gripped the handle and rested his chin on his hands.
Fielding said their names and Batey and Rawlings nodded and both took off their hats and slung the rainwater into the dirt before entering the barn.
To what do I owe this visit? Fielding said.
Need to talk, Batey said.
You and everyone else, Fielding said.
He went back to his pitching and Batey said, You might want to hear this.
I don’t want to hear anything, Fielding said. In fact, that’s why I moved so far from everythin. It’s because I want to be left alone and left out of anything anyone might find interestin.
You got any coffee on, Batey said.
Up in the house.
Want to talk up there?
No, Fielding said. No I do not.
I think you might find what Marty has to say very interesting.
What did I just get done sayin about being left out of anything interestin?
Neither Batey nor Rawlings spoke. It forced Fielding to stop and exhale. He put the fork aside.
Okay, Fielding said. What will I find so interestin?
Rawlings started talking about the girl gone missing. He said the night she was reported gone she had stopped with a friend to get some milkshakes at a diner.
Okay, Fielding said.
I went out there and asked around, Rawlings said. I checked in with the waitress who was on shift. I checked with the manager. They all said they saw her. Said she came in and ate and left.
Seems like somethin yeh’d do at a diner.
So I go around to all the businesses in the strip mall. Asking if they’d seen anything odd. Last place I go to someone says they seem to remember a car parked in the lot with its engine running. Said no one got out. No one got in. Just parked there. I asked them what kind of car. They said something older. I said, how old? They said maybe ten, fifteen years old. Big, they said.
So what? Fielding said.
Well, I saw a big old car like that recently. Parked out in the middle of nowhere. Out at some abandoned house. A Fairlane. For whatever reason that car stuck in my mind.
A Ford?
Ford Fairlane.
Okay.
I’m racking my brain as to why I got that car in particular stuck in my head.
And what did yeh shake loose?
It hit me that I saw a Fairlane the night Dani died. That girl from the shelter. The one with her throat cut.
Lots of Fairlanes in the world, Fielding said.
Not this kind. Both were burgundy in color. Same year. I looked it up. A ’78. When was the last time you came across a car like that?
Hmm, Fielding said. Yeh tell the chief about all this? Seems like somethin he’d like to know.
Rawlings looked at Batey.
What? Fielding said.
So that’s another thing.
Rawlings told Fielding how Dani and this younger woman had come in telling him and Price about someone trying to track her down. How she was on the run from this guy. How when the women left the station Price had told him to sweep all of it under the rug. How he didn’t want to waste resources and whatnot.
So the girl with Dani was Eunice? Fielding asked.
No, Rawlings said. The girl with Dani was a runaway. No one has seen her since Dani was killed.
Yeh think the runaway’s a suspect?
No.
Fielding nodded.
We also got a call that a dancer over at the French Maid hasn’t showed up to work in a week, Rawlings said.
Maybe she skipped town? Fielding said.
Maybe.
So yeh think Price knows somethin he’s not tellin?
I don’t know, Rawlings said.
Yeh think this Fairlane guy might know where Eunice is?
Don’t know yet.
Fielding shook his head.
And what’s Wilson said? Seems like somethin he’d have fun with.
Thought we’d start with you, Batey said.
Fielding nodded again.
Well, good luck, he said. He went back to pitching hay.
We got an address, Batey said. This old abandoned house the Fairlane was parked at. Thought we might go have a look-see.
Good for you, Fielding said.
Come out there with us, Batey said.
Pass.
You don’t want to know? Batey asked. Aren’t you curious?
No, Fielding said. Matter of fact, I’m less and less curious the more I know.
What if it were one of your daughters, Batey said.
I don’t have daughters, Fielding said. I don’t even have a wife.
Okay, Batey said. Well, what if it were one of my daughters? One of Cora’s daughters? What if it was Lola or Emmy Lou out there missing? Then what? Would you keep pitching that hay if you knew it was one of them?
Fielding stopped and turned back to look at Batey.
You’re already up to your knees, Batey said.
And I can still turn around, Fielding said.
Or you can dive in and start swimming.
Fielding looked at the two men. They were earnest and eager and Fielding knew they hated what was happening in their town. Anyone could see that. Fielding put the pitchfork aside again. He wiped his hands on his jeans.
I see how yeh got such a beautiful woman like Coraline to marry you, Fielding said.
How’s that? Batey asked.
Relentless goddamn perseverance.