THURSDAY JANUARY 3, 2008
A MEETING HAD BEEN POSTED for seven p.m. at the Brand Community Center to inform county residents of Walker’s disappearance and ask for help locating him. Under the stark glare of overhead lighting, the dingy cedar paneling and beige linoleum floor looked the same, day or night.
Lee Ann joined twenty others seated in front of Lyle, Jeremy, and Lewis, who addressed the group from either side of a county map propped on an easel. Owen sat front center, and Art, who’d been missing his best customer, had taken a chair directly behind him. Dee pulled up a chair for Sherry from the Alibi Creek Store. Henry Gillman, who had a small plane and used any excuse to fly it, motioned to Danielle, who strutted in wearing tight jeans and a fake fur jacket, to sit next to him. Jo and Gerald Murray arrived together. Lee Ann stood in the back.
Lyle held up a calendar and pointed to November 21st, the last night anyone had seen Walker. The man he’d been with, Pat Merker, hadn’t been seen since, either. Foul play was not out of the question, since Walker had recently been issued a cashier’s check for approximately twenty thousand dollars, which had not been withdrawn from the Dax County State Bank.
Lee Ann gripped Caroline’s chair. The paneling melted into a brown haze, as if the whole room and everyone in it had been dipped in a mud puddle. The fool! Only an idiot would walk around with a check for that amount of money in his wallet. She should have taken him by the hand, like a little boy, and insist he deposit the money. Then again, it was his to squander, save, or lose.
“We’re not coming to any conclusions here,” Lyle said. “We’re asking for clues regarding Walker’s whereabouts and volunteers to search for him. The pair left the Hole in the Wall at closing time, driving a tan Pathfinder, an Avis rental. They weren’t fighting. No one noticed what direction they headed. If they went south, they didn’t make it to the border. If they went north, they didn’t come back to Brand. I’ve checked motels and gas stations east and west. So far, the vehicle hasn’t turned up, leading me to believe the car is still somewhere in the county.”
“I hate to be a pessimist,” Art said, “but you got a hell of a job covering seven thousand square miles of wilderness with deep canyons, rugged mountains, and unlimited places to hide a vehicle, and a body, or both.”
“I’ll fly over the region tomorrow, as many times as you want,” Henry said.
“Jeff and I will hike Saliz Pass and cover the ground from Brand to Los Olmos,” Terry said.
James Catlett, a member of Search and Rescue, said they were ready to help.
They talked as though Walker was dead. Lee Ann thought so too, although hadn’t known it until this moment, when it suddenly seemed as if she’d read Walker’s life story and his journey couldn’t end any other way. His antics danced before her eyes. Walker scrambling over the fence as a three-year-old, hiding in a tree watching the whole family wonder if he’d drowned, delighting in hearing his name screamed, snickering while they searched up and down the creek until way past dark; conning Edgar into driving to the store to buy him cigarettes and beer before he was twelve; using valuable pre-historic Indian pottery for target practice; selling grandmother’s precious wedding ring with the little diamond flanked by two sapphires and looking high and low for it, telling Mother it must have gotten lost. But the movie was a re-run and she lost interest. She remembered washing her hands in the Walmart bathroom after visiting Pat Merker, whose squinty eyes hinted at some dark aspect of his nature, perhaps more dangerous than what Walker could handle on the outside. Jimmy Zebrowski had said he’d shot a man in both legs. Walker might have not fully understood the depth of his dark side.
Caroline asked what, if anything, the commissioners’ office could do and Lyle suggested the clerk write a letter asking county residents to stay alert for signs of the men and report anything unusual to the sheriff’s department. He thanked everyone for attending, apologized for the lack of any new information, and closed the meeting.
Lee Ann joined Caroline on the way out.
“I’m so sorry about this,” Caroline said. “We miss you at the office. What a mess this audit has been—Gerald Murray has the entire courthouse turned upside down. The commissioners haven’t been around since he showed up. A hundred times a day I wish you were there.”
“I’ll be back.”
Outside, snow sugared the ground. Everyone had left except for the sheriff and deputies, who were locking the building. As Scott walked Lee Ann across the parking lot, a small pickup turned on its headlights and swerved in close. Danielle lowered her window.
“He signed the divorce papers,” she said. “But I’m not filing.” She lowered her voice. “If he never comes back, that property is mine.”
Lee Ann said, “That land is no longer of any interest to me. Good luck.”