Separate from the World by P. L. Gaus

Author:P. L. Gaus
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Penguin Group USA, Inc.
Published: 2011-01-27T23:00:00+00:00

17

Saturday, May 12 12:55 P.M.

ROBERTSON BARKED, “You men all wait here,” and pulled Branden down off the porch.

He took the professor down Nisley Road about thirty yards, out of earshot. With his back to the porch, he gesticulated wildly, asking, “Are they watching?”

Branden understood the theater of irascibility that Robertson intended and said, “You’ve got your audience, Sheriff.”

“I swear, Mike, I’m too old for this.”

“You need to let Cal and me handle the Amish.”

“I know. I don’t need this kind of aggravation. Just tell them that you talked me out of something threatening.”

Branden said, “I’d like to know what Dan and Ricky have got for us before I go back up there.”

Robertson took his cell phone out. As he dialed, he watched the porch and saw an animated discussion under way. Good, he thought. Let them sweat a little.

The first call went to Dan Wilsher. Robertson could see his chief deputy some fifty yards down the road when he answered the sheriff’s call, so the two men faced each other over the distance and talked. Branden heard Robertson’s end of the conversation.

“What have we got, Dan? How many? No, start with the Banks’s house and garage. OK, so tie her up if you have to. Right. Right. Then go through these two Erb farms, Dan. The works. Everywhere, Dan. Everywhere big enough for the body of a four-year-old boy. No. No. Yes, get Wayne County down here if you need the help. OK. But Dan—hurry.”

He switched off and said, “Dan’s search has turned up nothing, Mike, but they’re just getting started on houses and buildings. The dogs are two miles away, working on scent.”

“Willa Banks won’t be a problem,” Branden predicted.

Robertson said, “Don’t know; don’t care. She gets in the way, I’ll arrest her.”

Next Robertson called Ricky Niell. After a few brief questions, all he had for Branden was a shake of his head, and “Ricky’s got nothing.”

“We got out here too late,” Branden said.

Robertson nodded. “I’m gonna call down to the jail.”

Back on his phone, the sheriff said, “Robertson here. OK, Ellie. Right, then you know. I want an Amber Alert for Albert Erb, four years old. What? OK, I’ll come in. I’ll be right there, Ellie. Twenty minutes. Thirty, tops.”

Branden asked, “So, you’re going to let us handle Hershberger?” “I’ve got no choice, Mike. Ellie needs help, and I’m supposed to sign off on one of these Amber Alerts, anyway. Ricky’s watching the roads, and Dan’s running the search teams. I’d just be in the way out here.”

“As soon as I have something,” the professor said, “I’ll call you.”

Robertson took a grim look back at the Amish men on the porch and said, “We’re too late, Mike. They should have called us right away.”

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