The Names of Our Tears by P. L. Gaus

Author:P. L. Gaus [Gaus, P. L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781101612880
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2013-05-28T04:00:00+00:00

21

Tuesday, April 5

6:45 P.M.

CHIEF DEPUTY Dan Wilsher paced in front of Ellie’s counter at the front entrance of the jail. He had been giving her radio calls to make, placing checkpoints on the major roads leading out of Millersburg. They set cruisers first on Route 39, eastbound at Walnut Creek and westbound at Nashville, and on Route 62, northeastbound at Wilmot and southwestbound at Killbuck. While Ellie dispatched units on her radio, Wilsher pulled off his gray suit coat, threw it across the countertop, and called the Wayne County sheriff to the north, to ask for cooperation on Route 83 northbound, at Moreland, and on US 250 between Wooster and Mount Eaton.

Wilsher finished his call, switched off, pulled his tie loose at the neck, and asked Ellie, “What else? We’ve got every unit out looking, but what are we forgetting?”

Ellie kept her seat at her consoles and thought. “What about 83 south?”

“Millersburg PD is covering us there,” Wilsher said.

Subdued, Ellie said, “We don’t know that they actually came for her, Dan. It would have been foolish for them to have tried.”

Wilsher had no reply, so Ellie added, “Ricky says her buggy is still parked on the other side of the courthouse.”

As Ellie answered a dispatching call, a deputy in uniform pushed in through a wall of rain at the front door, lumbered out of his slicker, and shook it out over a floor tray under wall pegs to the left of the door. He took off his foul weather hat, drained water from the brim, and said to Wilsher, “She’s not out on the streets, Chief. We’ve been up and down every street and alley for ten blocks all around, and she’s just not out there.”

Wilsher nodded. “I’d be surprised if she just walked out of here on her own.”

“If she did,” the deputy said, “she can’t have gotten very far in this weather. So unless she’s already inside somewhere, we should have found her.”

“Did you check at the hotel?” Wilsher asked.

“First thing.”

“OK, Dave,” Wilsher said, “you dry out a little and then ride with Baker for a couple of hours. Check the lesser roads and gravel lanes between here and Charm. She lives with her brother out on TR 371. Also, try to figure out what we can do for her buggy horse.”

As the deputy headed for the squad room at the back, Wilsher eyed Ellie ruefully and said, “This is a train wreck.”

“You’ve boxed them in, Dan. Both this Buick woman and Fannie.”

“Woman’s long gone,” Wilsher argued.

“Well then, Fannie, anyway.”

“Fannie knows all the small roads. If she’s still alive, she’s run off on her own, or someone took her out of here. Either way, we’re not going to find her.”

* * *

Wilsher knocked on the sheriff’s door, entered, and nodded to Captain Newell, who was seated again in front of Robertson’s desk. To Robertson, Wilsher said, “Checkpoints are up and running, Bruce. I had to use Millersburg PD to put a unit on 83 south. And Wooster is helping to the north.

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