Tools Of The Trade by Bruce Rolfe

Author:Bruce Rolfe
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-06-13T00:00:00+00:00

15

Unsubstantiated Theories

I didn’t sleep much that night worrying about Marti and the girls, and thinking about organizing the Next of Kin meeting. Even so, I’m sure it was more sleep than Lew got in that uncomfortable hospital chair. At 7:30 a.m. sharp the phone jangled on the night stand beside my bed and I half juggled the handset getting the receiver to my ear.

“That you, Chip?”

“Who wants to know?”

“It’s me, Max. Jake wanted me to tell you to hire a day laborer at ten bucks an hour to help you with the sheet rock and sub-floor and finish the job without Lew.”

I couldn’t imagine what had happened since I left him and Marti the night before, but it didn’t sound good. “Is Marti okay?”

“Far as I know. Lew just wants to take some extra time off to be with her and Jake wants to get the job finished. Soon as he can break Gil Young free he’ll send him over to give you a hand.” Gil left the priesthood and church not too long ago to marry one of his parishioners. After coming to work for us, Jake discovered that not only does Gil like working on plumbing, but he is a jack of all trades, having learned over the years to make many of the repairs his church needed himself.

“How’d this job get to be such a priority?”

“Don’t ask me, I just work here.”

“Right,” I said, rolling out of bed and hanging up the phone. “I’ll get on it.”

Sun was pouring in through my open windows and the Truckee River gurgled in the background. The small rapids about fifty yards downstream from my bedroom were much quieter during the summer months. I took a quick shower and wolfed down my usual oatmeal and yogurt concoction. At 8:15 I figured Natalie Goforth should be in the office and called to reserve our clubhouse for the Saturday after next. She wasn’t, but her assistant, Jennifer Starr, checked the logbook, said no one had scheduled it, and penciled me in for 7:00 p.m. on the thirtieth. I told Jennifer I’d drop the twenty-five dollar reservation and cleaning fee off on my way to work.

The list Winston had given me was in reverse chronological order and I decided to begin with Amy Clark’s folks since I had already met them and they might be more receptive to the idea. I remember how in the early days of Julie’s disappearance Shari and I would have gone anywhere and done anything to find our little girl, even crawling through abandoned mines. I was hoping the Clarks were still in that mode and not too surprised that Mrs. Clark answered on the first ring.

“I’m sorry, but we won’t be able to attend your meeting, Mr. Hale,” she said, after I’d introduced myself and explained the purpose of the call.

“Do you mind if I ask why not?”

She hesitated. “Detective Zorn told us that your daughter’s murder and Amy’s disappearance weren’t related and that we might adversely affect his ability to find our daughter by sidetracking his efforts with your unsubstantiated theories.

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