C. Box - The Highway

“I got suspended again,” he said. “Well, fired actually.”

He would have preferred it if Jenny cursed or threw something at him. Instead, she closed her eyes and slowly shook her head. Her disappointment cut deeper than cursing or anger.

“I’m sorry,” he said, looking down.

“Justin,” Cassie said from behind him, “About that ride…”

Cody didn’t want Justin or Cassie to go. He didn’t want to be alone with Jenny.

“What did you do?” Jenny asked coldly. “I mean, before you went out and got shitfaced?”

He didn’t respond.

She said, “When you didn’t come home for dinner all kinds of things ran through my mind. You were on a case, or you where lying somewhere bleeding to death-all the things all cop’s wives think. But then when Justin told me what was going on and said he needed your help, I thought of all those times I couldn’t find you. But I talked myself out of it. I actually began to trust you again. Now you show me I was wrong.”

He closed his eyes. He had nothing to say.

Finally, after a moment, Justin said, “Mom? Can we please do this later?”

Cody thought that if Justin were close enough he’d kiss him. Jenny was protective of Justin-Cody thought unnecessarily so-and on the very rare instances where their son was upset Jenny got the long knives out to protect her child. Even from Cody. And from her own justified anger.

Justin said, “Those two girls are out there somewhere.”

Cody sheepishly looked up at his ex-wife. Jenny seemed to be conflicted what her course of action should be.

Cassie surprised him by saying, “Mrs. Hoyt, for what it’s worth, the second Justin showed up Cody stopped drinking. I know because I was there.”

“How sweet of you,” Jenny said acidly.

“It’s my fault all of this happened,” Cassie said. “I really feel responsible.”

Jenny said, “It must have been hard pouring drinks down his throat.”

“Mom, please ,” Justin said.

Cody took a deep breath and said to Jenny, “Let me see if I can figure out where these girls are. You could help me out by making some coffee.”

Jenny finally nodded, and turned on her heel for the kitchen. Then she stopped short, and said to Cody, “Justin said it’s been hours since those Sullivan girls texted or called. You know how it is with these kids, Cody. They’re never not texting each other. I’m afraid something has happened to them.”

I’m afraid something has happened to them. The words hung there. They weren’t unfamiliar to Cody. He’d heard them countless times from the other side of his desk at the sheriff’s department from husbands and wives, boyfriends and girlfriends. People always assumed the worst when a loved one was missing. Sometimes, they were right.

Cody nodded and mounted the stairs to the living room. He was drunk but the immediacy of the situation seemed to have sobered him some. His head hurt-one of the signs that either the hangover would start to kick in or he’d need another drink to stave it off. There was no alcohol in the house. Jenny made sure of it. And he knew he’d cleaned out all of his hiding places two years before.

He grabbed a hardwood chair from the table in the kitchen, carried it over to where Justin was on the couch, and swung it around and sat down so he could face his son. He motioned for Cassie to come and sit next to Justin.

“Before we panic,” Cody said, “let’s review the situation and get all the facts in order so we can do the right thing and not waste anyone’s time. Justin, when was the last text from Danielle?”

“A few hours ago.”

“When exactly?”

Justin looked up blankly.

“Look at your phone,” Cody said, trying to remain patient. “Check the log.”

His son started scrolling. Finally, he said, “The last text from her was at eight twenty-seven. She said they were in Yellowstone Park.”

“Where exactly? It’s a big place.”

“She didn’t say.”

Cody squinted and sat back. “Why in the hell were they in Yellowstone?”

“There was a roadblock or something on I-90,” Justin said. “I looked at the map and figured out how they could go around it and get back on the interstate past the roadblock.”

“Yellowstone?” Cody asked again. “You had them go back there?”

“Dad,” Justin said, “I didn’t make them do anything. They wanted to get here as fast as they could and it looked like the best alternative route. That’s all.”

“I wonder if it creeped them out,” Cody speculated. “Maybe they got into the park and everything they went through before came rushing back so they freaked out and turned around and went home.”

“No,” Justin said, shaking his head. “They were fine with it. They’re not like that. You should know them better than that.”

“Well, I don’t,” Cody said. “I met them that one time and we didn’t exactly have a get-to-know-you chat. Gracie was all right, but her sister-”

“Her sister what ?” Justin asked, his voice cracking.

“She just seemed kind of, well, unserious.” Cody said.

“She’s my girlfriend, Dad,” Justin said. “But I wanted to break up with her. She seemed to know that and wanted to come up here and talk me out of it, I’m sure. There is no way she’d just turn around and go home without telling me.”

“Let’s start over,” Cody said, shooting his sleeve and looking at his wristwatch. “Okay, so you last heard from her at 8:27. It’s 10:15 right now. That means she’s been in radio-free Montana for one hour, forty-five minutes or so. Son, I know that seems like forever to you but it’s really not very long. You know the cell service in the park is awful and it cuts in and out all the way up to Gardiner, if that’s the way she was coming.”

“That’s the route we talked about,” Justin said. “But she should have been well past that by now. She should be back on the interstate less than an hour from here. I did the math.”

Cody paused for a moment to do it himself. “Okay, you’re right if she didn’t get held up somehow,” he said. “And that’s a big if.

“Think about it,” Cody said, “They could have made a wrong turn.”

“Maybe,” Justin said. “But they said they had a GPS.”

“Okay, but who knows-maybe there was road construction in the park. There is always road construction going on in there and they never seem to get it done. Maybe-”

“I checked the Yellowstone Web site,” Justin said, shaking his head. “They have all the road alerts posted. There’s some construction way south of Mammoth down by Old Faithful, but that’s only in the summer.”

“Maybe they ran out of gas.”

“Then by now they should have found some and been back on the road,” Justin said, his jaw set.

“There are so many possible reasons why they haven’t called,” Cody said. “Their phones may have run out of juice and they forgot to bring a charger-like you do all the time. A cell tower could have gone down, or there might be a service interruption. Maybe they hit an animal. Or, God forbid, got in an accident. That’s certainly possible.”

Justin shook his head. “But it doesn’t make sense, Dad. I called both their numbers and they refused the calls. They didn’t go to voice mail. It was like they saw my name and refused the call.”

“That is strange,” Cassie said. Cody had practically forgotten about her.

He said, “But who knows? It could have been a problem with the cell service. They’re probably just broken down or something.”

Justin closed his eyes. “In that case, someone should know about it. Wouldn’t a wreck have been reported by now?”