C Box - Below Zero

“I’ve got to be cool, you guys,” Sheridan said. “April’s always been pretty suspicious-she has a high-powered BS meter. So let me do this my way.”

r u still in aspen?

na. we left last night.

where now?

some bar. middle of nowhere.

yre in a bar? cool.

na. im waiting outside in the car. bored.

where at?

not sure. cant remember.

no idea at all?

savage I think. y so many????

Sheridan said, “See, I’ve got to be careful. She’s starting to wonder.”

Joe said, “Savage?” Then: “Not Savage Run? The canyon? That’s the only Savage I know.

“Dad, please.”

Marybeth shot him a look.

He mouthed, “Okay, okay.”

im worried about u.

im ok. but kinda scared now.

?????

bad day. stenkos sick and we’re going 2 some ranch.

r u scared of stenko?

na. robert. stenkos nice.

does robert hurt u?

na. but he hurt some man 2day in a drug store.

?????

2 awful 2 say. later.

Said Marybeth, “Oh no-is that it? Did she sign off?”

“No, I don’t think so,” Sheridan said. “I think she means she’ll tell me what happened later when she has more time. It’s too much to text, in other words.”

Joe said, “Ask her where the drugstore is. Ask her where the ranch is. Ask her if you can meet her there-”

“Dad, please.”

“Joe, please.”

“Sheesh,” Joe said.

can I call u?

NO.

ok.

they cld come outside any minute.

ok. sorry. i want to hear yr voice again.

ya. me 2.

wheres this ranch?

not sure. black hills i heard stenko say.

can I c u?

id like that. me & my other sister.

Sheridan looked up. Joe and Marybeth shrugged.

there’s 2 of you? or do u mean lucy?

id like 2 see luce 2. my other sister. chicago.

confused.

sorry. i got a sister in chicago i want to fly out 2 me.

how?

get her a plane ticket 2 me.

when?

as soon as stenko gives me the $. Lol. do u drive?

ive got a truck.

cool. u drive.

where? u name it.

not sure yet. ill let u know.

????

soon i hope.

“Okay,” Sheridan said. “Here goes…”

can i bring my dad?

NO.

what about mom?

NO.

????

just u. us sisters.

Marybeth reached over and squeezed Joe’s hand. He looked up. Her eyes were moist with tears.

Joe thought, Savage? What ranch? What sister?

how bout 2morrow.

NO. do u miss maxine?

yes.

sad.

we have a new dog named tube.

can u bring him?

maybe 2morrow.

ill let you know.

Joe said, “See if you can get her to tell you what kind of car they’re driving.”

what kind of car u in?

just a car. no big whoop. what kind of dog is tube? is luce awake?

“Man,” Joe said, “she’s tough to crack.”

Sheridan said, “Unless it’s a cool car, girls don’t know makes and models and things like that, Dad. I don’t know what kind of van Mom drives and we’ve had it for years.”

Joe shook his had.

lucys sleeping.

can u wake her up?

hold on. tube is a corgi/lab mix.

LOL!

Joe looked to Marybeth, puzzled.

“Laugh out loud,” Marybeth said.

“Oh.”

Suddenly:

here they come G2G bye.

“Is she gone now?” Marybeth asked.

Sheridan sat back. “Yes.”

“Can you try again?”

Sheridan’s tapped out several versions of “Are you there?” “Are you coming back?” “April?”

No reply.

“She probably turned her phone off again,” Sheridan said.

“Why won’t she let you call her?” Joe asked. “This text message back-and-forth takes forever. If you could just talk with her…”

Sheridan said, “What she’s doing makes sense to me in her situation. If Stenko or Robert come out of the bar and look at her in the car they’d see the phone if she was talking on it. You can always tell when someone’s talking on a phone. But if she’s texting the phone’s in her lap and out of sight.”

Joe saw the logic of that.

“That’s what kids do at school,” Sheridan said. “They text each other under their desks all day long.”

“Really,” Marybeth said.

Sheridan shrugged. “Not me, of course.”

“Of course.”

JOE WAS IN HIS OFFICE with a Wyoming highway map spread open. He could find no Savage, and there was no bar near Savage Run Canyon. Of course, he thought, she could still be somewhere in Colorado. Or Utah. Or New Mexico, Nebraska, Arizona, Kansas… someplace up to twenty hours away from Aspen. That could be 700 road miles if they’d driven nonstop. He wished he knew when they’d left Aspen exactly so he could draw a radius. How many square miles would that be? Thousands.

But she’d mentioned black hills. The Black Hills were in western South Dakota and eastern Wyoming. She might know the Black Hills because she claimed to have been there in Keystone. Was there a Savage, South Dakota? He searched his bookshelves for a U.S. atlas and was following the tip of his finger through the cities, towns, and locations of the state to find a Savage. No luck: he’d need to do an Internet search.

His phone burred in his pocket and it startled him. He glanced at his watch: past one A.M. He retrieved his phone and looked at the display. It was the number of the FBI office in Cheyenne. He thought, “Ah…”

“So you got the warrant,” Joe said, opening the phone. “That was quick.”

Coon said, “We had to interrupt Judge Johnson’s dinner to get it. That didn’t make him very happy, as you might guess.”

“You said it would be tomorrow.”

“I thought about it, Joe. I thought we couldn’t risk missing your daughter getting a new call tonight and we were right, weren’t we?”

“Yes.”

“So, do you want to know where it came from?”

“What do you think?”

“First, give me the gist of the exchange.”

Joe nodded. Coon had him.

Joe said, “The caller said they were sitting in a car outside a bar somewhere while Stenko and Robert were inside. We couldn’t get a description of the vehicle. The only place names we could get were ‘black hills’ and ‘Savage.’ I’ve been looking over the map and I can’t find any Savage. Oh-and it had been a very bad day. Robert allegedly hurt someone in a store.”

Joe left out the part about the sister on purpose because he saw no way of not revealing April’s identity if he went down that road.

“A store?” Coon asked. “What kind of store? And where was this?”

“We don’t know. A drugstore. The text said a drugstore.”

Coon paused. Joe knew the conversation was being taped. What he didn’t know was how much Coon and the FBI knew. There was no doubt they were withholding information as well.

“Joe,” Coon said, “the cell phone tower that got the ping is located between Pine Tree Junction and Gillette, Wyoming. On State Highway Fifty.”

Joe brushed the atlas aside and stared at the Wyoming map. Savageton was seventeen miles north of Pine Tree Junction and thirty-five miles south of Gillette. The middle of nowhere. Was it even a town at all? Or was it like so many place names on the Wyoming map-a location?

But every location in Wyoming had a bar.

Bingo.

He scanned the map. There were several south-to-north roads that could have been used from Aspen into Wyoming and on to Savageton in the northeast corner of the square state. There was WYO 789 through Baggs to I-80, WYO 130 or 230 through Saratoga to I-80, WYO 230 to Laramie. There were at least four other highways that could have been used to get to Savageton. If they were headed for the Black Hills, Stenko, Robert, and April would likely drive north through Gillette. From there, they would hop on I-90 East.