Helen R. - While Others Sleep

“Unbelievable,” Patsy drawled. “In the same breath you insist she’s of sound mind and then have the gall to admit—”

A sudden crash in the kitchen followed by a pained cry had both husband and wife racing into the interior of the house. Since they didn’t slam the door in her face, Campbell followed.

In the middle of the kitchen, amid shattered glass and splattered orange juice, Debra Saunders, Maida’s seventeen-year-old granddaughter, stood staring at the TV. On the screen was Wanda White of KLTV, the Longview-Tyler station, sharing the overnight tragedy regarding the teenage girl found mortally wounded behind a local restaurant.

“EMTs worked valiantly to save the teenager, but Stacie Holms was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at Good Shepherd Medical Center.”

“Stace.” The word was both an anguished whisper and a protest. Then with a wrenching sob, Debra Saunders covered her face with her hands. “Oh, my God. Oh, no…”

Campbell felt for the teen. She couldn’t forget that she herself had crossed paths with the victim last night at Good Shepherd. A girl who, as luck would have it, had driven the same car Maida did. Was there information here that needed to be reported to the investigating team?

“You’re a good friend of Stacie Holms, Debra?” Campbell asked.

Patsy Saunders spun around. “What do you think you’re doing? You need to leave, Ms.—Officer. This is a family moment.”

“Mrs. Saunders, I’ll make this as brief as possible, but I’d like to ask Debra—”

“Get out!” An adamant Patsy pointed with fierce determination to the door.

Knowing she was way out on thin ice jurisdiction-wise, Campbell held up her hands and obeyed, with a veneer of calm that vanished once she was back in the car.

“Dammit!” She struck the steering wheel with the palm of her hand.

She’d had no business trying to quiz the kid. Not only was she overreaching her authority, she was jeopardizing any form of cooperation with the adults. At this point she doubted Dwayne or Patsy would ever talk to her unless it was to press charges for neglect.

8:03 a.m.

“Why didn’t you call?”

Back at the offices, Campbell took her father’s annoyance as the minimum penance due. “I thought what I had to report was better said in person.”

Ushering her in, Yancy shut the door to his office, leaving Beth Greer, his efficient though curious young receptionist-dispatcher to wonder. Normally, he had an open-door policy, unless he was interviewing a prospective client, or was on a conference call, or was lying down when it didn’t pay to fib about his weakened state. This didn’t look like one of those.

“So?”

Campbell eyed the TV remote in his hand. “Have you heard anything more from Maple Trails while I was gone?”

“There’s additional damage to the houses down from the marina. Never mind that, what did the Saunders say? Was the daughter there by chance?”

As he spoke, Yancy aimed the remote at the unit behind his desk. When Campbell saw the screen go blue and read Video, she understood. He’d seen the news, too.

“Debra, yes. She was watching TV in the kitchen. She took the news hard.”

“Figures. There may be about twenty-five hundred students at the high school this year, but I reckon, by the time they’re seniors, the kids all have a good idea who everyone else is in the class.”

Campbell wondered if his instincts had meandered down the same path as hers. “I tried to find out how well Debra knew the Holms girl after questioning her parents about Maida, but Patsy turned alpha female. Sorry. It would have been helpful for us to have something to offer the authorities if we need to ask them to bump up a search for Maida.”

Yancy signaled his agreement of that with a slight shift of his thick eyebrows. “What did her loving son have to say about his mother’s whereabouts?”

“He doesn’t have a clue. That is, he says he hasn’t a clue. The commotion with Debra prevented me from probing his memory a little further.”

“So, for the moment, Maida has been forgotten? Maybe conveniently?”

The VCR tape momentarily captured her attention. Campbell knew what was coming. Even so, she experienced a pang at the sight of the crime scene, the white Grand Am behind the news anchor. “That’s it. That’s the 911 I heard on the scanner last night. Look at the car—see what I mean? That’s why I let you and Ike talk me into going to the hospital. When I heard that the victim was being rushed to Emergency, I wanted to check on her myself. Don’t ask me why I didn’t listen for a better ID to make sure it was Maida.”

“It’s definitely one of those freak situations. Sorry as I am for the kid, I can’t help feeling this is buying us time.”

Campbell understood. This brought them back to Dwayne. But before she could say anything, the intercom buzzed.

Yancy stopped the VCR and hit the TV’s mute button before reaching across his desk. “Yes, Beth?” he said into the machine.

“State police on line one, sir.”

Yancy grabbed the receiver. “Dolan—good of you to get back to me so fast.”

Exhausted in too many ways to count, Campbell was slow to figure out who Yancy was talking to. Wondering what he was up to, she watched his narrow-eyed stare as he looked beyond the miniblinds out to the street. As a state trooper, Yancy had cut a distinguished figure in his uniform, intimidating enough for most of her friends to give their old home a wide berth—a reaction he encouraged, since there were a number of pranksters in her circle.

“Okay, thanks. I’d appreciate that, Dolan. We’ll get it faxed to you as soon as I get the additional information confirmed.”

The moment he hung up, Campbell was already leaning across the desk. “You called Captain Wheat?”

“Didn’t think it could do us any harm. He always said he owed me for finding his boy’s Harley before that chop shop spread the parts across the country. He checked on overnight activity in our area. Says so far there are no reports of anyone matching Maida’s description, and no one’s called in to check on anything bearing her car’s plates. I guess you could call that good news.”

To a point. They could be reasonably sure she hadn’t had an accident or been stopped for reckless driving or speeding. But that left plenty of other possibilities.

“At least we can delay talking to Tyndell.”

Campbell couldn’t believe Yancy was suggesting that. “How do you figure? Patsy may stay preoccupied with their daughter’s emotional state, but I’d be surprised if Dwayne hasn’t already gone back to wondering about my visit. I’ll bet there’s already a call from him on Maida’s answering machine, and another on the main office’s switchboard.”

“He’ll wait, thinking she might be in the shower, and try again.”

“Listen to me. He may not be the son Maida hoped for, but he knows what she expects from her chief beneficiary. I’m the one who’s going to shower and change. Then I’m going back to the Trails and track down Bryce. I’d rather suffer his company than watch him in a TV press conference with Dwayne.”

“Well, while you’re burning all cylinders, start making a list of Maida’s friends and the places you know she frequented when she did leave Maple Trails. If it turns out that we do have to make this an all-out search, that will save us some time.”

“Good point. By the way, I’ll get cleaned up here so you don’t have to nag me about doing more driving.”

“I’m overwhelmed.”

Less than an hour later Campbell found Yancy sitting on the edge of Beth’s desk. Between his guilty look and her big calf eyes, Campbell suspected she’d been their prime topic of conversation.