“Don’t know yet. The dispatcher is going to call the sheriff. He’s still at the crash scene.”
“They aren’t going to come tonight! I just know they aren’t!” she said as took her purse off the night stand and opened it. She looked inside, pulled out a card, and dialed the number on it.
“Sergeant Jefferson,” answered the voice on the other end of the line.
“Hello, this is Susan Preston. We’re the family you helped at the crash scene today,” Susan began and then proceeded to tell Sergeant Jefferson everything that had happened that evening. Since the situation at the crash scene had calmed down a bit he could take a moment to talk with her.
“Mrs. Preston, let me talk with the sheriff, and I’ll get back to you,” the sergeant promised.
“Who was that?” asked the sheriff as he walked up to Sergeant Jefferson.
“Sheriff, it was a lady I helped earlier who just missed being part of the wreck. Her two kids are missing.”
“Leroy, you helped them earlier?”
“Yes, I did sheriff.”
“Since this mess is sort of under control, get over there to the motel and see what’s going on. You in good enough shape to go? Not too exhausted?” the sheriff asked.
“I’m tired but I need to check on this one. I’m the one who suggested they go to the motel in Fancy Gap.”
“OK. Get back to me when you know what in hell has happened there.”
* * *
His drive from the motel to his destination wasn’t far. He knew that every deputy in the area would be at the crash scene. He glanced at the sleeping bags in the back of the van. The children were still. The anesthetic he gave them worked its magic. They would be unconscious for hours.
He had worked hard preparing the dilapidated barn for what was at hand. From the outside it looked the same way it had for the past fifty years. There were no windows. He had fashioned a back exit door that couldn’t be seen from the outside. He didn’t expect to need the door, but he was trained to expect the unexpected.
He drove the van into the barn, parked in a corner, and opened the back door. The little girl was in the bag on the left. He gently slid her out and carried her to her room. Then he went back for the boy and put him in a separate room. He meant to have his pleasure with them separately, at least in the beginning. Everything had changed in a moment. He had coveted one, but now he had two.
They soon would be his…and his alone
, he thought.
The early morning sun shining through the hotel window bathed his face as he slowly woke up. He rolled over and hugged the pillow. He had no idea what time it was, and didn’t care. He started to process what had happened the night before.
Had it been a dream?
he asked himself.
All of this was so new to him. For the past two years, he had wrapped himself in his comfortable cocoon, with any possibility of romance a million light-years away. Many had tried to rekindle the fire inside of him. It just wasn’t there—until last night, that is.
He jumped out of bed and looked in the bathroom mirror. A big, fat smile looked back at him as he brushed his teeth and shaved. The warm shower felt good, and his soapy hands inadvertently revived a certain physical reaction as his thoughts drifted back to Louisa. Now that was an unexpected and long-forgotten pleasure.
After he dressed, he packed up since it was already close to checkout time. He could stop for breakfast on the road after he left Fairfax County and got into rural Virginia. He quickly decided to skip I-95 and instead to take the Skyline Drive route, one hundred miles of the most gorgeous scenery with awe-inspiring vistas as it traverses the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains through Shenandoah National Park. The road meets the beginning of the Blue Ridge Parkway at Waynesboro, Virginia. He was not in any hurry. And he needed time to think.
As he drove up and over the beautiful peaks and valleys, his thoughts were as uplifting as the scenery. He liked the steady stream of instant replays from the night before. But was it real? The left and right sides of his brain were debating that very issue.
He suddenly saw Ellen sitting next to him in the truck. That was not unusual as they had spent so much of their forty years together exploring many highways and byways together. She was the best navigator he could have asked for. Now she was smiling at him from the passenger seat. He was now entering into a new sea of emotions that would need careful navigation. He had carefully avoided this route for fear of what it might mean to him. Could he fall in love with another woman?
When he glanced again at the passenger seat again, it was now empty. He knew Ellen would have wanted him to get on with his life. Both Anthony and Natalie tried their best to convince him that Ellen would insist that he should pursue a promising relationship. They knew her well.
He still expected some degree of guilt to creep into his mind. He realized he might be a lot closer to dealing with that challenge than he ever expected to be. And as he thought of Louisa, he decided that all of that might not be that bad.
The chime of his Blackberry snapped him out of his enjoyable stream of thoughts. It was a message from Anthony.
“And exactly where are you, Pops?”
They hadn’t talked in a couple of days. He knew Quinn had traveled to Washington for the retirement gathering. He probably wanted to know about the current nightlife in the District. He often traveled to Washington on business.
Quinn was very proud of what Anthony had accomplished in his family life and his professional life. He was also a gifted athlete. They often took their road bikes out on the Blue Ridge Parkway and rode hard over those mountain peaks and valleys. He made Quinn ride harder and faster than he would have, riding alone. They both loved it. They often talked of riding the entire four hundred and sixty nine miles of the Parkway together. Both Ellen and Anthony’s wife, Roberta, had encouraged them to make the trip. They would be the support crew.
“Call Anthony,” he commanded his BlackBerry, and it responded by dialing his number.
“What’s going on, Pops?” he answered.
Quinn laughed as he replied, “Just cruising down the Parkway, enjoying this gorgeous day.”
“Excellent, and on the Parkway no less. Now that’s interesting. So Mister Laid-Back is taking his sweet time coming home. Must be nice,” he teased.
“No complaints, son. I had a great time in the District. Just need some quiet time to get lost in my thoughts.”
“OK, let’s hear it. Who’d you meet?” he asked.
“Well, now, what makes you think anything like that happened?”
“Dad, I know you too well. That tone of voice gave you away. Who is she?”
“Now, that is for me to know and you to find out.”
“Is she on Facebook?”
“That’s a good question.” He hadn’t thought about that yet. “I’ll have to check, but I doubt she is.”
“Come on, Pops, give it up. Would I hit the Like button if she was on Facebook?”
“Not yet, son, it’s too early. This news is definitely not ready for prime time. But you’ll be the first to know when it is.”
“OK, lover boy, call me when you get home, and please don’t run off the darned Parkway while you’re dreaming of…whoever she is.”
“Will do, and not to worry, my number one son—all I’ll be thinking about is kicking your butt when we ride the Parkway again.”
“Dream on, Pops. Good-bye.”
Quinn smiled as he drove down the Parkway
.
He didn’t realize how tired he was. He had worked all day, and then the crash happened. It was now well after midnight as he drove to the old motel in Fancy Gap. He had no idea what was in store for him when he got there. Luckily, there was a spare uniform shirt in his trunk so he could change out of the bloody one he had been wearing for hours. While he had seen many in his years in the department, this one was by far the worst. The wreck was a mess. Yet he knew it probably would not be the last terrible wreck to happen on that deadly stretch of road. Mother Nature had dealt many a driver a bad hand with the legendary fog that routinely settles in at three thousand feet right over the Fancy Gap exit.
The Virginia Highway Department had done their job. Massive electronic signs warn drivers to slow down before they arrive at the fog bank. The smart drivers heeded the warning and slowed down.
Sergeant Leroy Jefferson had been a deputy with the Carroll County Sheriff ’s Department for twenty years. He was the only African-American in the department. The black community in Carroll County was very small. His parents owned a small but profitable farm and were well respected by most families in the area. Most residents also knew that he was by far the best shot in the department. He consistently won regional shooting competitions against some of the best shooters in Virginia and North Carolina. Even the most prejudiced understood what that meant.
He had long ago accepted the Confederate flags that still flew from a few porches. This, after all, was still southwest rural Virginia. There was no shortage of rednecks who didn’t care for blacks, Jews, Catholics, or Muslims. Diversity was now taught in schools and followed closely in places of business, but it was harder to change what was taught behind closed doors.
Leroy knew at a very early age that he wanted to be a police officer. His father wanted him to take over the family farm as he was the only child. He liked farming but it wasn’t his life’s calling. He wanted to be a cop. He left home after high school and enrolled at Winston-Salem State University. He enjoyed the fellowship and camaraderie that comes with attending a predominantly black school. He also enjoyed being in a big city like Winston-Salem.
He left college with his undergraduate degree and a bride-to-be. Laneisha was from a rural farm community in North Carolina. That certainly worked in Leroy’s favor when he tried to convince her that life on a farm in Carroll County, Virginia, wouldn’t be all that bad. He was thrilled when they married and settled into the new house he had built on the family farmland. She became a tax accountant with a very successful practice in Carroll County. The locals didn’t notice the color of her skin when she saved them money on their taxes.
Sheriff Pierce had been in office for a long time. Leroy respected the sheriff, and the feeling was mutual. The sheriff understood that Leroy was smarter than most deputies in the department and was an excellent law enforcement officer.
All thoughts of how tired he was ended when he arrived at the motel. Ms. Tillwell and the Prestons were standing outside of the motel office.
“Thank you for coming so quickly,” Susan said, trying to manage a smile.
“Mrs. Preston, let’s go inside and you both can tell me what happened.”
The Preston’s sat down with Sergeant Jefferson and recounted the events of the evening. Tim explained that they both had searched the entire area, to no avail.
“Did you touch anything in your car when you went outside?”
Tim thought for a minute. “No, I don’t think I did. I found her teddy lying on the ground a few feet from the open door.”
“Where is the teddy now?” asked Sergeant Jefferson.
“It’s in our room.”
“OK, let’s take a look at the car.”
They all left the office and gathered in front of room nine. As Sergeant Jefferson approached the Preston’s car, he noticed that the door was still open.
“I guess I left that open,” Tim offered.
Sergeant Jefferson looked at Ms. Tillwell. “Is the motel full?”
“Sure ’nough is. Ya know it’s the darned fog. It happens every time it gets thick as a pea soup,” she replied.
“I’ve got to wake up these folks to see if anyone saw or heard anything at all in the last couple of hours.”
“Can we help?” Tim asked.
“Unfortunately not, I’ve got to do this myself. I’ll come by your room when I finish or learn something.”
He went back to his cruiser, got in, and closed the door. “Unit five to unit one,” he spoke into his handset.
“Go ahead, Leroy. What’s happening out there? I haven’t heard from you in a good while,” the sheriff replied.
“Sheriff, we have a problem here. I think these two kids have been abducted.”
“Leroy, are you certain they’re gone? You looked everywhere?”
“Sheriff, I’ll bet my house on that. These children have been taken.”
Sheriff Pierce knew Leroy Jefferson wasn’t a betting man. “All right, Leroy, I get the message. What kind of help do you need out there?”
“All twelve rooms are taken. I’ll canvass the place to see if anyone saw anything. I’ll also check every room for anything suspicious.”
“Be careful, Leroy. I’ll call Levi and get him out there to help you. Don’t start anything before he gets there.”
Levi Blackburn was the senior criminal investigator in the sheriff ’s department. He had been with the sheriff for fifteen years and was considered a good investigator. He was also arguably the most suspicious person in the department. He trusted no one.
“How long do you think it’ll take for Levi to get here?”
“It won’t be long. He was headed here to the crash scene. I’ll divert him to the motel.”
Detective Blackburn got the message a good five minutes before he would have arrived at the crash scene. He was actually relieved to be diverted from the mayhem on the highway. He had worked several accident scenes in the past when he was patrol officer, and he could do without any more gore and death. He also didn’t mind seeing what Leroy Jefferson was up to. Leroy had a nose for police work. Levi was certain that Leroy would have advanced further in the department if he wasn’t black.
He spotted Leroy outside of the motel office when he arrived. Leroy looked pretty tired.
“Leroy, you messed anything up yet?” he asked.
“And a good early morning to you, Levi. Hope we didn’t take you away from anything important this morning.”
Leroy smiled as he looked at Levi. He liked working with him except he knew that Levi had a reputation for missing important details in an investigation. He liked to think of himself as the big-picture type who left the details to others.
Leroy introduced the Prestons to Levi, who listened intently as they recounted the story. Levi also noticed that both parents were in a bit of a stupor, probably brought on by stress and their lack of sleep. He then took a hard look at the area around the Preston’s car, as well as around the motel perimeter. He noticed that the tall grass around the side the Preston’s room was matted down, but that was all he could see.