“Max, why would you send Clara Jefferies into my town to rile those folks up?” Just a few hours earlier, Gerard had been the calmer of the Barstow brothers, but he sounded spitting mad. He must have heard that I’d dropped in on the Heaton and Coombs families and wasn’t pleased. “I have a hard enough time convincing those polygamous folks to talk to me. Now they think I sent in some outside cop, an apostate to boot.”
“I told you, I didn’t send Clara,” Max said. I sensed he was struggling to keep his voice level. “But she’s a seasoned investigator. Let’s just wait and hear what she has to say before we get all bent out of shape. Sheriff Holmes, Clara must have had a reason to—”
“What reason? Those parents aren’t worried about their girls,” the chief roared like a referee shouting over the crowd to call a foul at a ball game. “Then some woman cop shows up, bribes a little kid with a fistful of bills and demands the kid tell her where his sister is. Dragging Hannah Jessop with her. Stirring up trouble in Alber, when we all know the town’s a powder keg with all the strangers moving in. What good could—”
Max tried to calm him. “Gerard, I don’t think Clara meant to stir anyone up.”
“No matter what her intentions were, we can’t have that Dallas detective barging in on people. We can’t tolerate it,” said a voice I assumed belonged to the sheriff.
I’d heard enough.
“Max is telling you the truth. He didn’t send me anywhere. I didn’t consult him on my plans,” I said as I entered the lions’ den. “That said, I guess you could say that I did bribe the Coombs kid, although I saw it as more of a donation.”
“Clara, let’s talk about this. Please explain what’s—” Max started.
“I got two complaints about you this morning, Detective,” Gerard said, holding up the sausage-size index and middle fingers on his right hand to drive his point home. His anger raised his round cheeks until his eyes were slits. “First Alma Heaton calls, upset because you demanded information on Eliza. Then Mrs. Coombs gets lathered up about you giving her kid money and asking questions about Jayme.”
“Come on, Chief.” I tried to defuse the situation. “Mrs. Coombs couldn’t have been that upset. Not when she needed money to turn her electricity back on. She didn’t give the cash back, did she?”
Gerard didn’t answer. “What my brother Evan said this morning is right. You’ve got no right to push your nose into my town. I want you gone.”
Max moved forward, looking as if he wanted to interrupt, but unsure what to say. I’d admittedly crossed lines, and I knew I’d become hard to defend, but I felt a wave of disappointment when the sheriff put his hand on Max’s shoulder. Max took two steps back and said nothing. Just the sheriff’s touch was enough to silence him.
“I may not have jurisdiction, but I have rights,” I insisted. “I’m Delilah’s sister.”
“No matter what crazy ideas you have, that’s over. Your mother said Delilah is fine,” Gerard said, spitting out the words. “But we’re not talking about Delilah anyway. This is about the Heaton and the Coombs families, Eliza and Jayme. There’s no reason to think there’s anything wrong with those girls.”
“Some people in town find the girls’ disappearances troubling,” I said.
“Hannah,” Max whispered. He looked as if I’d opened a box he’d closed. “She mentioned it to me, but I didn’t think… Are you worried that they could have been…?” His voice drifted off.
“Maybe all three girls are safe. Maybe there’s no problem here. But what Hannah describes is strange. The girls left too abruptly,” I said. “Hannah was close to both girls, and neither one confided in her that they were leaving.”
“Clara, kids take off. They run away,” Max stammered. “After Hannah talked to me about Jayme and Eliza, the chief talked to their families. Both told him that the girls left on their own, that they ran away.”
“They did tell me that. There’s not a lick of evidence that there’s anything wrong here.” Gerard shook his head, as if in astonishment. “This is getting more ridiculous by the minute.”
“What if the families are wrong? What if all three girls are missing, and no one is looking for them?” I asked. “Sometimes, disappearances are connected. One perpetrator, multiple victims.”
“You think Eliza Heaton and Jayme Coombs have been abducted, don’t you?” Max asked.
“This is ridiculous!” Gerard looked at the other men as if asking for help. Max had a worried expression, perhaps thinking through my scenario. The sheriff? He appeared uncomfortable enough with the conversation to want to order us all from his office.
“The Heaton and Coombs families say their daughters ran away, not that they were taken,” Gerard said. “And I told you last night that your mother told me Delilah is on a mission.”
“All three girls disappeared under questionable circumstances. Eliza and Jayme without notice, and with Delilah there’s the note,” I said.
“That damn note. They didn’t—” Gerard started.
“And Gerard, I remember other things, too. Things that make me question how cases like these are handled by your department.”
“What the?” he sputtered. “You can’t talk to me like—”
“Alber PD has never had a good reputation. For decades it was under the thumb of the church hierarchy and the police haven’t always been on the right side.”
At that, Gerard’s eyes focused hard on mine. “The town’s changed. You can see that. The police department has changed,” he bellowed. “And I’m not part of the old establishment. I’m like Max. I got railroaded out of Alber when I was a kid.”
That had been bothering me. “Why?”
Barstow looked baffled. “What do you mean, why?”
“No Barstow boys were ever run out of Alber. Not
