Out Of The Deep I Cry

“But she did tell you about meeting with the doctor?”

She nodded.

“Funny detail to leave out, don’t you think?”

She looked miserably toward the swinging door. “I’d better get back.”

“Go ’head. I’m going to call in that location, get one of the patrol cars over there.” He caught her arm as she stepped toward the door. “You might want to encourage Ms. Clow to dredge up any other details she forgot to mention to you.”

He reached Harlene, gave her the directions, and was relieved to hear that Mark Durkee was already up on Old Route 100, probably on his way to the nightly swing past Russ’s mother’s house. Russ told Harlene to patch Mark through to Clare’s if and when he turned up anything.

“I’d love to know how you managed to work Reverend Fergusson into this one,” Harlene said.

“Reverend Fergusson manages to work herself into these things all on her own,” he said. “She doesn’t need any pushing from me.”

“So you’re going to be staying over there.”

“Since Debba Clow, the last person known to have seen the doctor alive, is here, yeah. I am.”

He heard a snort over the phone. “Isn’t this Linda’s week to be visiting in Florida?”

He exhaled slowly, counting to-well, he didn’t make it to ten. “Don’t you have any police business you could be attending to? As I am doing, right now, keeping tabs on this witness?”

There was another snort. He gave up. “Make sure Mark calls me ASAP. Fifteen fifty-seven over.” He hung up.

Clare looked up as he came through the doors. She was sitting in the other armchair, kitty-corner to Debba Clow. She tilted her head slightly. Any information?

He shook his head. Aloud he said, “Is there any coffee?”

Clare rose. “I’ll make some up. I could use a cup, too. Debba?”

Debba nodded. Clare vanished through the swinging doors, giving Russ a look as she passed him.

He sat in the armchair. “An officer is headed for the Ketchem cemetery right now. He was up in the area, so we should hear back from him shortly.”

Debba pushed her cloud of kinky hair back from her face. “I didn’t think about the possibility that he could really have been hurt. Are you sure he’s not…” Her voice trailed off.

“We don’t know what’s going on at this point,” he said. “We’re trying to eliminate possibilities. What did you do after Dr. Rouse hit his head?”

“We went back to the cars. He was bleeding, but he didn’t want any help. He pointed out that he was the doctor, not me.” She raised her eyes, as if to say, What can you do? “He got in his car, I got in mine, and then I took off.”

His next question was cut off by the faint sound of the phone ringing in the kitchen. He had half raised himself out of his chair when Clare pushed through the door. “It’s for you. Officer Durkee.”

In the kitchen, he took the phone from Clare and waited until she removed herself to the living room. “Mark? Russ. What have you got?”

“I’ve been tramping around the area. Freezing my butt off. I haven’t seen any sight of the doctor, but I found his car. It’s a good ten yards off the road, smashed into a tree. Abandoned.”

Chapter 13

NOW

Russ faced toward Clare’s wall and pitched his voice low. “Have you called the state crime scene folks yet?”

“I had Harlene send for them and notify the mountain rescue squad. I told ’em it’s still officially a missing person. I mean, he was a pretty old guy, after all.” Russ reflected that Dr. Rouse was-or had been-maybe fifteen years older than he was. Mark went on, “But if he wandered away in a confused state when the dark came on, he’s a corpsicle by now.”

“I agree. On the other hand, maybe he didn’t wander off. Maybe he was removed from the scene.” He pressed his forehead against Clare’s calendar, right over a florid picture of an angel and the Virgin Mary. THE ANNUNCIATION OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY, the tag read. He was eyeball to eyeball with the Virgin, who didn’t look all that pleased that she was about to become an unwed mother. He thought about Allan Rouse. Confused and elderly? No way. But calling Debba Clow and asking her to meet him at some old cemetery was way out of character. If that’s what he did. Maybe she confronted him, whacked him over the head, and drove him out there in his own car to dispose of the body. No, that didn’t work. She would have had to walk at least two hours to her house to retrieve her car before driving into town to see Clare, and he would lay money that Debba Clow wasn’t the sort to go on long walks along dark, icy mountain roads. No matter what the provocation.

“Chief?”

“Sorry, Mark. I was thinking. I don’t know what to make of this. There’s too much unexplained stuff, and I hate unexplained stuff.” He pushed away from the wall, setting his thoughts in order. “We have to act as if this is a missing-person case, because if Rouse did somehow wander off, we have a chance of finding him alive if we move fast. So I’ll call out the volunteer fire department search team as well. They’ll get there faster than the mountain rescue team.”

“Okay.”

“On the other hand, when the statie gets there with the CSU kit, I want every print that can be lifted off Rouse’s car. We’ve already got Debba Clow’s prints on record, so we won’t need to get a warrant to check for a match.”

“Hang on a sec.” There were sounds over the line, someone talking, muffled. Mark came back on. “We’re in luck. The crime scene guys are here.”

“That’s a land speed record.”

“They were taking the shortcut along the Old Lake George Road, coming back from a demo at the Troop C barracks.”

“Look, what I said about Debba Clow’s fingerprints? Don’t mention we’ve already got a suspect. I can think of some scenarios where somebody else might have whacked the doctor, and I don’t want those guys taking shortcuts because they think we’ve got it all sewn up.”

“You mean, like the unknown girlfriend idea?”

“Or the fact that he had access to major amounts of prescription drugs.”

“I don’t know.” Mark sounded doubtful. “Seeing as how Clow admitted she was here with the guy…”

“I know, I know. But I don’t want to miss anything just because it’s less likely than Debba doing it.”

“Debba does doctor,” Mark said, sniggering. “Has a ring to it. So what are you going to do with her?”

Russ glanced over his shoulder and made a snap decision. “I’m bringing her out there with me.”

“Why?”

“If he’s gone missing, she might be able to remember a detail that she’s overlooked.”

“Or she might be able to invent something that jibes with the physical evidence once she’s back out here.”

“I’m aware of that. Mostly, I want to keep her out of her car until the staties have a chance to sweep it.”

“Why not just impound it?”

“I intend to. But I’d like her permission to search it. I have a feeling if we go to Judge Ryswick with what we’ve got-most notably, what we haven’t got, a body-he’ll laugh at a warrant request. That man’s enough to make me yearn for the good old days, when we could just look for whatever we wanted.”

“Chief, the Miranda rules went into effect before you became a cop.”

“I know. But I can dream.” He brought himself back to the subject. “If she’s out at Stewart’s Pond and her car’s back here, it’ll be easier to get her to say yes. Her attention will be split, and she’ll be thinking more about what we