Chapter 6

"Why on earth would I do that?" I asked.

"Because, they tell me I'm good company for one thing. For another you have to eat anyway, and I would pay," he said.

"Of course you would pay, that goes without saying, but I think I will pass. You can try again some other time. Right now I have too much on my mind." I said.

"Come on, I did some checking. You don't have a boy friend and you live in a motel. You can surely make time for one dinner with a new friend," he demanded.

"Maybe later," I suggested. "I will tell you what though. I am coming off midnight shift this week. If you want to meet me in Dobson, I will split a pizza with you."

"You must mean Dean's Dungeon?" he guessed.

"Is that what the locals call Deans Pizza and Italian Deli?" I asked.

"Yes, have you ever been there?" he asked.

"No, Sarah in the lounge told me it was a good safe place to go on a date," I admitted.

"It is. Especially if we go in separate cars," Boyle observed.

"That is the plan. If you want to do that, I'm willing to give it a chance," I agreed.

"So do you work tonight?" he asked.

"Yes, but this ends it for a day or two?" I admitted. "Tell you what I' ll meet you there tomorrow at eight for dinner, but dinner is all there is going to be." I explained carefully.

"If that is all there is, then that's all there is," Boyle said.

"All right then it's a done deal, unless I hear different from you," I said.

"Do you want my number, so you can cancel," he asked.

"No thanks, I won't cancel. If something really happens to keep me from keeping a date, I think I would be dead, or in the hospital. So nothing I would call to explain anyway." I replied.

"Fair enough, if I have business interfere I'll leave word at your front desk." he said as he hung up. I wasn't all that excited about having dinner with a repo man, but what the hell, like he said I had to eat anyway.

I went into work that night and found that the third car was back on duty, so Letter and I weren't spread so thin. It didn't really matter all that much except we followed fire and ambulance calls, just to be sure they were safe in their journeys.

By morning I was really wondering about the wife of Mr Allen. Everybody suspected that she went into the river. What didn't make sense to me was why Allen didn't do them both at the same time and leave her with her daughter. I had this nagging feeling that the mother might have been the killer. That was just based on her body not turning up. Of course neither had the father's body surfaced, if he was indeed dead.

It was 5AM and I was thinking about writing my report and drinking coffee for the last couple of hours when the call came in. "210 see the man... 3233 Smith Lodge Road ... unknown trouble." The radio blared at me.

"10-4," I answered. The truth is all the trouble was unknown. People never reported it correctly or 911 operators seldom relayed the message correctly. I flipped on the GPS and then just followed the directions into the middle of nowhere. It took me about ten minutes to realize that the man who had called was not a year round resident. He had obviously showed up at his cabin at 5AM and found something disturbed.

"Beautiful place," I said as I walked up to the log cabin.

"Yes Deputy, it is when people haven't been partying in it. I found the door kicked in and things disturbed. I didn't mess up the place too much, I just left and called you guys."

"Sounds like you knew just what to do," I commented.

"Yeah, unfortunately this ain't my first dance with these clowns," he said.

"I see, did we get them last time?" I asked.

"Yes, but the judge didn't do anything since my insurance company paid. Liberal judges make a joke of the law," he said.

"That seems to be the case at times I agree," I said that as I began to walk through the house with Mr. Jarrell following behind me. Mr. Jarrell we need to get our crime scene team in to take a good look at this place. You are pretty close to a pretty bad crime scene. Your place could have been used by someone trying to lie low until the pressure was off a little.

"I checked the stove and found that I couldn't tell when it was last used. But definitely since I left. I cleaned it out and now there are ashes. They are cold but fresh." Jarrell said.

As I searched I found wet towels in the bathroom, but I had no idea when they were used. There were still water drops in the bathtub, so it likely hadn't been too long. I felt there was at least a possibility that one of the Allen parents had been staying in the cabin. They probably took off when Mr. Jarrell pulled into the yard.

That being the case, I took the chance and called to wake up the patrol supervisor. He listened carefully then said, "Yeah you probably did the right thing. I'll call Simpson and get the dog out there as well. You just standby. I'm going to have Letter come over to help you maintain the crime scene. We want to be real careful just in case this does tie back into the Allen family.

I didn't think there was any question. I was almost sure that it was going to be the reason neither of them had turned up. They just laid low at Jarrell's place. If he hadn't come back one of them might still be here. Maybe crime scene investigators could tell me which one of them had been hiding out in the cabin.