Chapter 9

Monday, September 10, 1979

I was gently rubbing Missy's tummy as we were having our morning snuggle. She was just starting to show a slight rounding that would become our first child. She was content and we were in rapport.

{How's the house coming?} I asked her.

{It's coming along better than I thought it would, Mike. The contractor is telling me two to three more weeks before we can move in, but what they have already is impressive.}

{I haven't been out there in almost a month, but it was impressive then. You know, when we first looked at the drawings, I didn't have a feel of how big the place really is.}

{Oh, Honey, you should see it now. The outside is basically finished. I didn't get a feel for it either until recently. The architect is good. The three sections of the house are very distinct, but blend together nicely. The guest area is single story. The living room and dining room area are a story and a half high, and the apartments are two stories. The three roof lines separate, but cedar, stone, and glass across the front make it blend. It is absolutely beautiful.}

{Is it going to bother you, being away from the construction for a couple of weeks?}

{No. Beth and Thelma know what we want, and they can always contact us if they have a question. I don't want to postpone our vacation, because I will soon be past the point where I want to do a lot of traveling.}

{You've got a fat belly now, Sis, } Jude said as she poured herself a cup of coffee and joined us. She pushed Missy over and claimed part of my lap.

{At least I don't have the grand canyon between my butt cheeks, } Missy retorted with a smile.

My beautiful young ladies kissed, then each of them kissed me.

{Now, ladies, do I have to spank some butts so that you'll play nice?} I asked.

{You can't spank me, } Missy said, sticking her tongue out at me. {I'm pregnant. Besides, my beautiful sister/wife has a lot more butt to spank than I do.}

{Jude, do you think tickling the mother would hurt a baby?} I asked.

{Actually, I've heard that tickling a mother is very good for a baby. Do you think we should hold her down and see if we can tickle her until she pees on herself?}

{The only problem is, she might pee on us too. Kinky.}

{Yeah, I'm not into water sports. Maybe we could put a diaper on her before we started.}

{Yeah, and some of those little rubber training panties.}

{Cool!}

{You guys are enjoying this far too much, } Missy told us. {Why don't you just love me instead?}

{That's easy enough to do, } Jude agreed.

{Absolutely, } I added.

{Missy, do you know if it's a boy or a girl yet?} Jude asked.

{No, Jude. he/she hasn't made up his/her mind yet. I'll let everyone know as soon as he/she decides. I've read that the sex of a fetus can be determined as early as ten weeks. I'm sure the clues are there, I just don't know how to read them.}

{Are you ladies all packed and ready to go?} I asked.

{Packed and loaded, } Missy told me. {We loaded everything into the RV last night while you were having fun with Cindi. We even packed and loaded your stuff.}

{I appreciate it, Missy, but you know I am capable of packing for myself. When I was George, I traveled for years for work and I always packed for myself.}

{Yes, but now you're Mike, and you have five wives to take care of you. Relax and enjoy it, } Jude told me.

Everyone was up and moving by eight AM, and we were on the road by nine. It was a beautiful day for traveling. The sun was shining and the temperature was mild. I started out driving, and Bonnie took over after we passed Sacramento.

The plan was to go over through most of Nevada, then turn north into Idaho, and on into Montana. I had heard that Montana was one of the most beautiful states in the country, and I wanted to see it for myself.

We stopped for a late lunch in Reno and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. Bonnie and Sharon blew about a hundred dollars each in the slot machines while Missy, Jude, Cindi and I offered words of encouragement and rude comments. After lunch, we drove on to Battle Mountain, where we decided to spend the night.

Tuesday, September 18, 1979

We took off this morning and Missy drove to Wells, where we were going to turn north on highway 93. We pulled into Wells around noon, and since we didn't see anywhere we'd like to have lunch, we pulled into a grocery store parking lot and fixed our own.

Bonnie said she wouldn't mind picking up a few things at the store, so it ended up with all of us going in. A few things turned into enough to feed an army and I wondered where we were going to store it all.

We finally got back on the road and made our turn onto 93. We hadn't gone five miles when I saw a young woman hitch hiking on our side of the road. I was driving and Cindi was riding shotgun. I don't normally pick up hitch hikers, but Cindi looked at me and asked, {Can we pick her up, Mike. She's in trouble.}

I started slowing the RV and ended up a couple of hundred feet past her. {If you guys are naked, could you get dressed please? I'm picking up a hitch hiker.}

{We're still dressed, Mike, } Bonnie informed me.

The young woman came running up to Cindi's side of the RV and Cindi put her window down. "How far are you going?" the woman asked.

"All the way into Montana," Cindi told her. "Come to the door on the side and I'll let you in."

Cindi let her in and I took off again. I had only been driving about fifteen minutes when Bonnie said, {Mike can you find a place to pull over and come back here please? This woman has problems, and I think you should hear them.}

I found a place to park the RV and went back into the living room.

"This is Angie Mullet, Mike. Angie, this is Mike."

"Hi Angie. It's nice to meet you."

"Hi Mike."

"Mike, Angie was telling us about what has been going on with her family, and I'd like for her to repeat it for you. Would you do that, Angie? Maybe we can help."

"Sure, Bonnie, but I don't know what anyone can do to help. I'm a junior at Stanford, majoring in law. My parents live in a little town called Rogerson, just inside the Idaho border. Dad was the police chief, which is no big thing since he only had two officers under him."

Angie took a sip of her soda and went on. "I always talk to my parents on the phone once a week. It was three weeks ago when I noticed Dad sounded a little tense. I asked him about it and he said it was because they had two young girls turn up missing in the last month. He said they didn't have any leads, and that it was really bothering him. One of the girls, who had just disappeared a couple of days before was a daughter of a friend of his."

She paused, so I said, "Angie, that would shake anyone up. Did he find out anything?"

"I don't know, Mike. Two weeks ago he was still sounding bad. He said he still didn't have any leads. When I talked with him last week he sounded more angry than anything else. He told me he was tracking down a lead that looked promising, but he wouldn't know anything for a few days. I would have called them again today, but night before last I got a call from Mom. She said that Dad had been shot as he was leaving a lodge meeting. He died before they could get him to the hospital." She broke down and sobbed for a few minutes. Bonnie put her arm around Angie's shoulder and held her until she stopped.

When she had calmed down a little I asked, "So you really don't know if he was killed because of something he found out, or if it was something completely different, right?"

"That's right, Mike. I have no idea why anyone would want to kill him though. There's almost no crime in Rogerson. Dad liked to brag the he was responsible for that. About the only person he ever arrested was old Joe Hobson. Joe likes to get drunk when his Social Security check comes in, and then he tries to pick a fight with all the young bucks in Kelly's bar. Dad would arrest him, then let him go the next morning after he had sobered up."

"Could it have been someone from one of the bigger towns around?"

"I guess it could, but it's unlikely. The only bigger town that's close is Twin Falls, and it's not all that big."

{What do you think guys? Should we stop over and see if we can find out anything?}

Everyone answered in the affirmative. "Angie, I think we'll stop over for a couple of days and see if we can find anything out. Would you mind if we did?"

"Not at all, Mike. I'd be surprised if you do though. Unless you're native born, people look on you with suspicion."

"When is the funeral, Angie? Would you mind if we attend?"

"I'd love for you all to be there. We have a lot of friends in Rogerson, but now I don't feel like I can trust anyone. The funeral is tomorrow."

"We'll be there. Now I think we should get you home so you can help your mother."

I went back to the front of the RV and took off toward Rogerson. We arrived in Rogerson in the middle of the afternoon, and Angie directed me to her house. We parked right in front. We let Angie go in first, so she could have some time with her mother.

She came back out about a half hour later and invited us in. She introduced us to her mother, Doris, and offered us something to drink.

"I am so sorry for your loss, Doris," Bonnie told her. You could tell that she and Angie had been crying before we came in.

"Thank you, Bonnie. Angie says you guys would like to help, but I don't know of anything you could do. I'm pretty sure he was killed because of the missing girls, but he worked on that for weeks before he got his first clue."

"Did he tell you what he'd found out?" I asked.

"No. He just said it involved people we know. That's so hard to believe, but Sam never said anything unless he was sure of it."

"Tell them about Floyd Adkins, Mom."

"We have our mortgage at the bank here in town. Our checking and savings accounts are there too. I pay all of the bills, so I write all of the checks. The bank president came by here this morning and said he hated to add to our troubles, but that he was foreclosing on our house. He said we hadn't made a payment in three months. I showed him my check book, where I listed the checks I had written and it showed all three payments. He said he was sorry but that it wasn't what the bank records show. He said the payments had never been made. When I called the bank to check on my balance, it is just what it should have been if the payments had been deducted."