In the Clearing (Tracy Crosswhite #3)(36)

Earl Kanasket said Buzz Almond had been starting a new career, with a family to consider. Was he implying that Buzz Almond had reason to be concerned about the well-being of his family, or simply making a statement of the limitations Buzz was operating under? If the latter, Earl Kanasket was correct in his assessment of Tracy. She had no such limitations. If the former, however, Earl Kanasket’s comment very well could have been intended as a warning.





CHAPTER 13


Tuesday, November 9, 1976

After filling out his reports for his shift, Buzz went looking for Jerry Ostertag, who was not at his desk.

“He went to take a leak,” another detective said.

Buzz jogged down the hall and around the corner, the soles of his shoes slipping on the worn linoleum when he tried to slow. He called out, “Detective Ostertag?”

Ostertag stopped and wheeled at the sound of someone calling his name. Buzz took a quick step toward him. “Sorry to shout at you like that.” He extended a hand. “Buzz Almond. Wanted to talk to you a minute about the Kimi Kanasket case.”

Ostertag looked twenty pounds overweight—not obese, but like a man who finished his plate and liked a cocktail every night, as well as his sweets. He’d begun the middle-aged man’s first concession, wearing the buckle of his belt below his protruding stomach.

“Almond. Right. I thought the name sounded familiar. I got your reports. They were good. Very thorough. Thanks for those.” Ostertag worked a toothpick from one side of his mouth to the other and looked at Buzz through silver-framed glasses that resembled the ones Telly Savalas wore on the popular detective show Kojak. Buzz wondered if that was why Ostertag also shaved his head.

“Thanks. Listen, I spoke to Lorraine at the Columbia Diner.”

“Who?”

“She’s the waitress at the diner where Kimi Kanasket worked the night she went missing.” Buzz had assumed Ostertag would have spoken to Lorraine, but that had apparently not been the case.

“Right. And you talked to her . . . why?”

“I just stopped in to get a bite to eat, and we got to talking,” Buzz said, again conscious not to look as though he was stepping on Ostertag’s investigation. “Anyway, she said Kimi wasn’t upset about Tommy Moore coming in that night.”

“Hang on.” Ostertag raised a hand and turned to a man in a suit passing in the opposite direction. “Hey, Carl, we still on for tomorrow?”

Carl turned, talking while he walked backward. “I reserved the court for six thirty. Figured we could grab breakfast after we play.”

“Loser buys?”

“Hey, I never pass up a free meal.”

“Bring your credit card,” Ostertag taunted. “Winning makes me hungry.”

Ostertag redirected his attention to Buzz. “Sorry. I gotta kick his ass in racquetball tomorrow morning. Keeps him in line. So you were saying something about a waitress?”

“Lorraine,” Buzz said. “She said Kimi wasn’t upset about Tommy Moore breaking up with her. That Kimi even waited on his table that night.”

“Remind me again—Moore was the boyfriend, right?”

“Ex-boyfriend,” Buzz said, wondering what the hell Ostertag had been doing. “He brought a date with him to the diner to get a rise out of Kimi, but he stormed out when he got no reaction.”

“Hang on again. I’m sorry. I was on my way to take a leak. Drank too much damn coffee this morning, and my back teeth are floating. I’m gonna drown if I don’t take care of it.”

Ostertag crossed the hall and disappeared behind the swinging door to the men’s room, leaving Buzz in the hall feeling like an idiot. He took a few steps farther down the linoleum and tried to look like he was doing something. After several minutes, Ostertag propped open the door with his foot while he finished drying his hands with a brown paper towel. He tossed the wad back inside, presumably at a garbage pail. When he stepped into the hall, he seemed surprised Buzz remained waiting for him.

“So after I spoke to the waitress,” Buzz said, “I was driving away, and I spotted a turnout, maybe a hundred, hundred and fifty yards past the diner. I couldn’t see it that night when Earl Kanasket and I walked the road because it was too dark, and it had started snowing. Anyway, there’s a path there, and I noticed footprints and tire tracks. So I followed them and—”

“And you came to a clearing,” Ostertag said, loosening the knot of his gold tie and undoing the top button.

“You know it?”

“Everyone on the force knows it.”

“You’ve been out there?”

“More times than I cared to be when I was on patrol.”

“I mean for this investigation.”

“This investigation? Why would I be out there for this investigation?”

“The footprints and tire tracks lead to the clearing. I’d say two, maybe three people. Hard to tell.”

Ostertag’s brow furrowed. “I meant, what does that have to do with Kanasket?”

“Well, I mean that was the direction she would have headed walking home. She’d have walked 141. If something spooked her—”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know.” Buzz fought against becoming irritated.

Ostertag frowned. “How long you been on the force . . . ?” As his voice trailed off, it was clear he’d forgotten Buzz’s name.