And There He Kept Her (Ben Packard #1)(13)

He texted Susan, knowing she’d be cooking at the restaurant. He heard back half an hour later that she still hadn’t heard from Jenny. She said she could meet him at her house at 9:00 p.m., after the rush had ended. He said he’d see her there.

His next call was to Ann Crawford, Jesse’s mom. “Ann. It’s Ben Packard with the sheriff’s department.”

There was a pause. Packard knew she was trying to place a face with the name. She should know who he was. They’d had a memorable encounter. How long it took her to remember would depend on how much she’d had to drink. “Whadda you want?”

“Ann, is Jesse Crawford your son?”

“Depends on what he’s done.”

“He hasn’t done anything. I’m just wondering if you’ve seen him today.”

“No.”

“Any idea where he might be?”

Ann scoffed. “Boy treats this place like a flophouse. Comes and goes as he pleases ’cause he thinks he’s a man now. Takes my car without asking. Don’t clean up, don’t do nothin’. I usedta could whoop his ass, but he’s too big for that now.” Her accent had a lingering flavor of the South. He had a vision of someone driving Ann Crawford all the way to the north woods of Minnesota and leaving her on the side of the road, far enough away to make sure she’d never find her way back.

“One more month ’til graduation and then I’ma start charging him rent to put up with his shit.”

“When did you see Jesse last?”

He heard the scratch of a cigarette lighter and a weary exhale. “Yesterday, I guess. Why? Wait, have you found my car?”

“What kind of car?”

“’95 Grand Am. Maroon. Rhymes with varoom.” She laughed at her own joke, then stopped to take a drink of something.

“I haven’t seen your car, Ann.”

“So why are you calling me?”

“Jenny Wheeler’s mom is looking for her daughter,” Packard said. “We think Jenny and Jesse went out sometime last night. No one has seen or heard from either of them today. They both skipped school. They’re not answering their phones.”

“Skipped school? That’s your big worry?” She made a laugh that sounded like a bark. “You have no idea what that boy gets up to. He’s got weed. He’s got pills.”

Packard wrote weed and pills in his notebook. Susan and Taylor had both mentioned smoking weed in relation to Jesse. This was the first he’d heard of pills. “What kind of pills does he have?”

Ann wasn’t listening. She was on a rant now, a well-worn one by the sound of it. “He thinks I’m stupid. That I don’t know what’s going on. I know things. Trust me. And when I ask if he’s got something for his old mom, something for my back, you know what he says? ‘Pay me.’”

“Where does he get the pills?”

“‘Pay me.’ Like I’m some junkie off the street. ‘I’m your mother,’ I said.”

She paused to catch her breath and take a drink.

“What else can you tell me about the pills, Ann?”

“I’m not telling you anything. I know you. You threw me on the ground.” She was remembering when he tried to break up a fight between her and another woman at Bob’s Bar. He was doing a patrol rotation back then, still getting to know Sandy Lake’s roads and rhythms. During the incident, just when he thought he’d had her calmed down, Ann had literally climbed the front of him to get at the other woman, ending up folded over his shoulder. He started to carry her out of the bar like that when she bit him on the ass, right below his vest. He’d dropped her onto the floor, then roughly cuffed her before putting her in his car. It was his own fault for carrying her like that. He should have known better.

“I was just doing my job, Ann.”

“Do your job and find my car, how about? That boy stole it. Find it and drive it over here, okay? So I can get to work.”

Packard paused, then thumbed the phone off. Ann wasn’t much use to him in her current state. He’d get more out of her if he could catch her tomorrow before she got too many under her belt. At least he’d been able to confirm no one had heard from Jesse today, either, and now he knew what car they were driving. The pills were an interesting lead, too.

He called dispatch and asked them to pull the registration information for Ann Crawford’s vehicle, then requested a BOLO go out for the car and the two teens. He gave the description of Jenny and Jesse that he’d gotten from Susan. A BOLO meant everyone on duty would be on the lookout.

After that, he made the twenty-minute drive back to town to meet Susan at home. He parked in the driveway. The garage door was open with a Jeep Grand Cherokee and a gray Camry parked inside. He imagined a bear crouched in the back corner, waiting to stand up and fall on top of anyone who came through the door from the house.

Susan answered the door wearing the same green bike T-shirt she’d had on earlier. She smelled like roasted meat and pasta steam. Her face was red, like she’d been warmed under a heat lamp.

It was his first time in his cousin’s house. It was neat and orderly, as he knew it would be. She had low furniture against the walls, a modern couch, and midcentury tables.

“Still no word?” he asked.

Susan shook her head and walked away from him, heading for the kitchen. “Do you want something to drink?”