She Never Came Home

Chapter 10

Richard pulled off the freeway and drove to a nearby Chevron station. He had less than a quarter tank of gas left, plus it was getting close to seven o'clock in the morning of December 29, and other than occasionally dozing during The Parent Trap he hadn't slept in over 24 hours. He needed a shot of caffeine to perk him up. He was inside the station pouring himself an extra-large black coffee when his cell phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Where are you?" Chuck asked without introduction.

"I'm just off Exit 37," Rich replied. "Had to refuel my car... and myself..."

"I'm not too far from you. Why don't you stay there and I'll meet you and we'll discuss strategy." Chuck sounded so very official, but Rich didn't bother to poke fun at him. He figured that Chuck was probably just as exhausted and worried as he was.

About 15 minutes later Chuck pulled into the Chevron parking lot. "Dude, you look like hell, lemme buy you a cup of coffee," Richard told him.

"Thanks, but I'll take a Red Bull instead," Chuck replied. The two men walked into the mini-mart and Chuck briefed Richard as they purchased two cans of the energy drink. "I've been up and down almost every exit ramp between Chris's apartment and my folks' place and I haven't seen any stalled vehicles," he said.

"I haven't seen anything, either," Richard sighed. "I checked out some of the roads off of the larger exits – even showed her picture to some of the long-haul drivers at a couple of truck stops. But...nothing so far."

Chuck sounded sadly resigned as he said, "I guess it's time we head back to my parents' house and wait until we meet that 24-hour time limit so we can file Missing Person reports as quickly as we can with every agency in the area."

Rich simply nodded, not trusting himself to speak. He and Chuck were both afraid to verbalize what they were thinking what might have happened to Coreen.

"There are two more exit ramps on the way back to my folks' house that I'd like to check again. I only sort of pulled off quickly and did a quick glance before, not quite a thorough search..."

"Sure, you lead the way and I'll follow you," Richard agreed.

The second of the two exits Chuck wanted to re-examine was the Mercy Road ramp. The one that had never been completed and led to a dead end. Chuck pulled his car to the side and parked and Richard pulled up behind him.

"It's so dark and abandoned here," Chuck told his brother-in-law, "that I didn't really look too far..." In fact, the first time he'd checked this exit, he hadn't even gotten out of his car. But this time he decided to inspect the area more thoroughly on foot, equipped with the NightSearcher Panther flashlight he carried with him while on the job in the Montana wilderness. Richard followed him, feeling slightly anxious because it was not only dark and desolated, but as the sun started to rise there was a heavy fog in the distance.

They crept slowly up the pavement and then stopped at a "Road Ends" construction barrier. "Looks like the end of the line," Richard started to say when Chuck interrupted him. "Look!" He directed his flashlight past the barrier onto the dirt road. "Those look like fresh tire tracks."

Richard automatically followed his brother-in-law when he walked around and past the barrier...after all, this was a guy used to tracking poachers in the forest.

They walked for several minutes and then they both spotted it at the same time. Illuminated in the distance by Chuck's industrial-strength flashlight was a white VW Beetle. "Oh my God," Richard gasped as Chuck ran ahead of him.

Rich caught up with Chuck and they both noticed that the car seemed to be abandoned. Coreen was nowhere to be found. But it was definitely her car – "Look," Richard pointed through the half-open driver's side window, "that's the leather jacket that Claudia gave Coreen for Christmas."

Chuck noticed that not only was Coreen's leather jacket laying on the passenger seat, her purse was on the floor just in front of it, and the keys were still in the ignition. He pulled out his cell phone. "Damn it!" He growled. "No reception." He stood in place for a few minutes and held his phone up in the air and tilted it in different directions. Still nothing. "You stay here," he told Rich. "and don't touch anything. I'm going to go back along the ramp until I can get a signal, even if it means I have to drive someplace..."

"Will do," Rich replied weakly. All he could do was stand and stare into Reeny's car. His stomach had knotted up when Chuck had ordered him to not touch anything. He'd understood that that was an effort to preserve "evidence" and not add any fingerprints or anything...