Dead Silver

49

I tossed restlessly through most of the night, then got up early and spent a couple of hours drinking coffee and thinking things over, waiting for Gary or Renee to call and let me know what was in the offing. But whatever that was, it probably wouldn't involve me, and I wasn't sure of what to do next.

I'd made it clear to Gary that I'd be happy to help if he could use me, and he'd said he'd keep that in mind. But with the cops stepping in, amateur hour was over, and I didn't want to risk doing anything that might get in their way or muddy the waters. I was healed up well enough to start working at Split Rock again and I couldn't keep ignoring that job forever, but neither could I imagine trying to get back into it right now.

So I puttered around my place, mulling and fretting, until the phone finally rang about eight-thirty. For once, I jumped at it.

But the tense harsh voice that spoke into my ear was Madbird's.

"Darcy didn't show up for work," he said, with no preliminaries. "I'm at her apartment; I broke in. She ain't here but her car and purse are, and things don't look right. I need the cops, but I ain't sure they'll listen when I point them at Fraker. If you'd call the sheriff, that might get things moving."

"You really think he did something to her?" The opposite had flashed across my mind right off-that Fraker might have gotten horny enough to patch things up with Darcy. But Madbird would be way on top of all those kinds of possibilities. That he even considered calling the police was a measure of how concerned he was, and his next words iced that.

"He threatened her yesterday," Madbird said. "I just found that out; Hannah wouldn't tell me before."

Jarred out of my own little stew pot, I said, "I'll call Gary right now. See you as soon as I can get there."