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“West Magnolia! Mud Lake! I could show you those! Great hikes! Wildlife! I take so many pictures you wouldn’t even believe it. Mud Lake, I know it’s an ugly name, but it’s really pretty!”
“I think it sounds great,” Danny says, then adds something else that’s nothing but the truth: “I miss you, Stevie.”
Now that Stevie knows he won’t have to forego the group home—and maybe Janet—he looks almost ecstatic. “I miss you, too, Danny-bo-banny. You should come! Rocky Mountain High, in Col-o-raaado.”
“Sounds good. I’ll tell you what’s going on when I know more.”
“Good. That’s good. Give me one. But quick, my break’s almost over.”
Once more Danny is ready. “King Oscar sardines.”
Stevie laughs. “End of Aisle 6, top shelf on the left, just before the end-cap. Four-pack, nine dollars and ninety-nine cents.”
“You’re the best, Stevie. They are lucky to have you.”
“I know,” Stevie says. And chortles.
45
On Monday, Jalbert is called to Wichita to make a report on the Yvonne Wicker case. Top brass will be present, also the county attorney from Wilder County. Dart County doesn’t even have a county attorney, Jalbert tells Davis.
“Do you want me to go with you?” Ella asks.
“No. What I want is for you to press Coughlin on where he was during those blanks in the first three weeks of June. And you need to knock on doors in that trailer park. Talk to Becky Richardson—”
“I did—”
He makes a chopping gesture with one hand, a gesture that’s very unlike him. “Talk to her again. And talk to her daughter. Ask if Coughlin ever made her uncomfortable. You know, touching.”
“Jesus, Frank!”
“Jesus what? You think what he did to Miss Yvonne just came out of nowhere? There will have been signs. Now are you with me on this or not?”
“Yes, sure.”
“Good. Nineteen.”
“What?”
“It’s the only good prime number,” Jalbert says, then makes the chopping gesture again. “Never mind. Knock on doors. Find something. We can’t let him leave Wilder County, let alone the state. I’ll take care of Wichita.”
“Can you convince them to arrest Coughlin?”
“I’m going to try,” Jalbert says, “but don’t hold your breath.”
He leaves. Davis goes to Oak Grove and starts knocking on doors, although not on Danny Coughlin’s; after their conversation at the Coffee Hut, she’s not ready to talk with him again. Becky Richardson is home but on her way out, telling Davis she has to do a favor for a friend. She has nothing new to add anyway, only that she and Coughlin had a relationship but now are quits. The daughter, Darla Jean, stares at Davis from in front of the TV with big eyes. Ella makes no attempt to interview her.
At eleven o’clock, after a series of fruitless interviews that have told her nothing new except Danny has agreed to leave the park, she calls Plains Truth. She half-expects voicemail, but the phone is answered by a young man. “Yell-o.”
“I’d like to speak to Peter Andersson, please.”
“That’s me.”
“Mr. Andersson, I’m Inspector Ella Davis of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. I’d like to talk to you about Daniel Coughlin.”
There’s a long pause. Davis is about to ask if Andersson is still there when he speaks again, sounding younger than ever. “I was given a good tip and I published it, okay? If there was something wrong with giving out his name, I didn’t know.”
Ignorance of the law is no excuse, Davis thinks, but in this case there’s no law anyway—just accepted practice.
