The Trap

Chapter 2

Chapter Two

“Mark, Pam Hunt is on the line for you.” Gail gestured toward him with the phone. Her bulky purse was already packed, resting on her desk, one of the signs he knew well that she was getting ready to leave and the chief was likely two steps from opening the door. Gail stood behind the desk and rested the black office phone back in the cradle. Her gaze was pointed in that motherly way of hers.

Mark walked back to his desk, holding his steaming coffee, staring at the office door, still expecting the chief any second. “Pam Hunt… Should I know who that is?” He glanced to the clock, coming up on ten. Yay. This would be a really long day with the chief. The dread was there, as they had been circling each other constantly like dogs.

“Pam, who runs the DCFS office here. Come on, Mark, you should know her. Doesn’t she work with your girlfriend?”

He wasn’t sure what expression was on his face. Gail was already looking away, pulling a compact from her bag and sliding some lipstick over her lips. “Billy Jo is not my girlfriend,” he said. “We’re friends. That’s it. Why do I have to keep telling everyone?”

There it was, the flash of humor in her light blue eyes. She pressed her lips together, giving him that odd smile of hers as she tossed her lipstick and compact back in her bag. She again flicked him that motherly look. “Lighten up, Mark. Just having fun at your expense.”

He only shook his head and reached for the phone. Why would Pam be calling him? As he held the receiver, he watched the blinking light of the line. “She asked for me by name?”

“Yes, Mark, she asked for you. That’s why she’s waiting there on hold and why I said she’s on the phone for you. So why don’t you pick up and ask her nicely what you can help her with? You know, be the good cop you’re supposed to be—helpful, community minded…” Her tone dripped with sarcasm.

He glanced to Carmen’s empty desk. He hadn’t seen her this morning, which was unusual. He pressed the button on the office phone and picked it up, unsure whether he’d ever had a conversation with Pam. “Detective Friessen,” he said, knowing he was keeping it cool.

“Hi, Detective, this is Pam Hunt. I don’t know if you remember me. I work with Billy Jo, and I’m wondering if maybe you’ve heard from her… Maybe last night or this morning?”

He wasn’t sure what he was picking up on in her voice, in her tone. There was an edge to it. He thought about the last time he’d seen Billy Jo, walking out of the post office how many days earlier. She had ducked her head and he’d kept walking. Evidently, they were back to that again.

“Not recently. Why, what’s up?” He took a swallow of his coffee, watching Gail tuck files from the cabinet behind her into her bag. Case files?

“Well, I haven’t seen her this morning. She was supposed to pick up a girl last night, a late-night call, but this morning I got a call from the Pearsons, the placement home, and they said they waited up all night and no one showed up. And she’s not answering her cell phone.”

Gail had her keys in hand and had lifted her bag over her shoulder. He wanted to know what files she was taking, of course. Maybe the chief had asked her to bring them home?

“I’m sure there’s an explanation,” he said. “A late-night call… Maybe she went back to bed. Maybe there wasn’t an issue after all. I’ll try her cell phone, but it’s likely she’s sleeping.”

“Look, I’ve called her cell phone four times,” Pam said. “If she was answering, I wouldn’t be calling you now, would I? This isn’t like her. She’s had late-night calls before, but she’s still always first here. She said she’d been told to pick up a girl. She’d have left me a message if something had changed.”

He pulled in a breath, knowing he was going to have to drive over to her place. He’d have to talk to her. He could already imagine the awkwardness that lingered between them now because he knew her better than he ever had any girl before. Sharing, talking… She knew too many of the kinds of secrets he didn’t share with anyone.

“I’ll call her and then drive over to her place,” he said. “She’ll likely be pissed because I woke her up.”

He heard the sigh on the other end of the phone. “Well, tell her to call me, because I have to call the Pearsons back on whether to expect the girl she was supposed to drop off. They aren’t happy. No, scratch that. They’re furious, actually, and are on my ass, ready to take a chunk out, so to speak. You know what I mean? It’s hard enough to find people ready and willing to take a kid in on a moment’s notice…”

He didn’t miss the sharpness in her tone. He lifted his gaze to the ceiling, wondering how her worry had suddenly turned into a rant. “I hear what you’re saying, Pam, but I’m sure it’s—”

“What? That she forgot to call, or was it something else?” She cut him off as if she were scolding him.

He was well aware that forgetting to call back was something Billy Jo didn’t do. Before he could add anything, Pam continued.

“You just let her know that Jill Pearson waited up all night after I called and told her a girl was being dropped off. She’s tired and angry. Billy Jo can call her back and explain and smooth it over with her, because I won’t.”

It wasn’t lost on him how quickly her worry had changed to annoyance. “I will let her know. Anything else?”

There was silence for a second. “I think that’s all—other than to let her know that when she doesn’t show up in the morning, I’m the one who has to field questions and calls with no answers to give, and I don’t appreciate it.”

He only nodded, figuring Pam could go on and on. “Duly noted, Pam. I’m sure Billy Jo didn’t go out of her way to make things difficult for you. How about I just go over to hers and let her know she needs to talk to you, and then the two of you can work this out?”

He could feel Gail watching him, but he didn’t look over to her. There was silence on the other end. “Anything else I can do for you, Pam?” he finally said, keeping his tone professional, wondering for only a second what this was between the two women. The last thing he wanted was to step into it.

“I think that’s all. Just…”

“Okay, Pam. The quicker I get out to Billy Jo’s and get you two back in touch with each other, the quicker she can handle whatever needs to be handled,” he said, then hung up before she could add one more thing.

“What’s going on? Problem?” was all Gail said. Did she have any idea that Pam could go on and on?

Just then, the front door opened and the chief walked in. Mark yanked open his drawer and pulled out the keys for his Jeep, then glanced down at the dog he still hadn’t named, who was curled up on the dog bed Gail had picked up.

“Billy Jo hasn’t checked in at the office this morning. The short of it, from what Pam said, is that she had a late-night call to pick up a girl who was supposed to be taken to some foster place for the night, but she didn’t show, so I’m heading over to her place. I’ll knock on her door. She’s probably asleep. Maybe it wasn’t the situation she expected, and if she was up most of the night, it’s likely she and Pam got their wires crossed. Come on, dog,” he called out.

From across the room, the chief was staring at him with that hard, unsmiling gaze, those icy blue eyes that he knew carried a world of secrets, the kinds he didn’t want to get too close to. He just waited, feeling as if something was coming. The dog nudged his side, and he found himself looking back over to Gail, who was only nodding as she slid her hand over the strap of her bag across her shoulder.

“Well, you’d better get going,” was all she said.

The chief didn’t pull his gaze from him, but he did step back and drawl, “When you’re back from your errand, Mark, I need you here, manning the phones.” He was a big man, and for a moment he could feel the tension that would likely always be there.

“Tolly, you have your own work to do and a number of messages on your desk,” Gail said, gesturing.

The chief dragged his gaze over to her, then stepped back again, and this time Mark walked past him and pulled open the door. The dog trotted out ahead of him. When he glanced back to Gail and the chief, it seemed something else was going on there. Based on the tension, he definitely didn’t want to know what that was about.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” he said, then pulled the door closed behind him and started over to his Jeep.

He didn’t know why, but it seemed this stalemate with the chief was going in only one direction, from bad to worse.