Brogue 2007 - Belhaven College

t h e b r o g u e
small paintings in local gift shops, though a lot of shops had taken them
off their shelves after the restraining order came down. Danny sighed and
glanced at the missing child poster he had tacked up beside the other. It was
of an eight-year-old girl with a beautiful snagged smile and wide brown eyes
like a startled doe. He had been there when the Johnstons placed the order,
commanding Bob Abies to have no more contact with their daughter Carin,
the day after they found the two at his cabin after she had been missing for
days. She wouldn’t talk and he admitted nothing. He hadn’t fought the
charges but had simply vanished. And a few months later, she had vanished
as well.
It was cold. Danny glanced over his shoulder across the parking lot at
the lush foothills and up to the snow-capped Olympics. The weather hardly
helped his mood, the sky gray as lead and almost as heavy. Fog and forest
seemed to be constantly closing in. He needed coffee. He threw his tools in
the back of his Explorer and drove off in search of a cuppa.
$ $ $
“Now what do you want?” The bells on the coffee shop’s door had
jingled, alerting the barista of his presence, but she hadn’t turned to greet
him.
“Umm, a triple tall nonfat latte?”
“Oh, Danny! Sorry, sweetheart, we’ve had people in here all day asking
all sorts of questions. Some of your more over-eager colleagues. And Fox
News Northwest! As if I knew anything more than you can already read in
the papers!” She sighed, still flushed and flustered, as she pressed the espresso
and started the milk steaming.
“I mean, I don’t know much about anything. I just work here, you
know?” She wiped her hands on her apron and met his eyes with blue apologetic
ones.
“Believe me, I know.” He said it with feeling. There was a little homemade
notice about Carin taped to the register. She just shook her head as she
fixed his cup, and when he tried to hand her a five, she just shut his hand on
it.
“On the house. Just try and find her soon, okay?” He nodded, thanked
her, and left. Not bothering to add that at this point there wasn’t much hope
of finding anything but a body. If that.
$ $ $
A lifetime as a ranger in Olympic National Park had taught Bob all the
trails, developed or not, in the wilderness. He had his favorite haunts, even
in the winter. If you went to the coast, you were pretty much assured long
periods of solitude, regardless of the season. If you went backcountry during
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