Chapter 2

Amy

Earlier That Morning

I ’ve spent my entire life striving to be the opposite of my mom in almost every conceivable way. I’m outspoken, brash, and I don’t let people push me around. If I want something, I set a goal for myself and I don’t let anything pull me off task. I managed to pull us up out of the dirt and keep a roof over our heads, food on the table, and made sure she got her meds every month.

Unfortunately, my mother, Carol, came from an abusive background. Because of that, she learned to be quiet, do as she was told, and tends to make herself small to keep from drawing unwanted attention. I never knew exactly what had scared her so much, though it didn’t take a genius to figure out it had something to do with my grandfather. He wasn’t physically abusive, but her childhood veered between being neglected and being treated like an unpaid servant. She’d been estranged from her father for years, I used to see him occasionally when my step-grandmother was alive, though he’d never wanted much to do with me. But after she died a year and a half ago, the visits grew less frequent.

I tried to draw my mom out of her shell, but she was too scared to leave the house most days and terrified of talking to a therapist about what she’d been through. She thought hiding away was the best way to keep herself safe.

It didn’t work. I know, because she wound up missing one day. She’s been listed as a missing person for coming up on seven months. Las Salinas is a small rural town, and an easy ride to the West Coast. It’s both heaven and hell, for me. I wanted to get out of this town so badly and move to the city, but my mother flat out refused. So, I stayed because I couldn’t bear to leave her all alone.

I believe she was abducted, because there’s no way my mom would leave me, and she’d barely go to the grocery store by herself. I was working the day she went missing, I had a photography business, and I was happily taking baby portraits while something dreadful happened to my mom. The cops think she skipped town or that she met a man and ran away with him. Which is absolutely crazy, often a man just had to look at her and she’d shrink into herself in fear. I can tell they’re just counting down the days until their chain of command lets them close down the active investigation. The thought of my mom’s case being filed in the cabinet alongside dozens of other cold cases haunts me almost as much as the thought of her lifeless body being abandoned in the thousands of acres of barren wilderness out in the California desert.

Standing in my rented room, I read over the e-mail from the pharmacy. It’s confirmation that her meds have been delivered as scheduled for the last seven months. Although it’s a small-town pharmacy with a habit of doing things their own way, I finally managed to persuade the pharmacist to give me the information. My mom had a breakdown a few years ago and at the time I was given power of attorney for her medical care. That had never been withdrawn, and my Google searches for online free legal advice suggested that it might still be active.

The hand holding my cell phone drops to my side as I contemplate what this means. My mom has a complicated medical history. In addition to her mental health problems, she’s an insulin-dependent diabetic with high blood pressure and has several other issues requiring maintenance meds. In other words, she literally cannot survive without medical support. Lifting the phone up again, I stare at the message. My lips press into a thin line as the reality of what I’m seeing sinks in. For the last seven months her meds have been going to my grandfather’s farm, the one place on earth she never wanted to see again.

My grandfather, Rufus Grayson, is the kind of asshole no one wants for a relative. My mom’s been no-contact with her father for years, and up until my mom went missing, I’d not spoken to him for almost eighteen months. Since she’s been gone, I’d visited him a few times and called to see if he had any idea where she was, the old bastard just laughed in my face. For a father, he didn’t seem to have one ounce of compassion for his daughter, and I had wondered if something had gone wrong with his mind after my step-grandmother died. Once, the farm had been a home—a cold, unfeeling home with rules and regulations, but a home none-the-less—but now it was empty, save for a bitter old man and his four freakish farmhands. All this time, he claimed to know nothing about her whereabouts, and now I come to find out, her meds were being delivered to his place.

Well, fuck this! I’m getting to the bottom of this right damn now. Grabbing my cross-body bag, I sling it over my head. Adjusting it at my waist, I cram my phone into one of the front pockets. Furious, I stomp out to my old beat-up Chevy and fire up the engine.

***

As I drive out to the farm, all the times that my grandfather denied knowing where she was circle around in my head, and I decide I’m going to get the truth out of him if it’s the last thing I do.

My mind rolls around that threat in my head to see if I have any hope of finding leverage to force his cooperation. Not surprisingly, I come up empty handed.

There will be no storming the place to look for her, because he has four rough farmhands who are all too eager to do his bidding, especially if it means putting their hands on a woman. I don’t even know if the police would entertain the idea of raiding his place or if a judge would issue a search warrant based on my gut feeling that if her meds were redirected to his house then there must be a reason. My grandfather is holding her there, or at least he knows where she’s being held.

I pull up at his place when the sun is high in the midmorning sky. He walks towards me in the same camouflage pants, khaki green jacket, and orange ballcap he always wears. This time he has his rifle cradled in the crook of his arm. His two hyperactive hunting dogs are jumping around, probably hoping for treats. I wrinkle my nose as he gets close, he smells of body odor, tobacco, booze, and dogs. Out of that collection of scents, the smell of dog is the most preferable.

His gruff voice asks, “Did you come to stay or just to snoop. If it’s the latter, you’d best leave, I’m done with you, Carol.”

Carol? I’m momentarily puzzled as to why he’s calling me by my mom’s name. Not backing down to his not-so-subtle intimidation, I tell him, “I got confirmation from the pharmacy that my mom’s meds were redirected here.”

“And what of it?” The tone of his voice is slow and careful as if I’ve finally hit upon something that might implicate him in her disappearance.

“Why are her meds coming here?” I shoot back. “You insist she’s not living here, right? You have to admit, that don’t hardly make any sense.” I was using one of his favorite turns of phrase, maybe to connect with him, and lure him into seeing me as his granddaughter instead of the enemy.

“What don’t hardly make no sense, is for you to still be circling around my ranch after all these years, accusing me of doing things I didn’t do.”

Years? My step-grandmother died eighteen months ago, it wasn’t long after that I stopped dropping by. I wonder for a moment if my grandfather is going a bit cuckoo, but then I stop feeling sorry for him. I’m here to find my mom. I decided to be sly, like he’s always trying to be. “What if I called the police to do a wellness check on the person you claim isn’t here, would they find all those meds or are they gone? If the pharmacist says they were delivered and you can’t produce them, either you sold them, or gave them to her.”

He steps out to meet me, his expression inscrutable. “You tryin’ to set me off today, youngin’? Y’aint spoken to your old Pa in years. Why come back now?”

“I’m just trying to find my mom.” Taking a step closer, I gaze up into his cold eyes. “She’s your daughter as well as my mother. I find it strange that you aren’t moving heaven and earth trying to find her as well. One would almost think you’re not worried because you know where she is.”

His hand comes out hard and fast. I step back before he can grab me, and he only gets the tail end of my long scarf. I reach out to yank it out of his hand, but the old buzzard is stronger and snatches it from me, causing it to jerk from around my neck.

The minute he kneels down and lets his dogs sniff at it, I know I’m in deep shit. He’s not gonna let me leave here today, just like he didn’t let my mom leave seven months ago I suspect. Only, I’ve got to escape or there’ll be no one left to look for her.

Whirling around, I make a run for my car.

“That’s right girlie, run away, just like you did years ago.” I can hear him laughing as I head towards the cornfields.

Then I hear the blood chilling howls as his dogs start baying. The bastard is gonna hunt me down like a deer. I run as fast as I can. Running for my life. The highway is just on the other side of the field. If only I can get that far, I can hitch a ride to town and alert the police to what just happened.

I’m athletic and flight of foot, so I eventually pull away from his sniffing hounds by running through the narrow stream that runs through his land. I know it won’t stop the dogs for long and they’ll pick up my scent, but it will buy me some time.

I can hear the dogs howling as I run through those cornstalks for what seems like forever. Eventually, I scramble up the embankment and reach the edge of the highway, waving my hands frantically for a vehicle to stop.

By a stroke of luck, the first car I wave down is my old Sunday school teacher, Mrs. Buren. She comes to a skidding stop and her eyes widen when she sees me. “Amy Beth Grayson! What are you running from girl, the devil himself?”

I run around and get into her passenger seat. Giving her a nervous glance, I respond honestly, “Almost as bad. I was running from my grandfather’s hunting dogs.”

She makes a disgruntled sound and hits the gas. “Those creatures need to be put down. Did you know they bit my Jimmy Jay when he was deer hunting a couple of years back?”

“No, ma’am. I’m real sorry that happened to him though. I hope he wasn’t too badly injured.”

“Those mangy mutts travel in pairs. He ended up with sixteen stitches in his leg. It probably would have been worse if he hadn’t fought them off with the butt of his rifle.”

I’m honestly horrified to hear about her son. My heart is still racing, and I can hardly pay attention to all her complaints about the dogs, because I’m still coming to grips with the fact that my own grandfather tried to attack me just now. The situation sounds surreal, but my gut tells me that’s what his intention was.

“Rufus thinks because he owns a big spread, he can do as he likes. I should have sued the pants off him, but my husband said that would be asking for trouble.”

“Well, you’re not wrong about him being an island unto himself. He certainly deserved a lawsuit over all the pain and suffering your son endured.”

She gives me firm nod. “If I had it to do over again, I wouldn’t let my husband dissuade me from doing what was right.”

We keep trash talking my grandfather because we’re both rightly pissed with him. He’s a gigantic pain in the ass. My mind keeps going back to what he was saying about me, it’s like he thought I was my mom. But if he was holding her, why would he be saying that? Nothing makes sense. However, by the time she lets me out at the police station, I’m feeling more elated than scared, because now I have enough justification for them to get a search warrant for his house and property.

The minute I walk in, Sergeant Pike begins shaking his head. “I don’t know what you’re up to this morning, Amy Beth, but the answer is no.”

I take a deep calming breath and square my shoulders before saying, “All I want is for you to do your job. I found evidence that my grandfather might be involved in my mother’s disappearance.”

“Not that again. Look, Amy Beth, we investigated that and found no indication of foul play. Rufus might be an ornery old coot, but he’s an upstanding member of this community.”

My hand comes up and I put my palm out. “My mom’s case is still open, therefore it’s still your job to continue the investigation and I’m telling you, I’ve found proof that she’s at the farm.”

His voice becomes exasperated. “I’ve personally looked at this from every angle, Amy Beth. There was no break in at your old place, no sign of a struggle inside, and that fifty bucks is still sittin’ in her bank account.”

I try shaming him because I’ll do absolutely anything to get my mom back. “You used to be a good cop. You fought the good fight, and people could count on you to do the right thing. What the hell happened?”

His expression shuts down and he grits out, “I’m just as dedicated as I ever was, girl. I’ve just learned to prioritize the cases I have some hope of solving. We’re understaffed and don’t have the manpower to go gallivanting off every time you get a wild idea in your head that you think might be a clue.”

Since nothing else is working, I lure him with a promise. “You should be eager to hear this new information. It might bust the case wide open.”

His eyes light up for a second before his expression turns suspicious. “You better not be feeding me a line, Amy Beth.”

I bring my hand up and use one finger to make an X on my chest. “Cross my heart, Sergeant Pike. I wouldn’t joke about something like this.”

He motions for me to sit down at his desk and pulls out a reporting form. Most of the other officers type it into their computers, but David Pike is not only old, he’s old school.

He sighs, pen poised, “What do you have for me today, girl?”

I launch into the whole spiel about how the pharmacist just verified this morning that my mom’s meds had been redirected to my grandfather’s farm for the last seven months, and why would he do that unless she was there and needed those meds to stay alive.

I can tell I’ve captured his attention. That glassy, bored, dead-eyed look he normally gives me has been replaced with genuine interest.

“What medication is she on, exactly? One of his farmhands might have done that in order to sell the pills.”

I reach into my purse and pull out a copy of her med list. It’s the one we were given the last time she saw her doctor. “This is everything she’s on. I don’t know the costs of anything.”

I wait while his eyes scan over the list. He drops it onto his desk. “She’s not on any medication that would have street value. That makes your theory that she’s at Grayson’s place more likely, than fraud.”

“That’s what I thought. I went out this morning and confronted him.”

“You shouldn’t have done that, Amy Beth. You know your grandfather’s a cantankerous old fool who is far too used to getting his own way. He’s not been right since your grandma died.”

“You ain’t wrong about that, sir. When I told him I was going to report this new bit of information to the police, he set his hunting dogs on me.”

Sergeant Pike went ramrod straight in his chair. “Those dogs of his are practically feral. I tried to get an order to have them put down a couple of years ago, but the judge wouldn’t sign off on it.”

“Do you think all this is enough to get a search warrant?”

He nods. “Yeah, but if what you’re saying is the truth, time is of the essence. Rufus might move her since he knows we’re coming.”

My stomach twists in knots as I realize that he’s right. I never should have gone out there myself. I might have messed up our only chance to get to her before he moves her.

Before I can apologize, he speaks up, “Instead of taking the time to get a search warrant, I’d be willing to go out on a limb and make a wellness check based on this information. A family member or concerned citizen has to request one though.”

Hope blooms in my chest because this might be the day I finally find my mom. “Alright, I’m my mother’s power of attorney and I want you to do a wellness check because I believe she’s at my grandfather’s house because that’s where her meds were redirected to after she went missing.”

The sergeant’s hand comes out to rest on mine, and he gives it a little squeeze. “I know this thought has probably never entered your mind, but on the off-chance that we find her there and she doesn’t want to leave, we can’t make her.”

I snatch my hand away and shake my head vehemently. “My mother never wanted to set foot back on that farm, she’s been estranged from my grandfather for years. Trust me, we’re not gonna find any happy ending at that farm today.”

“No, we’re not, because you aren’t going back there. You’ve done your part by requesting the wellness check. Now let us do our part by going out there and checking up on your mother.”

“I’ve got to get back there. Those vicious dogs of his kept me from getting to my car. I need to get it back because it’s the only ride I’ve got.”

He sighs, “I simply don’t trust you not to turn the wellness check into a screaming match with your grandfather. I know you, Amy Beth.”

I throw both hands up. “This time, I’ll get straight into my car and drive away.”

“Fine. But if you start any mess at all, I’m gonna give one of my men permission to tase you and throw your ass into the back of your own vehicle and drive you outta harm’s way. And I better not hear a peep out of you afterwards.”

I stick out my hand for him to shake. “I’ll take that deal.”

Sergeant Pike reaches out to shake my hand. “I wasn’t making a deal, so much as alerting you what is going to happen if you can’t keep control of your temper.”

“Roger that. I won’t cause any trouble whatsoever.”