Missing In Conard County. Rachel Lee

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      He saw realization dawning on her face. “You’re suggesting they weren’t conscious? At least the driver?” Then she paused and swore. “Rusty said some guys passed their table briefly and chatted with them.”

      “Enough time,” he answered.

      She nodded, her expression growing even grimmer. She squatted to take a look at the pavement for herself, then straightened to study the shoulder once again. “Okay, I’m heading back to the tavern. Maybe Rusty knows who some of those guys were.”

      “I’m coming with you.”

      Animal control was part of the sheriff’s department, but Al wasn’t a standard deputy. It wasn’t exactly pro forma for him to go along on an investigation, but everyone else was busy at the moment, and Kelly thought extra brains could always be useful.

      “Let’s go.”

      Despite the traffic hang-up around the scene, they got through quickly and were soon whizzing toward Rusty’s. Bugle, in his backseat cage, knew Al so didn’t seem disturbed by the addition of another person.

      “It makes sense,” Kelly said, although she didn’t want to believe it.

      “That someone could have drugged them? It’s a wild hair, Kelly. It just popped into my head and wouldn’t let go.”

      “I get it, but it still makes sense. Some guys stopped by their table to talk. And frankly, Al, considering these were young women out on a holiday weekend for some fun, they left Rusty’s awfully early. I found the abandoned car just before eleven. When you were that age, did you call it a night that early?”

      “No,” he admitted. “Never.”

      “Exactly. No one was waiting for them, it was New Year’s, all the parties would have been the night before. It’s entirely possible that someone slipped something into their drinks and when they started to feel odd they decided to go home.”

      And that was crossing a lot of bridges with very little evidence, she thought. But it did make sense. She had to at least find out what guys were talking to them, if Rusty knew. Then she could interview them to see what more she could learn.

      “Anyway,” she said more to herself than him, “I didn’t think of trying to track these guys down when Rusty mentioned them because he made it seem like it was all brief and in passing. I think I ought to kick my own butt. I should have gotten suspicious right then.”

      “Cut yourself some slack,” Al said. “Three girls together at a table. A lot of men would stop by, get the brush-off and move on. Normal behavior. Nothing to stand out.”

      “Except the girls are missing.” She clenched her teeth until her jaw ached, and when she turned into Rusty’s parking lot she sprayed gravel.

      She climbed out, leaving Bugle in the car with a cracked window and the heater on. Ten minutes. If this took longer, she’d come out and get her dog.

      She slammed the SUV door emphatically, glanced at the watch on her wrist and marched toward the door, hardly aware that Al was on her heels.

      Just then she was feeling awfully stupid. Stupid, and cold as the night nipped at her cheeks and the wind tossed her hair. She hoped the missing young women were safe and warm.

      But she seriously doubted they were.

      A COUPLE OF people had evidently showed up for work. A woman of about forty, wearing a leather fringed skirt, was making her way around the tables, lighting the hurricane lanterns. A younger man used a push broom on the dance floor, clearing off any remains of last night’s revels.

      “Already?” Rusty said, arching a brow as he pushed a spout into the top of a whiskey bottle.

      “Some thoughts occurred,” Kelly said. “Al?”

      Rusty looked at him. “I know you. The animal control guy. What’s up?”

      Al unzipped his jacket halfway. Rusty didn’t keep the place overwarm, but warm enough that winter gear could be suffocating. “Al Carstairs. I’ve got just a couple of questions, if you don’t mind.”

      “You looking for these girls, too? I’m not surprised. Half the county will be out there tomorrow. Wish it wasn’t so late right now. So, what can I do you for?”

      “There’s a chance the girls, or at least the driver, were unconscious when they went off the road.”

      Rusty straightened until he was stiff. He looked toward the table where the young women had been sitting just the night before. “Yeah?” he said hoarsely.

      “Not sure,” Kelly hastened to say. “Just an idea we’re looking into.”

      Rusty nodded. He turned his attention again to Al. “What do you want to know?”

      “You said some men stopped by their table. Do you remember who?”

      Kelly had turned on her cell phone recorder and placed it on the bar so Rusty would know she was recording. He looked at it briefly.

      “I gotta think,” he said. “Like I told Kelly, I wasn’t paying close attention. There was nothing that made me think anything was going on except three kids drinking soda together and having a great time. Two brunettes, one bottle blonde.”

      “Chantal,” Al interpolated. “The blonde. Turned eighteen two months ago. Hard worker. Never heard a complaint out of her about cleaning my kennels. She did love the animals, though. Talked about wanting to be a veterinarian.”

      Kelly drank in the facts, but wondered why Al felt it necessary to add them. To make Chantal seem more real to Rusty?

      Maybe it had worked, because Rusty’s frown turned really dark. “Yeah, she stood out. The other two were cute, too. Having a great time together.”

      “Jane wanted to be an EMT,” Kelly volunteered.

      Without another word, Rusty leaned his hands on the bar and looked down, eyes closed. He appeared to be straining to remember the night before. After a minute, he looked up and called, “Martha? Those teen girls who were here last night?”

      The woman, carrying her electric match, came over to the bar. Her fading red hair was caught neatly into a netted bun, and the harsh sun and wind had given her a few wrinkles around her eyes and mouth. “Blonde and two brunettes? Youngest gals in here? Yeah. They was cute.”

      “Some guys talked to them. I can’t remember who. Maybe one was Don Blevin?”

      Martha shook her head. “I saw a couple of guys. Let me think. Dang, Rusty, we had so many folks in here last night.”

      “I know,” he answered heavily.

      Martha’s eyes suddenly widened and she looked at Kelly’s uniform. “Is these the girls what’s missing? Oh my God...”

      “That’s why it’s so important that you tell us everything you can remember,” Kelly said. “Everything. How did they get their drinks? Who talked to them? Did anything seem...off?”

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