Chapter 4: Saturday
Jimmy sat in the office kitchen, long legs stretched out in front of him, coffee in hand. He'd had a restless night, and finally gotten up very early, pulled on his pants and shirt and padded out to the kitchen to put some coffee on. The more he thought about his visit with Annie, the more he didn't know what to think. After the problems they had been having, he'd been grateful to feel easy with her again; but wasn't the intimacy, her kiss, out of character? He'd been relieved to hear her agree again that it was best to let Amarillo follow up the tip and find William Frost; but hadn't she agreed more readily than he would have thought? Had she mislead him about her intentions? He toyed with his phone on the table. Picked it up and put it down. Finally he called Annie.
She was a Marshal, accustomed to answering the phone wherever and whenever it rang. He'd never known her not to answer her phone. But the call went to voicemail, and Jimmy's unease deepened. He tried again ten minutes later, but then dragged on his boots and headed for the car and Annie's apartment. If her phone was off it was intentional, and the intent had to be to prevent him contacting her.
Two hours later he was on his way to the airport. When her truck had been gone, he'd picked the lock and entered Annie's apartment, mentally apologizing for the intrusion when he searched the place: Fifty-nine, her guns and overnight bag were gone; so was the Frost file they'd left on the kitchen counter the night before. Because the vehicle she'd taken was her own truck, not one of the USMS SUVs, he hadn't been able to track it, but back in the office, he'd run her financials and cell phone. There were no hits on her credit card, but her debit card showed she'd taken cash from her bank in the middle of the night. Her cell phone was off, no location. Finally, angry and yet frightened for her, he'd bought a ticket on the next flight to Amarillo, showered, packed his own things, and set out to follow her on her search for her father.
Guns checked and himself through security, he waited at the gate, adding up the times in his head. If she'd left right after the stop at the bank she'd been gone within an hour of seeing him off the night before. She'd have made good time driving at night. Say seven hours to Abilene. It was another five hours driving from Abilene to Amarillo; she'd be there by noon if she didn't stop to rest. His flight would leave at 11:00, and with a stop in Dallas, he would get into Amarillo just before 2:00 in the afternoon. Maybe two hours behind Annie. He'd need to retrieve his guns from checked baggage and rent a truck. Maybe another hour or so to get out of the airport and into town to the USMS office on 5th Avenue. Three hours behind Annie. She'd need to sleep at some point, either in her truck somewhere along the road, or once she got to Amarillo. In spite of his later start, that might mean he would get to the Amarillo office before she did. But he knew if she rested at all she wouldn't rest long, no more than a couple of hours.
He'd called their contact in Amarillo as soon as he'd decided to fly up there, interrupting the Marshal - Reiger? Reigert? Reigert - at his daughter's Saturday morning swimming lesson. Jimmy had been surprised to learn that Reigert hadn't heard from Annie at all; he'd thought that even if she hadn't used her cell phone, she might have used a pay phone. He had filled Reigert in himself, and the other Marshal had been glad to have Jimmy confirm the identity of the man in the composite picture. He had told Jimmy their followup on the tip the previous day had yielded nothing; they had no further leads and thought it likely that Frost was only passing through, not staying in the area. He'd agreed to meet Jimmy at the office in the afternoon. Jimmy said he'd call again when he was on the ground in Amarillo, perhaps by then Annie would have been in touch. "No problem, truly," Reigert had said, "you'll be keeping me from a visit with my mother-in-law."
The flight was uneventful, although Jimmy was restless in the cramped seats of the commuter jet, earning himself a glare from the elderly woman in the window seat beside him. They arrived on schedule into Amarillo and he reclaimed his guns and rented a truck without any problems. After stowing the guns behind the seat, dropping his small duffel bag on the floor on the passenger side he sat in the truck and called Reigert back. Annie had still not been in touch.
In the office, Reigert showed Jimmy everything he had on the tip. Frost had been seen at a hardware store in Amarillo by an out-of-state postal worker on holiday with his family. He'd thought he remembered Frost from the USMS wanted posters on the bulletin boards at work. The man had not seen Frost get in a vehicle, and had seen no indication of where Frost might be heading. Nor had anyone else, although a cashier, at least, was able to confirm the sighting. She remembered serving Frost, but not what he bought; from the register history they'd concluded he'd bought a shovel, which didn't give them anything to go on. He'd paid cash.
Jimmy wandered the small office looking distractedly at the commendations and pictures on the walls while he told Reigert what he knew of the history of Annie and her father, how he'd used the young girl as a lookout in his robberies, and a decoy in his cons, dragging her with him across the southwest, never truly settled and sometimes actually homeless. As much as he wanted to protect Annie's privacy, it wouldn't have been fair to let Reigert look for Frost with Annie as a factor he knew nothing about. As he paced, he looked repeatedly out the windows into the hot, dry street as if expecting her truck to pull up out front. He'd had been sure that Annie, even if she hadn't wanted to talk to him, would have wanted to talk to Reigert. He'd convinced himself that she would be in touch with the Amarillo Marshal. What did it mean that she hadn't? Where had she gone instead? What did she know that he didn't? His voice wound down, and he stood staring sightlessly at a faded print; some local landscape, canyon and rocks.
"Jesus, Godfrey," Reigert finally said, "are you all right? Why are you so concerned for her? The woman's a Marshal; she can handle herself, surely?"
Jimmy turned from the picture bleakly, "In any other situation, yes. In this situation? I don't think we can know what she'll do if she finds her father. I want to find her before that happens. I thought I'd find her here. But she's gone off the grid, and I've got to believe, now, that she doesn't want to be found."