Page 83 of Cougar Point

A trusty is in the hallway with a floor cleaner running. Roberts tells the man. “Turn that off for a minute, Ludwig.” The machine goes silent but the trusty doesn’t leave. Good. I want him to hear this and pass it on.

Roberts says, “I’ve talked to all the trusties and staff. No one had any idea he was going to skedaddle.”

Skedaddle.I haven’t heard that word for a while. Sheriff Gray used to say it. He’d say, “Why don’t you skedaddle off home.” I’m sure Ronnie will look the word up when we leave here.

Longbow says to us, “What can you tell me? It might help us figure out what’s got up Duke’s ass. Excuse my language, ladies.”

The trusty is still there. Ronnie says, “We’ve been looking for my mom and her brother, Vinnie, called last night and said he needed to talk to her. He mentioned Duke. He also mentioned someone named Thundercloud.”

Sheriff Longbow and Captain Roberts exchange a look but say nothing.

I ask, “Is that name familiar to either of you?”

Longbow has a disgusted look on his face when he says, “Yeah. We know Thundercloud.”

Roberts says, “He’s a frequent flyer here. Bad dude. Dangerous. He was a cell boss. Do you know what that means?”

I do but I shake my head.

“We always had him locked up with the worst ones. He was feared even among that lot. His reputation is he bit a prisoner’s ear off. The whole cell, that’s twenty inmates, were scared of him and did whatever he said. He’d take their commissary. Stuff like that. If someone disrespected him, he’d have a few inmates pound the guy into hamburger meat. Sorry for the image but there’s no other way to describe it. He was a trusty a very short time but spent most of his time here mostly in isolation.”

“Was he ever a trusty when my uncle was one?” Ronnie asks.

“Could have been,” Roberts says. “They’re both gamblers.”

Ronnie says, “They gamble in here?”

“They do a lot of things in here. We keep the worst of it out, but we don’t have enough jailers to do much good.” Roberts asks, “Any idea what Vinnie was going to tell you? Did he tell anyone?”

“No.”

Longbow asks, “Do you know how to contact your uncle? Maybe he knows where our runaway is hiding.”

“He’s coming to Bellingham to meet us,” I say. “I was hoping someone here knew where Duke was. Duke is Vinnie’s only friend. Now Duke is gone and we were hoping he could get the truth out of Vinnie about his sister.”

Sheriff Longbow looks at Roberts. Roberts says, “I’ve talked to everyone. Inmates. Staff. Kitchen help. No one has a clue.”

Ronnie sighs. “Well, it was worth a shot.” She hands Roberts a card. “Call me if you hear anything. Anything at all. I’m…” Her words trail off, and I put an arm across her shoulder.

“It’ll be okay, Ronnie. We’ll find her,” I say, and look up at Longbow and Roberts with what I hope are sad and pleading eyes. Ronnie wipes a real tear from the corner of her eye with a knuckle. I didn’t teach her that.

We get up and I say, “Well, thank you, gentlemen, for everything you’ve done. I’ll get her home.” Ronnie is making that ugly “I’m gonna cry” face and more tears roll. She even convinces me. Maybe it’s not an act.

We get outside and I put my hand on Ronnie’s arm. “Are you okay?”

She giggles. “How was that? Do you think I got their sympathy?”

Too good.“It was okay.”

“Just okay? I should get an Oscar.”

“Okay. I’ll admit you did an excellent crybaby act. Even the ugly face was convincing.” I smile on the inside. “Let’s go.”

FIFTY-THREE

To spread word that Vinnie’s in Bellingham, we plan to go to Custer to the No Name Bar and then back to Lynden to the Word of the Lamb shelter. We arrive at the crossroads in Custer and get out at the No Name Bar. It’s well after noon and we haven’t heard from Jack or Rebecca.

“We can eat lunch here if you’ve had your hepatitis shots,” I say.

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