Prom Night in Purgatory (Slow Dance in P)

~15~

A Time to Speak





Two hours later, Johnny was still driving around, trying to decide what to do. He had been back out to the reservoir and asked around, but no one had anything to offer. No one had seen a girl in a red prom dress wandering around the area, and everyone he talked to looked at him like maybe he was a little bit nuts when he had suggested it.

It was a perfect Sunday afternoon in May, and people were out and about enjoying the day. He saw people walking out of church, all dressed up, the women in hats, the kids done up in hair bows and bow ties. Two little boys raced down the street, loosening their ties as they ran, anxious to stretch their legs and be free of church for one more week. It reminded Johnny a little of him and Billy racing home the few times Momma had made them go. It had been a long time ago, when they weren’t much bigger than the little boys he’d just seen.

Momma had been a very faithful church goer for a while, until the young preacher at the church she had chosen up and married someone else. She had quit going right after that and they had never been back. When Johnny had asked her about it, she’d seemed sad and said God didn’t need people like her in his church. Johnny hadn’t known what she meant then, but he had thought about it since. Momma just never could get past her own pretty face. She always believed it was all she had to offer, and seemed lost when it wasn’t what some men wanted. He wondered if she had been born an ugly woman if it would have served her better in the end.

He drove past the police station and thought of Chief Bailey telling him to say hello to his Momma for him. Momma would never look twice at Chief Bailey, and if Bailey were a smart man, he wouldn’t spend any time looking at Momma. Johnny slowed and pulled into the station. Nobody should be here on a Sunday - so he was a little surprised to see a black and white in the empty parking lot. Well, speak of the devil. Chief Bailey pushed through the double doors on the front of the building and headed for his car at the same moment Johnny decided he had nothing to lose.

When Clark Bailey saw Johnny Kinross step out of his low-riding Bel Air, his step slowed and his eyes narrowed the slightest bit. Johnny Kinross was the last person Chief Bailey expected to see anywhere near the police station -- and on a Sunday afternoon to boot.

Johnny leaned back against his car and watched the Police Chief walk toward him.

“Mr. Kinross. What can I do for you, son?” Chief Bailey said cordially, extending his hand toward the young man as if he were an equal and didn’t have a reputation for being a hood.

“Chief.” Johnny clasped his hand and straightened up, looking the man in the eyes, taking his measure for a half a second. He hoped he didn’t regret this.

“I wanted to file a report, I guess. I’m not sure the person’s even missing, but if she is, and I don’t do anything about it, well....I’d feel terrible if she was in trouble.”

“How long’s your momma been gone?” Chief Bailey replied, concern flitting across his amiable face.

“No, um....Momma’s fine. It’s not her I’m here for.” Johnny shook his head.

“I see. Come on inside then, Johnny, and we’ll see what we can do. It’s too damn hot out already. By August this whole town’s gonna be a big puddle; we’ll all have melted away. It’s way too hot too soon.”

Johnny followed Chief Bailey inside and felt a little of the relief the chief had promised, but he was too knotted up inside to be reassured by a little shade and a whirring fan.

“All right.” The chief sank down into his office chair and took out a pen and an official looking form. “Tell me who’s missing.”

“Her name is Maggie,” Johnny started, “and I’m gonna tell you some things that you aren’t gonna write on that paper there.” Johnny nodded his head toward the paper Chief Bailey’s pen was poised above. He stared at him until Chief Bailey sighed, threw the pen down, and sat back in his chair, tossing one leg up on the corner of his desk.

“How about we just talk for a minute, and then we’ll decide whether we need to fill out a form at all. Deal?” Chief Bailey offered, folding his hands in his lap. Johnny nodded his head in response and sat back in his own chair, slightly more comfortable.

“Her name’s Maggie.” Chief Bailey prodded him.

“Her name’s Maggie. I don’t have a last name. I know she’s related to the Honeycutts. She was with me last night at the dance. Do you remember her?”

Chief Bailey nodded and brought his linked hands up to rest them on his head. “I remember. Real pretty gal, dressed in red, right? I thought you were going to the dance with Wilkey’s daughter, so I was a little surprised to see you leave with someone else.”

Johnny didn’t come to gossip like the ladies gathered in front of the church a few blocks down, and he slowly raised one eyebrow at Chief Bailey. The chief smiled a little bit and liked the kid just that much more for his unwillingness to kiss and tell.

“All right, then. Keep going. You left the dance together. Then what?”

“We ended up at the reservoir. We danced and talked. The battery died in my car, so we couldn’t get help until the morning. We ended up falling asleep. When I woke up, she was gone, but her shoes were still there. I looked for her all morning, and I went back this afternoon. Nobody’s seen her, and I don’t know enough about her to know where else to look.”

The chief screwed up his face in concentration, looking off for several moments, his hands still resting on his head.

“Did she leave anything else behind?”

“She had a little silver purse, and it was laying on the seat of my car where she’d left it. I looked inside thinking maybe she’d left some i.d.. It was empty, though. I found a gold cap on the floor that looked like it was from a lipstick,” Johnny added. His stomach tightened even further. Talking about it made it seem all the more bizarre. None of this made any sense. Why would a girl empty out her purse, leave it behind, and leave her shoes behind as well?

“And you didn’t hear anything that woke you up, maybe alerted you that she was gone, huh?”

“No. I woke up because the sun was beating down on me, and I was hot. I couldn’t believe how long and deeply I’d slept. I saw Maggie’s shoes and thought she’d probably taken a walk along the beach, waiting for me to wake up. I could see that she had been in the car because the driver’s side door was ajar.”

“I’ll want to see the shoes and the purse, as well as the lipstick cap.”

“Aw, shit,” Johnny thought to himself and ran aggravated hands through his hair. Why hadn’t he held onto the shoes? He hadn’t been thinking, that’s why. Now he was going to have to explain to Chief Bailey all about the connection to the Honeycutts. And how was he supposed to do that without getting Maggie in a whole heap of trouble?

“Is there anything that happened at the dance or before you got to the reservoir that was out of the ordinary -- that makes you suspicious now?” Chief Bailey’s voice had become softer, and he was zeroed in on Johnny’s face, watching him, as if he knew Johnny was trying to determine what and what not to tell him.

Hell, what hadn’t happened? Johnny thought. “The whole night was out of the ordinary.” Johnny leaned forward, his arms resting on the chief’s messy desk. “Here comes the part where you and I are just gonna talk,” Johnny suggested.

Chief brought his hands down from his head and set his feet on the floor. Then he leaned forward too and leveled his eyes at Johnny.

“She took that car last night, didn’t she?”

Johnny sighed and dropped his head in defeat. Chief Bailey was no dummy. If Johnny was going to help Maggie, he couldn’t lie now.

“She did. She and Lizzie Honeycutt seem to be friendly. Lizzie helped her devise a plan to borrow the housekeeper’s car. They didn’t think Mrs. Smith would even notice it was gone, and Maggie was just going to bring it back when the dance was over.”

“Lizzie Honeycutt? Don’t you mean Irene?” The Chief of Police was a little perplexed.

“No, I mean Lizzie. Lizzie and Maggie both say they are related, but neither of them would tell me more than that. Lizzie seems to think she went home...or, in her words, ‘back where she came from.’ But she doesn’t seem to know where that is.”

“So you’ve talked to Lizzie since Maggie disappeared?”

“I went there earlier today. She hadn’t seen Maggie either, and honestly, she didn’t tell me much. She asked for the shoes -- and Maggie’s dress for that matter. Apparently Lizzie helped Maggie ‘borrow’ a dress from Irene. I handed over the shoes. I didn’t think....I’m sorry.”

Clark Bailey had resumed the position, hands on head, eyes trained on the ceiling, thinking.

“You shouldn’t have helped her leave the dance, you know.” Chief Bailey dropped his eyes and pinned a look on Johnny. “Technically, I could charge you as an accessory to a crime.”

Johnny sighed and folded his arms, a little of the hoodlum resurfacing to smirk at the chief’s bluff. “You’re not gonna do that, Chief. The car is back in the garage, no harm done, and I didn’t take it. Plus, if you’re ever gonna have a chance with my mother, you’d better not throw me in jail on a two-bit charge like that.”

Chief Bailey actually blushed a little and started moving papers around on his desk. Johnny laughed out loud.

“Chief, take it from me, it’s gonna take a catastrophic event to make my momma wake up and come to her senses. She’s a good lady, and Lord knows she’s a pretty one, but she is downright stupid when it comes to men, and you’re not her type. I actually wish you were ‘cause I think Maggie was right. I think you’re one of the good guys, and my momma could definitely use one of those.”

Chief Bailey stared at the mouthy teen for a minute, wishing he didn’t like him so much, but recognizing a bit of the young Clark Bailey’s attitude and guts in Johnny Kinross. Damn if the kid wasn’t right. Clark Bailey knew he would never get Dolly Kinross to turn her head long enough to discover that he could take care of her if she would let him.

“Well, it seems we’re both a little blind when it comes to certain women, now doesn’t it, son?” Chief Bailey had recovered from his discomfort and was back in the driver’s seat once more.

Johnny grinned at that. “Yes, sir. I guess so. But in my defense, Maggie seemed pretty gone on me too.”

“I’m sure she was, son. I’m sure she was.” Clark Bailey shook his head and laughed. He’d had to listen to his deputy, Brad Wilkey, complain for two weeks about Johnny Kinross. He had been sure his daughter was going to be ruined after attending the prom with someone like him. It seemed to Clark that Brad should spend a little more time worrying about the reputation his daughter had acquired before she’d been asked out by the young Kinross.

“Tell you what, Johnny. I will make some calls and see if there are any missing persons reports for a girl matching Maggie’s description in the surrounding areas. I will also have my men be on the lookout around here. I will go see the Honeycutt’s housekeeper this evening, just as a courtesy call, and I will ask to speak to the little girl as well -- see if I can get some information about the girl she told Mrs. Smith was her cousin. Beyond that, I don’t know that I can do much more. But if I find anything, I’ll let you know.”

Johnny stood and held out his hand. “Thank you, sir. I’d appreciate that.”

He turned to go, and then stopped, looking back at Clark Bailey. “She said you were one of the good guys, Chief. How do you think she knew that? You didn’t recognize her did you?”

“No, son. I didn’t. I don’t know why she’d say something like that, although I’m grateful she did.”

Johnny nodded again. “Just ask my momma out, Chief. All she can say is no, right? You can’t be afraid of a little rejection, not a big, tough, Police Chief like yourself?”

“Go on now, kid.” Clark Bailey shook his head and proceeded to fill out the form on his desk. Johnny laughed and left without another word, but thoughts of missing girls and missed opportunities nagged at Clark Bailey for the rest of the day.