Would she have to put up with this if she were at big New York metro paper? She couldn’t imagine that she would.
Blanche shot Maybelle a frosty look. “I’m going to meet my coffee date. I’ll figure it out before you do, I guarantee it.” She glanced over at Coral.
Great, 75 year old women were getting more action than Coral. What a surprise.
Blanche marched out of the office, and Maybelle scowled after her.
“Could they have run off together?” Coral suggested.
“Doubtful. David is 60. Michelle is 22. I know both of those families,” Maybelle said. “Both shifters. David is a panther. Michelle is a wolf shifter. She doesn’t date outside of her species, and she liked them young and handsome. I don’t see her going for David. I’ll do a little digging, see what I come up with.”
Coral walked over to the publisher’s office. Mr. Brewster, a human, had a big picture window which looked out on the newsroom, and ceiling high bookshelves stacked with books, journalism awards, and teetering piles of newspapers and magazines.
He sighed when she walked in.
“I know she’s worried about her son, Coral, but the sheriff’s office doesn’t think that foul play was involved.”
“I get that she’s acting kind of cuckoo, but maybe it’s because her son’s disappeared and she’s going crazy with worry,” Coral said. “What was your impression of him?”
William Brewster leaned back in his chair and stroked his gray-streaked beard. “He’d only worked here for a couple of months before he disappeared,” he said. “He was a quiet type. Didn’t really chat it up with the other people in the newsroom. I did get the impression that he wanted bigger and better things, that he was hungry for some big news. It’s quite possible that he got bored here and that’s why he left. It happens.”
Imagine that, someone getting bored writing about escaped cows, Coral thought.
“What about the story he was working on? His mother said he was working on some big story right before he disappeared?”
“Not that he mentioned to me,” Mr. Brewster said. “She told me that too, but he’d never said anything to me about it. I don’t know if she made it up to add some urgency to her investigation.”
“And the other disappearances? Did she tell you about them?”
“Yes, but for the life of me I can’t see how they connect to each other. I’m not even sure they are disappearances. David is well known for chasing whatever tail catches his eye, and he’s left home before. Marie’s family is very over-protective, and she’s twenty-three years old. Maybe she just wanted a little freedom for once.”
“Do you mind if I stop by the sheriff’s office and ask a few questions?”
“Be my guest. I don’t think you’re going to come up with anything, though.”
The sheriff’s office was only minutes away from the newspaper. However, Loch was away on vacation with Coral’s sister Ginger. In his absence, the Chief Deputy, Brock Carrillo, was the acting sheriff. He was a large wolf shifter with a brush cut, middle aged, in pretty good shape but with a gut hanging over his belt.
When she asked him about Adrian Freidman, he made a sour face and shook his head.
“There’s no indication of foul play,” he told her. “We consider the case closed.”
“What about the other two disappearances that his mother told me about?”
“We’re not even sure that Michelle disappeared. She’s a young woman travelling around Europe with friends. She may just not have reported back to her family,” Brock said. “And Mr. Bollinger’s wife says he runs off with a new, as she puts it, ho-bag every few months, and she hopes he never comes back.”
“Three people from the same city who completely dropped off the face of their earth, all with family members they’d be unlikely to leave behind like this? That sounds like a bit of a coincidence.”
Brock scowled, looking annoyed. “Coincidences happen.”
Well, this was helpful.
“Did Adrian use his cell phone at all since he disappeared, or his credit cards?”
Brock paused, and it seemed as if he was considering what to say next. “I can’t answer questions about an open investigation.”
“You just said the case was closed,” Coral pointed out. He just leaned back in his chair and stared at her.
Now, this was interesting, she thought. She’d come here thinking that Adrian’s mother was most likely being paranoid. She’d mostly just wanted to assure herself that there was nothing here worth pursuing, but the way the chief deputy was giving her the runaround suddenly made her think that there might be something to what Adrian’s mother was saying.