Buzz wished he hadn’t made that promise about finding Kimi and bringing her home. It haunted him.
His sergeant had told Buzz to give his reports to Jerry Ostertag, the detective assigned to the case, and put it behind him; his job was done. Buzz was to move on to the next call. But the more he told himself that’s what he’d do, the more uncertain he felt about the way he’d left things. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but something just wasn’t sitting right with him. The night he’d arrived at their home, Nettie Kanasket had said Kimi would never cause them any problems, and all indications were she hadn’t. Left unsaid was that it had been élan who’d given them trouble, like setting their daughter up with Tommy Moore.
Kimi was a good student and a responsible daughter. According to the article in the Sentinel she’d earned a partial scholarship to UW, where she would run track. She was athletic, bright, beautiful, and, by all accounts, well-adjusted. Would she really throw herself in the river over a boy? Over Tommy Moore? Buzz supposed it possible, but he didn’t think so. For one, he wasn’t convinced the breakup had been mutual, as Moore insisted. People who said such things were usually protecting their egos. He thought it much more likely Moore had been the dumpee rather than the dumper.
And he couldn’t ignore the damage to Moore’s truck.
Buzz came out of his reverie when he drove past the Columbia Diner. He checked his rearview mirror, determined it was safe to make a U-turn, and drove back to the diner’s gravel parking lot. He sat a minute, debating with himself, then shut off the engine and got out. The temperature had warmed a few degrees, though it remained cold enough to see his breath.
Buzz walked up the wooden stairs and stepped inside to the smell of deep-fried food. The whole place couldn’t have been more than eight hundred square feet, with just five booths and half a dozen barstools at the Formica counter, where a lone man sat working at a piece of fried chicken with a fork and knife, and nursing a mug of coffee.
A waitress greeted Buzz from behind the counter. “Just seat yourself,” she said, despite the sign that instructed customers to wait to be seated. “Be with you in a minute.”
Buzz took a booth near the picture window with a view of the parking lot and the road. The waitress approached with a pot of coffee, turned over his mug, and filled it. “Get you a menu?”
“Just a cup of coffee,” he said.
“You’re new,” she said, looking at his uniform.
“I am. Just a few months.”
“Welcome.” She was an attractive middle-aged woman, tall and thin, with hair pure silver and cut short as a man’s, revealing hoop earrings. Blue shadow brought out the blue of her eyes. “Where’re you from?”
“Most recently? Vietnam.”
“Sorry to hear that. Army?”
“Marines, by way of Orange County in Southern California.”
“Orange County? Disneyland’s down there, isn’t it?”
“Not far. Anaheim.”
“Took the kids one summer. Hotter than blazes. And the smog? I don’t know how people can breathe that all day, especially kids.”
“Those are two of the reasons we didn’t go back.”
“How many you got?”
“Two girls. One on the way.”
“Good for you. Got some apple pie to go with that coffee.”
“Homemade?”
“Don’t insult me. I wouldn’t serve it if it wasn’t.” She stuck out a hand. “I’m Lorraine.” Her name was also on the copper name tag pinned to her uniform.
Buzz looked at the four pies in the glass case near the cash register. “I’d love a piece of apple pie, Lorraine.”
Lorraine departed and returned with a thick slice and a fork. She stood waiting for Buzz to take a bite. His taste buds exploded when the apples and cinnamon hit his tongue. “Wow,” he said. “I’ll deny ever saying it, but this is better than my mother’s.”
Lorraine gave him a smile, but it had a sad quality to it. The entire diner, nearly empty, had a sad quality to it. Buzz saw no reason to hide his intent for coming in. “I was the officer who responded to the call when Kimi Kanasket went missing.”
Lorraine grimaced as if stabbed in the chest, but what she said surprised Buzz. “Then you know it doesn’t make any sense.”
“What doesn’t make any sense?”
“That Kimi would do such a thing.”
“How’d she seem to you that night?”
Lorraine sat across from him, her knees angled so they were in the aisle. “She seemed fine. She seemed just fine.”
“I heard her boyfriend came in.”
“Tommy Moore,” she said, nearly spitting his name. “Jackass brought a girl in here with him.”
“What was Kimi’s reaction?”
“Honestly? She seemed fine with it. I asked her if she was okay, and she said she was. She said she’d ended it. She was going to UW next year anyway. Besides, her parents didn’t like Tommy.” It confirmed Buzz’s suspicion that Kimi had broken up with Moore.
“She ever say why not?”
“Dead-end kid going nowhere fast; they wanted better for Kimi.”
“Heard her brother introduced them.”
“élan? I don’t know about that.”
“What’s his story?”
Lorraine rolled her eyes. “Another dead-end kid. Dropped out of high school. Lives at home. Not sure he does much of anything except cause his parents grief.”
“Kimi ever talk about her relationship with him?”
“Not really, but I didn’t get the impression they were close.”
“So Kimi didn’t seem sad or angry about Tommy coming in with another girl?”
“Nope. She waited on the table, cheerful as ever. Maybe a little more cheerful. She was no dummy. She knew what Tommy was doing, and that irritated him. He got up and left without even ordering.”
“Did he say anything?”
“Nope, just grabbed his date by the hand and bolted. Drove off in a huff. Back tires spitting up gravel.”
“Kimi finish her shift?”
“Yep.” Lorraine pointed to a phone mounted on the wall near the cash register. “She used that phone to call home and let them know she was on her way. Did it every night she worked.” Lorraine picked up the napkin from beneath the table setting and blotted the tears pooling in the corners of her eyes.
“So, no indication she was upset or depressed?”
“She hugged me and said she’d see me Saturday night.” She took a moment to compose herself before continuing. “I told her not to bother, not with the football game that night, not with the whole town clearing out. This place was going to be a graveyard anyway.”
“She wasn’t going to the big game?”
Lorraine shook her head. “No. Some of the Indians were planning a big protest about the ‘Red Raiders’ name.”
“I heard about that.”
“Kimi’s father is one of the tribal elders. He didn’t want Kimi too involved, since she goes to school there, which made it hard enough.”
“Kimi ever indicate she received any threats or harassment because of the protests?”