Page 148 of After Anna

“We got a break!” Maggie started the engine, excited.

“We sure did!” Kathy rubbed her hands together.

“Stay gold,” Caleb said again. “She was nice. And pretty.”

“Yes she was.” Maggie pulled away from Steingard House and steered to the exit gate. The campus seemed completely deserted, and nobody was around snowplowing or shoveling at this hour. They drove past the Administration Rotunda, now darkened. “I wonder if Whitaker even called Chief Vogel.”

“Me, too.”

“Only one way to find out. Would you mind looking up the number of the Congreve Police Department for me, and I’ll call?”

“Not at all.” Kathy retrieved Maggie’s phone, scrolled to the Internet, and found the number. “Here.”

“Thanks.” Maggie accepted the phone and pressed Call. The call rang and rang, then was answered.

“Congreve Police,” a woman said. “How may I assist you?”

“Hi, I’m Maggie Ippoliti and I’m the mother of a girl named Anna Desroches, a seventeen-year-old student at the Congreve School who went missing last April. I believe that Chief Vogel has been in touch with Morris Whitaker about it today. May I speak with Chief Vogel? It’s important.”

“He’s out right now. I’m just taking the phones on account of the storm. I’m not a patrol officer.”

“Does he have a deputy or someone I can speak to?”

“He’s out too, sorry. They all are. There’s only three patrol officers, and one part-timer we share.”

“May I have Chief Vogel’s cell-phone number?”

“I’m sorry, I don’t have that information. You can look him up if you want to. He’s in the book.”

Maggie looked over to see Kathy already scrolling through her phone for Chief Vogel’s home number. “Do you happen to know if he filed a missing persons report for my daughter with the town or the state police?”

“I don’t know about a report, ma’am. Like I say, I’m just picking up phones. We’re stretched pretty thin.”

“Okay, will you give him a message that I called?” Maggie drove through the snowy streets of Congreve.

“Certainly. What did you say your name was again?”

Maggie repeated her name, spelled her last name, then said, “Can you tell Chief Vogel that he can call me on my cell anytime, no matter how late? I’m staying at the Congreve Inn and heading out to Eddie’s Diner in Tipton. There’s a waitress there named PG who may know something about Anna’s disappearance.”

“Oh, Eddie’s?” The woman perked up. “That’srealgood food. Try the flounder. It’s double batter-dipped.”

“Thank you, bye now.” Maggie hung up and handed Kathy back the phone. “In the meantime, will you do me another favor? Look up the FBI in Bangor and let’s give them a call.”

“You’re on fire.” Kathy took the phone, scrolled through, then pressed Call and handed the phone back to Maggie. “While you wereon with the Congreve police, I Google-mapped driving directions to Eddie’s. I’ll set my phone here so you can see. It’s a straight shot north.”

“Thanks.” Maggie held the phone, listening to it ring. She slowed behind a snowplow as they passed the Congreve Inn. She didn’t want to think about the night she had taken the imposter there, with the canopy, the room service, and theTop Guntears. Maggie had bought the whole thing.

“I also checked Yelp. Eddie’s gets five stars, and they say it has great showers. I like a restaurant with a good shower.”

“Me, too. I order the soap on the side.”

“It must be a trucker thing.”

Maggie heard a click, and the phone was answered. “Hello?”

“Special Agent Tony Delgado here. To whom am I speaking?”

“Hi, my name is Maggie Ippoliti and I’m the mother of a seventeen-year-old, Anna Desroches, who went missing from Congreve School last April. I wonder if you can help me.”