Page 45 of The Girl from Devil’s Lake (Joanna Brady Mysteries #21)

Bisbee, Arizona

Back in her office, however, before returning any of those missed calls, Joanna picked up her phone and dialed Alvin Bernard, Bisbee’s longtime chief of police.

“Hey, Joanna,” he said cordially once he answered. “How are things going?”

“A little complicated at the moment,” she told him. “That’s why I’m calling. Do you happen to know a guy named Stephen Roper?”

“Sure,” he answered. “Senor Santa Claus from Hands Across the Border. He’s spoken to our Rotary Club a couple of times. How come? Has something bad happened to him?”

“No,” Joanna replied. “Something bad has happened to several other people, and we believe Stephen Roper may be the one responsible.”

There was a short pause. “What do you mean?” Alvin asked finally.

“You know about Xavier Delgado, right?”

“Sure,” Alvin replied. “The dead kid found in the San Pedro a week or so ago. What about him?”

“I hate to burst your bubble, Alvin, but Stephen Roper is our prime suspect in that case. As of this morning, we also have physical evidence linking him to a homicide that occurred in North Dakota, in 1962.”

“You’ve got to be kidding,” Alvin said. “He seems like such a nice guy.”

“Appearances can be deceiving,” Joanna replied. “I believe your Mr. Nice Guy is actually a serial killer, a wolf in sheep’s clothing, and we’re hoping to take him into custody later this afternoon. That’s why I’m calling—we may need your help.”

Chief Bernard took a moment to gather himself. “Okay,” he said finally. “What can we do?”

“First off,” Joanna said, “don’t reveal the suspect’s name to anyone. Refer to him as our subject. So far we don’t believe he knows that he’s under suspicion, and we want to keep it that way.”

“Not to worry,” Alvin said. “My lips are sealed, so what’s the deal?”

Over the next several minutes, she brought him into the picture on everything that had transpired, including the precautions she’d taken to prevent Roper’s escape should he attempt to flee.

“Two of his four possible escape routes bring him right through the City of Bisbee,” Alvin observed when she finished.

“Not just through Bisbee,” she said. “One way or another, he’s going to have to go around the Traffic Circle.

My first choice is to take him into custody at his home on Country Club Drive north of Naco.

But if he takes off and comes your way, the Traffic Circle might be a good place to make the arrest. That would be a far less dangerous place to take him into custody than in some populated business or residential area, but we’ll need to block all the entrances and exits. ”

“What about Lowell School?” Alvin asked. “That’s directly across the drainage ditch from the Traffic Circle.”

Joanna was well aware of the location of Lowell School.

That’s where Dennis was attending sixth grade.

As for the drainage ditch in question? It often carried the mineral rich runoff from Lavender Pit just north of Lowell to the mile-long tailings dump that ran alongside Highway 80 on the far side of the Traffic Circle.

Joanna glanced at her watch. The morning had vanished. It was already closing in on noon.

“I suggest you call the superintendent of schools and advise him that Lowell needs an immediate early dismissal today due to expected police activity. Let him know that, if he delays, he might end up having to put the school on lockdown, and that would be a whole lot worse. If you give him a choice, he’ll most likely go for an early dismissal.

That’ll cause less backlash than a lockdown. ”

“Okay,” Alvin said. “You’re right. Bob Dobbs is bound to opt for an early dismissal, but how soon it can happen will depend on how soon the buses can get there.

For argument’s sake, if Roper...” He paused momentarily before continuing, “If the subject ends up coming our way, how much notice will we have?”

“He lives on Country Club Drive, just north of the golf course in Naco,” Joanna answered. “If he leaves there heading northbound, there’s a fifty/fifty chance that he’ll be coming your way. At that point you’ll maybe have six or seven minutes of warning.”

“If he’s coming by way of Highway 92, he’ll have no way of knowing the circle is blocked off until he’s almost inside it,” Alvin replied. “The fire department is right next door. I’ll talk to the chief and see how fast he can deploy fire trucks to function as temporary roadblocks.”

“By the way, make sure you keep every bit of this off the air. As I said, there are people in town who are listening in on everything we say on police scanners.”

“People?” Alvin asked. “Or one person in particular whose initials happen to be MS.”

“Exactly,” Joanna said. “And thank you, Alvin. I really appreciate the help.”

Once that call ended, next up was one to Butch. “FYI,” she said. “There’s a good chance that Lowell school will have an early dismissal today due to possible police activity.”

“Which you’re not going to discuss in any detail.”

“No, I’m not,” Joanna said.

“But you’re going to take him into custody?”

“I sure as hell hope so.”

“Good luck then,” he said, “and be safe.”

“Thank you,” she said. “I will.”

Then taking the first missed call message off the top of the stack, she picked it up and dialed a number in what the message said was Fulton, Missouri.

“Sheriff Ed Cox,” a deep male voice answered.

“And this is Sheriff Joanna Brady from Cochise County, Arizona.”

“Ah, yes,” he said. “The BOLO. I talked to someone about that earlier, Deborah something.”

“Yes,” Joanna said. “That would be Detective Howell. We’ve been really busy around here today, so she didn’t have a chance to tell me what the two of you discussed. I hope you don’t mind going over it again.”

“Callaway County’s a pretty peaceable kind of place,” Sheriff Cox allowed.

“Not many murders happen around here, and Lucianne Highsmith’s from 1977 is our only unsolved.

I wasn’t even born yet, but here are the high points.

Lucianne went missing while riding her bike from her folks’ place to a friend’s farm a couple miles up the road.

When she didn’t turn up at the friend’s place or return home, her mother reported her missing.

The sheriff’s department initiated a ground search.

Both her body and the bike were found four days later in a nearby reservoir a few miles away from where she would have been riding.

The details match up with your BOLO—manual strangulation, disposal in a body of water, and something missing. ”

“What was missing?”

“When they retrieved the body, she was wearing only one shoe. The sheriff sent in a dive crew, they found both her bike and the missing shoe. The shoelace was MIA.”

“A shoelace,” Joanna uttered aloud.

“Does that mean something to you?” Sheriff Cox asked.

“I’m afraid it does,” Joanna replied. Then she spent the next ten minutes giving Sheriff Cox the details of their current investigations—both Xavier Delgado’s and Amanda Hudson’s.

“Whoa there, Nelly,” Cox responded. “You’re saying you’ve got a current serial killer who’s been active since the seventies?”

“Since the fifties, actually,” Joanna said. “But tell me about Lucianne’s relatives. Are any of them still around?”

“Her folks both passed years ago. I believe she has a sister, somewhere. I’ve been trying to locate her ever since your detective called. So far no luck, but we’ll keep after it.”

“Please let me know if you find her,” Joanna said.

“Yes, ma’am,” Sheriff Cox said. “Sure will.”

Call waiting buzzed just then. Excusing herself from Sheriff Cox, the new caller turned out to be Chief Bernard. “You called it,” he said. “Early dismissal it is. The buses will be there by 1:30.”

“That’s good news,” Joanna said.

“And Chief Flowers says that as long as there aren’t any fires, he can have six trucks in position within five minutes of being notified.

They’ll block the four entrances and exits to Highway 80, and the ones to Bisbee Road.

Once Roper enters the Traffic Circle, my units will close ranks behind him.

That should leave the bastard literally running in circles. ”

“Let’s hope,” Joanna said.

“Whenever you know he’s on the move, I’ll be responsible for bringing in the fire department,” Chief Bernard added.

“Good to know,” Joanna said. “Appreciate it.”

She glanced at her watch. The time was 12:45. It would be another forty-five minutes before the school buses would show up for early dismissal—the longest forty-five minutes of her life.