Page 27 - Labelle Gramercy, Detective

Road Kill

Labelle! Now poor Sherrie was going to be subjected to some
unknown inquisition by Labelle, maybe forced to relive the fatal
accident in greater detail to satisfy her classmate’s morbid curiosity.
And Sherrie might not be able to withstand the renewed trauma.
I started dialing Foster Kerr’s home number, then stopped. What
could he do beyond fulminate against the younger generation?
Instead I called Brad Fassner, claiming an emergency, and waited in a
cold sweat while the desk sergeant found him. When he came on the
line, I tried to tell him as succinctly as possible what had happened.
I’m sure I must have sounded like a babbling idiot. He told me to get
over to the police station on the double and I complied.
When I got there he was standing by a regular squad car, red lights
flashing. I parked somewhere I would undoubtedly receive a ticket
and hurried into his car. We rushed off in a blaze of light and a blare
of sirens. Above the din he barked questions at me.
“How long ago you say she called?’
“I think it must be about fifteen to twenty minutes by now.”
“And you don’t know where she was calling from?”
“No. She said it was a pay phone.”
The city was full of pay phones. There was even one next to the
ranger station. But she hadn’t gotten there yet, had she? I tried to
remember her exact words.
“Holloman, what is that crazy girl up to? This is serious.”
“I wish I knew, Captain Fassner. I thought our last session had
cured her of this obsession.”
As we approached the gate to San Pajaro he turned off the siren
but kept the red light going. The few vehicles coming or going on the
access road gave us a wide berth, pulling over into the dusty shoulder.
Several cars were in the parking lot. I had no idea which might have
been used by the girls. A ranger, obviously alerted to our arrival,
waved from his platform.
Fassner applied the brakes brutally, and we screeched to a halt in a
spray of gravel. He was the first out of the car, despite his bulk.
“Can you see them?” he yelled to the ranger.
“No,” came the reply. “They must already be past the point I can
view through my binoculars. And I can’t leave my post. No one else
on duty today.”

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