“Definitely meth,” she said.
Heroin was the drug of choice for many but that didn’t mean the meth industry had died out. Far from it. While most of the meth circulating came in via Mexico, cheaper and stronger than ever, there were still some local cooks. They had to work harder to get the ingredients and ultimately produced in limited quantities, but there was enough money in it to keep them doing it.
A.L. glanced at the photo again. The years had not been kind to Coyote Frogg. He skin was pasty white and another twenty pounds would have kept him from looking emaciated. But he did have a hell of a head of red hair. It wasn’t terribly long in the photo, just falling below his chin. It was a head shot so there was no way to see whether he had a sleeve tattoo. The detail in the medical record likely would have included it but they’d only been able to obtain the photo. A warrant would be necessary to get more.
Mr. Gibacki had described shoulder-length coarse red hair.
Hair could grow. That’s why they were going to let him take a look.
The Panini Playground wouldn’t open for hours but there was a car parked behind the restaurant. A.L. knocked on the back door. It opened a few inches and A.L. shifted so that the man could see him. “A minute, sir?” A.L. said. “We have something we’d like to show you.”
The door opened and Mr. Gibacki came out. “Detectives?” he said.
“We have a photo we’d like you to look at, sir. To see if you recognize it as one of the men that you kicked out of here on Tuesday night.” A.L. pulled his phone. Thumbed through his messages. Held the phone out for the older man to see.
Mr. Gibacki stared at it. For a whole minute. Finally, he looked up. “His hair was much longer, more wild-looking. But I think it’s him.”
* * *
As A.L. and Rena brought Chief Faster up to speed on Coyote Frogg, his eyes started to dance. It took just seconds, really, for the man to make several leaps in logic. One, that Coyote Frogg’s father had been a person of intense interest in the Corrine Antler disappearance. Two, that perhaps the Dover police had been too focused on the father and had not spent enough energy on the son. And three, if Coyote Frogg could be found, there was a chance to solve not one but two kidnappings.
What didn’t get said was that it just felt better that it was a stranger than a family member.
Faster rubbed his hands together. “I’ve already had a call from the mayor this morning. His office is getting lots of pressure to solve this case. When people don’t feel as if their children are safe, they don’t have much tolerance for anything else that isn’t quite right in the community. He’s going to be happy to hear this news.”
A.L. said nothing. His own heart had beat fast when Mr. Gibacki had identified Coyote Frogg’s photo as the same man he’d booted from his restaurant on Tuesday night. He understood the interest in finding Coyote Frogg. But he also knew that eyewitness testimony was more unreliable than most people realized. Mistakes were made all the time.
“I want the two of you back in Dover. The Frogg family lived there for more than twenty-five years. There have to be distant relatives or former friends, somebody who can lead us to Coyote Frogg.”
“We’re going to need a warrant to get more information out of the medical record,” A.L. said. That would include information on the patient’s tattoos.”
“I’ll get it for you,” Faster said. “And I’ll fill in the FBI and others.”
The man had a head of steam going and there was no sense in trying to convince him not to get too focused on one person. He’d never been a great cop and he never would be. And right now, he was in charge. So that meant A.L. and Rena were going to Dover.
And he could be right. A.L. didn’t want his own issues with Faster to cloud the possibility that this really could be the break they were looking for. “Ready,” he said, looking at Rena.
She stood. And ten minutes later, they were on the road. A.L. was driving.
“Let’s try Perry and LuAnn Whitman now,” he said. “Do you have their numbers?”
“Yeah,” Rena said, flipping pages in her notebook. “Which cell do you think I should try first?”
“Try LuAnn. I think women are better about answering their phones.”
“Are you slamming women?”
He lowered his chin and gave her a stare. “I was complimenting women, the whole damn group of you. For your information, there are many things that I think women do much better than men.”
“Damn straight,” she muttered. She dialed and pushed Send. It was answered on the second ring.
“Hello.”
“Is this LuAnn Whitman?”
“Yes.”
“This is Detective Morgan of the Baywood Police Department.”
The quick intake of breath was audible. LuAnn was steeling herself for bad news.
“I am not calling with news about Emma. But rather, I have just a few questions for you and your husband, if he’s available, that might help us as we continue to investigate.”
“For a minute I was sure...” Her voice trailed off.
Rena understood. The woman didn’t want to put what she’d been sure of into words. Too ugly. Too harsh. “My partner, Detective McKittridge, is also on the line. I’m going to put you on speaker phone.”
“My husband is right here. I’ll do the same,” she said.
There was a slight pause and then a man said, “Hello, this is Perry Whitman.”
“Detectives Morgan and McKittridge here, Mr. Whitman,” Rena said. “Thank you both for being available to talk to us. May we call you LuAnn and Perry?”
“Of course,” LuAnn said.
“First of all, let me say that we’re both terribly sorry that this has happened to your family and we’re doing everything we can to find Emma,” Rena said.
There was no response. Hard to know if Troy and or Leah had said anything about them to LuAnn and Perry.
“We understand that you live in Milwaukee. Have you lived there for some time?” Rena asked.
“Eighteen years. Troy was just starting high school when we moved in,” LuAnn said. “He turns thirty-two next month.”
A.L. and Rena looked at each other. It was going to be a really bad birthday party if Emma’s chair was empty.
“Do you work in Milwaukee?” A.L. asked.
“I retired about three years ago,” Perry said. “I worked in logistics for a manufacturing company here in Milwaukee.”
“I’m working part-time at Brookfield Square mall. At Pagany Chocolates. Gets me out of the house,” LuAnn said.