The Taking of Libbie, SD by David Housewright Read Free Book Online Page A

which he never approved of.
    “I’m fine. I’m in Libbie, South Dakota,” I said.
    “Why are you in Libbie, South Dakota?”
    I explained. Harry interrupted several times, mostly to ask for names. Afterward, he told me that they had issued an alert in my name and that the FBI, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the St. Anthony Police Department, and the St. Paul Police Department had launched a full-scale kidnapping investigation.
    “Wow,” I said.
    “Wow is fucking right,” Harry said. He demanded more names. I gave him what I had. He said heads would roll. I said as long as they didn’t belong to the Libbie Police Department, I didn’t care. He said, “Once a cop, always a cop.” I said, “We protect our own.” He said he wanted to speak to me—in person—as soon as possible. “There are people to see, paperwork to sign.” I told him I would be home soon.
    “Have you spoken to Bobby yet?” Harry said.
    “Not yet.”
    “Give him a call. I know the St. Paul Police Department has put a lot of resources into this.”
    “Really?”
    “Kinda makes you feel important, doesn’t it?”
    “A little bit, yeah.”
    “Well, they don’t know you the way I do.”
    Victoria Dunston answered the phone on the second ring. When she heard my voice she sighed deeply. Victoria had been kidnapped for ransom a year earlier, and while it all worked out in the end, it had been a traumatic experience for her—I doubted that she had fully recovered from it, or that she ever would.
    “You okay?” I said.
    “I’m fine. Are you okay?”
    I told her I was just swell.
    “I had a few tough moments,” she said. “You made me cry a little bit.”
    “I’m sorry.”
    “Somehow I knew it would be all right, though. Just like I knew it would be all right when they kidnapped me. God, McKenzie. Why do these things happen to us?”
    “Just lucky, I guess.”
    I heard voices on Victoria’s end of the phone. “McKenzie? Didyou say McKenzie? Are you talking to McKenzie?” There was a muffled sound as the receiver was wrestled away from the girl.
    “McKenzie?”
    “Hey, Shelby,” I said.
    A moment later Bobby Dunston picked up a second receiver and called my name.
    “Hey,” I said.
    They both demanded a detailed explanation, especially Bobby—I had the feeling he was taking notes. Bobby was a commander in St. Paul’s newly minted major crimes division but wasn’t running the investigation into my disappearance because the department had claimed he was too close to the case. We had been friends since the beginning of time. I gave him everything I had told Harry, and then some. When he was satisfied, he said he had to make a few calls and left me on the line with his wife.
    “Are you really all right, Rushmore?” she said.
    I met Shelby three and a half minutes before her husband did, and often I have wondered what would’ve happened if I had been the one who spilled a drink on her.
    “I really am, Shel,” I said. “A bit of a headache, some aches and pains, nothing more. I’m sorry if you were frightened, but it wasn’t my fault.”
    “As opposed to all the other times you frightened me when it was your fault.”
    “Exactly.”
    She sighed deeply. It was the same sigh that Victoria had given me. Like mother, like daughter.
    “I’ve given you and your family a few anxious moments over the years,” I said. “I apologize.”
    “The good has always outweighed the bad.”
    “Thank you for saying that.”
    “What did Nina have to say about all this?”
    “I haven’t spoken to her yet.”
    That caused Shelby to pause for a few beats.
    “You called me before you called her?” she said.
    “No. I mean yes. I mean, I called—I knew Bobby would beworking the case…” This time I sighed. “Yes, I called you first.”
    “Dammit, McKenzie.”
    “What?”
    “You’re supposed to call the woman you’re in love with first.”
    “Sure.”
    She paused again.
    “Be safe, Rushmore,” she said.