Mel nodded emphatically. “Knows him in the Biblical sense, if you catch my drift.”
Linc wanted to kick Mel but, with all the law enforcement surrounding them, he didn’t dare. They’d probably arrest him for assault. “Our sister’s having David Rhodes’s baby,” he felt obliged to explain.
“Any day now,” Mel threw in.
“And she disappeared,” Ned added.
“If we’re guilty of anything,” Linc said, gesturing with his hands, “it’s being so anxious to locate our sister. Like I said, she’s alone in a strange town and without family or friends.”
“Did you check their identification?” the sheriff asked.
“We hadn’t gotten around to that yet,” Deputy Rogers replied.
“You’ll see we’re telling the truth,” Linc asserted.
“None of us have police records.”
With the sheriff and his deputies watching carefully, Linc, Mel and Ned handed over their identification.
The sheriff glanced at all three pieces, then passed them to Pierpont. The young man swaggered over to his patrol car, apparently to check for any warrants or arrest records. He was back a couple of minutes later and returned their ID.
“They don’t have records.” He seemed almost disappointed, Linc thought.
The sheriff nodded. “What’s your sister’s name?”
“Mary Jo Wyse,” Linc answered. “Can you tell us where we might find the Rhodes family? All we want to do is talk to them.”
“Unfortunately Ben and Charlotte are out of the country,” the sheriff said.
“You mean they aren’t even in town?” Mel asked, sounding outraged. He turned to Linc. “What are we going to do now?”
“I don’t know.” Mary Jo must have discovered this information about the Rhodes family on her own. The only thing left for her to do was head back to Seattle. She wouldn’t have any other options, which meant this entire venture through dismal traffic, falling snow and wretched conditions had been a complete waste of time.
“She’s probably home by now and wondering where the three of us are,” Linc muttered.
“Maybe.” Ned shook his head. “But I doubt it.”
“What do you mean, you doubt it?” Linc challenged.
“Mary Jo can be stubborn, you know, and she was pretty upset last night.”
“We should phone the house and find out if she’s there,” Linc said, although he had a sneaking suspicion that Ned was right. Mary Jo wouldn’t give up that easily.
“Sounds like a good idea to me,” Sheriff Davis inserted.
Linc reached for his cell phone and called home. Five long rings later, voice mail kicked in. If his sister had gone back to Seattle, she apparently wasn’t at the house.
“She’s not there,” Linc informed his brothers.
“What did I tell you?” Ned sighed. “I know Mary Jo, and she isn’t going to turn tail after one setback.”
This was more than a simple setback, in Linc’s opinion. This was major.
“Have you tried her cell phone?” the sheriff suggested next.
“Yeah, we did. A few times. No answer,” Linc said tersely.
“Try again.”
“I’ll do that now,” Linc murmured. He reached for his phone again and realized he didn’t know her number nor had he programmed it into his directory.
He cleared his throat. “Ah, Ned, could you give me the number for her cell?”
His youngest brother grabbed the phone from him and punched in Mary Jo’s number, then handed it back.
Linc waited impatiently for the call to connect. After what seemed like minutes, the phone automatically went to voice mail. “She’s not answering that, either.”
“Maybe her cell battery’s dead,” the sheriff said. “It could be she’s out of range, too.”
Actually, Linc was curious as to why the sheriff himself had responded to dispatch. One would think the man had better things to do—like dealing with real crime or spending the evening with his family. “Listen, Sheriff, is Cedar Cove so hard up for crime that the sheriff responds personally to a possible break-in?”
Troy Davis grinned. “I was on my way to my daughter’s house for dinner when I heard the call.”
“So you decided to check us out.”
“Something like that.”
Linc liked the sheriff. He seemed a levelheaded guy, whereas his deputies were a pair of overzealous new-bies, hoping for a bit of excitement. He’d bet they were bored out of their minds in a quiet little town like Cedar Cove. The call about this supposed break-in had sent these two into a giddy state of importance.
“The only essential thing here is finding our sister,” Linc reiterated to the sheriff.
“The problem is, we don’t know where to find her,” Ned put in.
The sheriff rubbed the side of his face. “Did you ask around town?”
No one at the pub had been able to help. “Not really. We asked the guys at some tavern, but they didn’t seem aware of much except how full their glasses were.”
The sheriff grinned and seemed to appreciate Linc’s wry sense of humor.
“She’s very pregnant,” Ned felt obliged to remind everyone. “It isn’t like someone wouldn’t notice her.”
“Yeah.” Mel once more thrust his arms out in front of him and bloated his cheeks for emphasis.
Linc rolled his eyes.
“Wait,” Deputy Pierpont said thoughtfully. “Seems to me I heard something about a pregnant woman earlier.”
That got Linc’s attention. “Where?” he asked urgently. “When?”
“I got a friend who’s a firefighter and he mentioned it.”