Swallow the Hook

Chapter 1 The door of the Stop'N'Buy wouldn't budge.Yet the market was clearly open for business. Frank Bennett could see people inside, partly obscured by the promotion signs, beer posters, and garage sale flyers plastered on the windows and door. With another impatient push, he felt the door yield slightly. When he finally got it open wide enough to squeeze his wiry body through, he found himself smack up against the well-padded posterior of Edith Marsden.She brought up the rear of a line that stretched from the cash register, past the ice-cream cooler, snaking around the chip-and-dip display, to end right inside the entrance. What the hell was this? There was never a line at the Stop'N'Buy -- or anywhere else in Trout Run, for that matter.Frank listened as Debbie Flint, the day-shift clerk, attempted to run both the New York State lottery ticket machine and the cash register while cradling the phone receiver between her chin and shoulder."I don't know what happened -- she's just not here. Of course I called, there was no answer. All I know is, I have to be out of here by four-thirty to pick up my kids. No, the sitter can't keep them any later -- you better come in.""What's going on?" Frank asked no one in particular."Mary Pat hasn't shown up for her shift," said a burly man wearing the trademark khaki pants and green shirt of a Stevenson's Lumberyard worker."Now Debbie's here all alone to deal with the afternoon crowd," Edith chimed in.Rush hour started early in the Adirondack mountain town of Trout Run, timed to the shifts of the lumber millworkers and the guards at the nearby prison boot camp, but it didn't amount to much. Waiting in line wasn't a familiar experience for the locals, even now in the fall foliage season, when tourists swelled the population."She's never been late before." Having hung up the phone, Debbie spoke to a customer at the head of the line. "In fact, she's always twenty minutes early. I'm kinda worried.""She must be sick.""She's never sick, but you know, she did buy some Tylenol yesterday -- said she felt kind of achy," Debbie continued. "But she would've called if she needed to take a sick day. You think I should check the hospital?""I'll do it." Roger Einhorn, who volunteered on the Rescue Squad, stepped off the line and picked up the phone behind the counter to call the hospital, thirty miles away in Saranac Lake.Everyone in the store fell silent, listening to his end of the conversation, until it became clear that Mary Pat had not been admitted. Then the debate began again."Maybe you should investigate, Frank." Augie Enright, willing to wait any length of time to buy his weekly lottery ticket, elbowed Trout Run's police chief familiarly."I think people have the right to be late for work once in a while without bringing the police down on their heads," Frank answered with a smile."Yeah, Augie. If we called Frank every time you were late for work, he'd never have time to run the speed trap or anything," a voice called from somewhere in the store.This brought laughter all around, except from Edith. But then, she always walked around with a twist to her face like she'd just stepped in dog dirt."I wouldn't be surprised if Mary Pat had an accident," she said. "It couldn't hurt for someone to look into it."Frank took the "someone" as an arrow directed at him. Years as a detective on the Kansas City police force had taught him all there was to know about stakeouts and interrogating suspects, but had done nothing to prepare him for a job in which the primary qualification was the ability to endure unsolicited advice."She probably went shopping in Lake Placid and got stuck in traffic. You have to allow yourself more time to get anywhere this time of the year," Frank reminded Edith. He meant to reassure her, but Edith's snort indicated she saw his answer as just another example of civil servants dogging their responHubbard, S. W. is the author of 'Swallow the Hook', published 2004 under ISBN 9780743467582 and ISBN 0743467582.