The Gardens of Digby Green: Jurisdiction
When the woman had left, Marquez opened the Maps app on his computer and typed in Hazel Green, Alabama. The coordinates showed a barely-there town on State Road 1. He shook his head. Was connecting with law enforcement in Madison County worthwhile, with a hunch this vague? He closed the application, and resumed filling out his report about the graves on the vacant lot.
Half way down the third page, several more women were ushered to his desk. Taking a deep breath, he hid the information on his screen and faced them.
Visibly nervous, a woman wearing jeans and a sweatshirt that read “My Grandma is the best,” spoke.
“Detective Marquez, we can’t find our friend Rosalie or our friend Rose. We get together on Wednesday nights to play games and watch movies. Last week, Rose Wilkinson wasn’t there, and this week, Rosalie didn’t show up at my house. We’ve tried phoning them, and we each stopped at Rosalie’s house, but we haven’t been able to reach them at all.”
“Their families haven’t offered any explanations?” He asked.
As one, the ladies shook their heads.
Could this Rosalie be the second victim the dog had found at the scene? He shuddered. What a complicated mess. “Ladies, we’ll be looking into this. Who can give me Rosalie’s address and phone number?”
Not quite in unison, they pulled out their phones.
A lady in exercise clothes brought up the information first, and Marquez wrote it down. A crushed phone had been among the objects found in the second grave. How the IT team would retrieve any confirming data from it, Marquez didn’t know.
He walked the bevy of ladies down the hall toward the exit, then returned to his desk, brought up the Madison County, Alabama Sheriff’s office information on his computer, picked up his phone, and punched in the numbers.
“I’m Detective Marquez of the Roseland, Illinois police,” he said when a sheriff took the call. “Does your department have a missing person case on the books that involves a Mrs. Hazel Green?”
The Gardens of Digby Green is a serialized story that posts on Fridays.
Next week, part forty-three, Novice K-9.
Find a link to purchase Heartland Treasures anthology here.
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