Barb shook her head. “Not yet. I thought I’d look around town this weekend. Sandy’s on days and I don’t have much else to do except go to the shower.”
“You won’t find a wedding dress in this town,” Pam said. “I’m off this weekend, too. I think you and I should drive to Duluth and see what we can find. Most places won’t have anything off the rack because brides usually have their dresses custom made, but I once went with a friend to a place in the Miller Hill Mall where they had a dozen or so choices in stock.”
“I don’t think I want a frilly wedding dress,” Barb replied, obviously shying from the whole concept of dress shopping. “I thought I might just get a dress from a nice store, like Herbergers.”
“That’s okay, too. I think it would be fun to go along if you don’t mind. That way we can get lunch and get to know each other better. I really love to shop, especially when someone else is doing the buying.”
“I guess that’d be okay.”
“Have you picked out a ring for Sandy yet?”
Barb looked startled. “I hadn’t even thought about it. Most guys don’t wear wedding rings, do they?”
“Sandy will wear a ring. He loves you a lot, and I think he’ll be proud to wear a ring that shows he’s married to you.”
“Really?”
“Really,” Pam said. “I’ll pick you up at 9:00 tomorrow morning.” As she walked out of the pharmacy Pam thought how sad Barb’s life must’ve been to have never felt she was loved before, and to not have girlfriends to go shopping with.
Floyd picked up the blinking phone line in the bullpen. “Sergeant Swenson. How can I help you?”
“Floyd, this is Barb, at the drugstore. Remember the picture of the dead guy? The one with his chest all cut up.”
“I can’t get it out of my mind. I have a copy in front of me”
“A guy at the Rocky Mountain Photo Lab told me I shouldn’t have developed the film myself because they use special techniques to bring the colors out better. Since it was too late to do anything about that, he suggested I send him the image to see if he could bring out any of the detail better with the photo-shop programs he uses. I just got his version of the picture back. You’ve got to see it.”
Floyd pushed aside the county auditor’s report he’d been reading. “I have nothing going on right now. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
Floyd was locking the envelope with the photo and CD in his desk when the dispatcher paged him. He walked to the dispatcher’s cubicle and said, “I was heading out. What’s up?”
“There’s a call for Pam Ryan on line one, and she’s out of service right now and not answering her cellphone. Do you want to take it?”
“This is Floyd Swenson. Deputy Ryan is out of the office right now. Can I help you?”
“I don’t know,” the female voice said. “Pam Ryan left a message on my home voicemail, asking me to call her back. She mentioned that she was investigating my brother’s disappearance.”
“Are you Aaron Roberts’ sister?”
“Yes, my name is Jennifer Zollner.”
Floyd’s mind raced as he tried to remember references to Aaron Roberts’ family in the old reports. He knew about the parents, but had only a fleeting memory of a reference to Aaron’s sister. “Deputy Ryan and I are working on the re-opened investigation. Were you living in Pine City when Aaron disappeared?”
“I’ve lived in Cottage Grove, south of St. Paul, since high school. I met my husband right after I graduated, and he works for the refinery on highway 61, so we bought a house here when we got married.”
“Do you remember anything special about the night Aaron disappeared?”
“I talked to a deputy right after Aaron disappeared. I told him Aaron was at our house the weekend before, but I never saw him again.” Jennifer paused, and then asked, “Why are you asking all these questions now? Is it because of my parents? I called home after I got Deputy Ryan’s message and no one answered, which is unusual. Has something happened to them?”
“Well, your father’s in jail. We’ve placed your mother in a women’s shelter. I can pass a message to her and ask that she call you.”
“Dad beat her up again.” It was a statement and not a question.
“She was treated at the emergency room and released,” Floyd said. “You don’t sound surprised by the fact that your father was arrested for domestic battery.”
“He’s mean, especially when he’s been drinking. Since Aaron disappeared Mom’s been terribly depressed and he can’t deal with her dark moods. I’ve suspected that he’s been abusing her, but she always denies it.” A teenage girl’s voice yelled in the background and Jennifer put her hand over the phone. “Sorry, the kids are arguing.”
“What was going on in Aaron’s life right before he disappeared?” Floyd asked. “Was there anything that would lead you to believe he was either in danger or on the verge of running away?”
“Actually, he had turned his life around. Aaron and my husband talked a lot the summer before Aaron disappeared and Keith convinced Aaron that he might be good enough at math to be an engineer. Aaron took the SAT test and scored very high in math aptitude. He applied to the University of Minnesota and was accepted into a chemical engineering program. He would’ve started that following the spring semester.” Jennifer paused, then asked, “But why are you re-opening the investigation now? That all happened like fifteen years ago.”
“We found a picture of the group that were together the night he disappeared. He was with Ken Solstad, Kathy Tucker, Melissa Smith, Mike Nelson, and Betsy Ring. Do any of those names sound familiar?”
“I don’t know any of the last names, but I remember Ken and Kathy. Aaron and Ken were really close all through high school. I think they got in trouble several times for drinking or smoking dope. Aaron mentioned that Ken was home from the Army when he was here. It sounded like Ken had turned into a bully. Aaron was actually looking forward to Ken returning to the Army so life would settle down.”
“Tell me what you remember about Kathy.”
“Wow, that’s some ancient history. Aaron and Kathy had dated since high school. Mom told me she really liked Kathy, and I think there was pressure being put on them to get married. I remember Kathy being the star of the basketball and volleyball teams and, when I met her, thinking she was such a tomboy. She’d shoot baskets with Aaron at the high school and she’d always embarrass him.”
“Kathy says they had a fight the night Aaron disappeared, but she was too drunk to remember what happened after they fought.”
There was a long pause before Jennifer answered. “I don’t think that’s right. Kathy was an athlete — she didn’t drink. She always took great pride in her athleticism and I remember her lecturing Aaron about his drinking and smoking.”
Floyd froze. Kathy had been arrested for a DWI after Aaron’s disappearance, but he couldn’t recall any violations before. Why would she lie about drinking that night unless she needed a convenient and reasonable excuse for not revealing what she’d seen? He made a mental note.
“I suppose that could’ve been what Aaron and Kathy argued about the night he disappeared,” Floyd suggested.
“I doubt it. Aaron quit smoking and had cut way back on his drinking before he was accepted at the University. He and Kathy had been growing apart for a while, and I think their relationship was over. Now that I think about it, maybe he told her they were through that night. Aaron told my husband that his life was on a new track, or something like that. He said Kathy was a part of the old life.”