Free Chat by Archer Mayor Page A

there. And who knows where it fell off?”
    “Could be right near the crash site,” Barrows said. “That’s how it works sometimes—the nut falls off and the rod follows, slam-bam. There’s no waiting. Not often, but when it does, it’s immediate. The nut could be within a hundred feet of where they went off the road. Closer, even, if we’re really lucky.”
    Joe was catching a fragment of his colleague’s enthusiasm, but he still couldn’t ignore the odds. “Be more likely to find a fresh flower in all that snow.”
    Rob smiled. “Can’t find a flower with a metal detector, and the sheriff’s got two of them. Plus,” he added, holding up a finger, “a small crowd of teenage wannabe cops from the high school who love doing police work—our official Explorers troop, complete with uniforms. It wouldn’t cost the department a dime to set them to sniffing around.”
    “The sheriff would go along with that?” Joe asked, finally gaining on the idea.
    Barrows laughed. “You just watch.”
    Late that night, having missed the dinner hour, Joe found himself standing in the kitchen, scrutinizing stacks of cans in one of the cupboards.
    “What are you looking for?” his mother asked from the door.
    He turned and laughed. “Busted. I heard the TV. Didn’t want to bother you. I know it’s getting late. I was looking for some Spam or something.”
    Her eyes widened. “ Spam? I should be visiting your graveside, the way you eat.” She rolled farther into the room, heading toward the fridge. “I’ll make you something. Leo’s gotten me lazy. Time I got back into cooking. How about an omelet? I’ll throw in some ham, tomatoes, maybe a little cheese?”
    It was a more than acceptable compromise. Joe kept little in his own fridge except milk and mayonnaise, along with a few jars containing substances he couldn’t identify. Eating was something he did out of hunger, drawing few distinctions between a doughnut and a salad. It used to drive Gail insane.
    He settled down at the kitchen table to get out of his mother’s way as she expertly traveled the room.
    “What’s the latest on Leo?” she asked as she worked, her voice self-consciously nonchalant.
    He smiled at her. “As if you didn’t know. I did just come from there, though. I think he’s looking a little better. He certainly has more to say, which isn’t pretty. I figure in a week, the nurses’ll kill him and that’ll be the end of it.”
    She gave him a dark look, which he knew not to take seriously.
    “He’s got company, by the way,” Joe added.
    “Who?”
    “Cops. I found a state trooper there tonight, just visiting, and Leo said there’d been others. Word got out, and guys from a bunch of departments are dropping by, just showing support. They even started a guest book you can see next time you’re there.”
    She nodded once, visibly moved. “That’s very sweet.”
    “It’s a small world I work in,” he told her. “And cops are pretty sentimental. What did the doc tell you on the phone?” he then asked, knowing she’d called.
    “That he’s past the worst of it but has a long way to go.” She cracked an egg into a bowl and put the shell down beside it, sighing. “I keep wondering if all this will change things.”
    He reached out and patted her hand. “One step at a time, Mom. Leo’s pretty irrepressible. He’ll have some physical therapy afterward, and you might be taking more care of him than he ever did of you for a while, but I’m guessing he’ll be back in full form by the end.”
    She nodded and broke another egg. “What did you learn about the accident?”
    He raised his eyebrows. “How did you know I was looking into that?”
    She looked up at him. “I would be.”
    Good point, he thought. Part of the reason he’d turned out the way he had was because she’d trained him to be curious about everything and everyone.
    “A piece of the car fell off,” he said. “That’s what messed up the steering. The