Belcher.â
âBelcher-dot-com,â I said, not looking up from my reading. The cement truck had hit a car in the intersection. The whole familyâall of the people in the photoâhad been in that car. All of them had died.
âYes,â Leontine answered. âBelcherdot-com. This Sam Belcher scanned the article and posted it on his website. And now, all I have to do is print it out.â
Leontine clicked her mouse button a few more times. The print command came up on the screen, interrupting my reading.
âIt sounds like a lot of complicated work,â I said. âWhatâs the big deal? Why was Mrs. Max in such a hurry to get this to you?â
âDidnât you read the article?â Leontine asked.
âI was just scanning through it,â I said.
âThe family in that article was the Riggins family,â Leontine said.
âIt was a terrible accident, so I donât want to say itâs not a big deal. But whatâs the big deal that they had the same name?â I asked.
âRead the article closely,â she said. âThe mother and father are Louise and Charlie Riggins. The boyâs name was Caleb.â
âBut still...,â I began.
âYou donât get it.â
âNo,â I said. I didnât get it. I was angry that I couldnât understand. âSo enlighten me.â
âMrs. Max went to her school records,â Leontine explained. âWe compared birth certificates over the telephone. The one wehave here in Lake Havasu for Caleb Riggins is identical to the one for the Caleb Riggins who died in a car accident in Roaring River almost fourteen years ago.â
âIdentical,â I said, wanting to be sure I heard right.
âIdentical.â Leontine went to the printer and picked up the copy of the newspaper article. She waved it at me.
âSeveral months after this family died in a car accident in North Carolina,â she said, âanother Riggins family showed up here in Arizona.â
I shook my head, puzzled. âAre you saying Caleb Riggins isnât really Caleb Riggins?â
âI donât know what Iâm saying,â she said. âAll I know is that this is getting weirder all the time.â
chapter sixteen
Half an hour later, I was at the police station. I parked my mountain bike, locked it and ran inside. A couple of policemen nodded hello to me. I nodded back but didnât stop to talk.
I found Mom at her usual place, behind a desk near the front. I knew what the rest of the station looked like from a tour she had arranged for me once. In the back were the holding cells, but other than that, it looked like any office.
âWin your game?â Mom asked with a smile. She faced a machine with a bunch of switches and wore a telephone headset.
âYup,â I said. âTwo to one. But look at this.â
I handed her the article that Leontine had printed. Mom read it within seconds, pushing hair out of her face as she leaned forward over it.
âCharlie Riggins,â she read out loud. âA grocery store manager. His wife, Louise. And a son named Caleb. But the photoââ
âDoesnât look like the Riggins family we know,â I said. âMom, youâre always looking for mysteries. Well, this oneâs real.â
Mom stared off into space for a few moments. A strange look crossed her face. Then she snapped her fingers and flicked a switch on the dispatch machine.
âCaptain Briscoe?â she said into the headset microphone. âItâs Michelle. Would you mind coming here for a few moments?â
I couldnât hear his answer, of course, but right away the sound of hard heels on a tile floor reached me. Captain Briscoewalked like a drill sergeant in the marines. He looked like one too. He had a gray crew cut, square face, thick neck and broad shoulders.
âHello, Matt,â he said, shaking my hand. âWhat brings you
John B. Garvey, Mary Lou Widmer
Liesel Schwarz
Elise Marion
C. Alexander London
Abhilash Gaur
Shirley Walker
Connie Brockway
Black Inc.
Al Sharpton