Sara by Tony Hayden Page B

convinced me to legally adopt him after we married, so I’ve been his pop since he was a little boy.”
    Barnes stuffed the notepad back into his shirt pocket.
    “Being the boy’s father, I know when he is lying to me.” He leaned forward and pointed a finger at Mike. “I knew, just like you did, that something wasn’t adding up. That boy was lying to me straight out. So I slapped the handcuffs on him, brought him down here, and threw his scrawny little butt in a holding cell.”
    Barnes paused and smiled, “He wasn’t in there more than ten minutes before he was blubbering all over himself and promising me that he would tell me the truth.”
                  Barnes waited in silence and stared at Mike with a hard look.
                  Mike wasn’t sure he could ask, but he finally found the strength.
    “What did he tell you, Sheriff?”
                  Barnes reached in his back pocket, pulled out a small device with a thin cord wrapped loosely around it, and tossed it on the table. Mike recognized Sara’s iPod.
                  “Jordan wants to apologize for taking this music player from the front seat of your daughter’s car.”
                  Mike looked at the sheriff and shook his head in confusion.
                  “The boy has a girlfriend,” Barnes shared. “And he thought she might like this thing.” Barnes pushed the player toward Mike. “That’s all,” he said. “End of story.”
                  Sheriff Barnes slapped his hands to his knees and stood.
    “Now, Mr. Haller, I will let you finish your interview with…” Barnes looked at his deputy.
                  “Watts, sir,” the deputy sounded off. “Deputy Ryan Watts.”
                  The sheriff looked back to Mike, “Deputy Watts is going to take your statement, then I suggest you go on home and wait for your daughter to call. We’ll release her car to you once the investigation is complete.”
    He laughed out loud, “Teenage girls in their first year of college. I do not envy you, Mr. Haller.”
                 

     
    Mike completed his interview with Deputy Watts and left the county building. His stomach growled loudly, reminding him that he hadn’t eaten or slept in more than thirty hours. The iPod in his hand felt small and fragile. He turned it over and over, wrapping the cord for the headset tightly around the base. His stomach turned again, but not from hunger this time. Doubt coursed through his veins, feeding the lead weight that seemed eternally seated in the pit of his stomach.
                  Where are you, baby girl? Mike asked to himself. Send me a sign and I will bring you home.
                  Tears spilled from his tightly closed eyes. Blinking them away, Mike looked west toward the mountains and the setting sun. He knew that Sara could be anywhere. If the sheriff and the tow truck driver were being straight with him, Sara could have easily been taken from that lonely two-lane highway by a passerby and carried off to, God only knows where. She could be in the next state, her trail growing cold as Mike wasted valuable time chasing his “gut feeling”.
                  Closing his eyes again, Mike tried to make a connection with his missing daughter. Give me a sign, Sara. Please help me find you.
                  A slamming door shook Mike from his reverie. He turned to see Jordan walking from the county building. The boy looked at him and snickered with a slight smile on his face and Mike sensed that this young man had hurt his daughter. Anger boiled in his blood.
     

     
    “Mike! Why haven’t you called? I have been worried sick about you and Sara all day long.”
    Jean took a deep breath before continuing, “My God! I would hope that you would have the common decency to at least let me know that our daughter is safe. Where are you