thought they had heard or seen something the night of the disappearance. They relayed some of these to Steve and his friends, who checked them out.
In the first few days, it had seemed better not to find anything; with the passing weeks it seemed, at least to Steve’s friends, that it was time to find something, to learn what had happened to Denice.
On Memorial Day weekend his friends convinced Steve to get away from this for a while. He agreed to join Monty, Gary, Brad, others on a boat trip down the Illinois River. It was their first time away from the case in the month since Denice had disappeared. The water swirled beneath them. The wind whipped through their hair. Steve remained quiet most of the time, alone with his thoughts.
One day he went to the financial office at the college. A hush fell over the clerks. Everyone seemed to know what he was there for: to pay off his wife’s student loan.
Spring became summer in Ada. The fields in the outlying areas were green. Lilacs and hollyhocks and roses took turns blooming on the small lawns that front most of Ada’s houses. They bloomed on the large ranches surrounding the town, and near the small working-class houses, and in colored town, which is what the small black section is still called. Colored town used to be right downtown; but a few decades back, as Ada grew and downtown real estate became more valuable, the city fathers razed colored town and built a new one out on the highway, across from the small airport at the northern edge of the city.
Stories about the case in the Ada
News
stopped in mid-May; but members of the Haraway family called the police frequently—every day in the early weeks—to see if there was any news.
Every few weeks, a bright new lead seemed to flare briefly, tantalizingly, before the eyes of the police, and then die. In mid-summer, a man named Gary Allen Walker was arrested in Tulsa. He allegedly had killed nine or ten women, leaving a string of bodies through several states. His method of operation did not seem quite the same as in the Haraway case, but Gary Rogers and Danny Barrett went hopefully to Okmulgee to see his parents. They found that Walker had been with them the night Denice Haraway disappeared. He later confessed to other killings, but not to killing Denice Haraway.
A man was arrested in Texas and accused of killing several women there. OSBI agents went to interview him, to determine his whereabouts on April 28; he had not been in Oklahoma. Another man was arrested in Texas, accused of kidnapping and raping a woman. OSBI agents went down to check out his clothing, his car, to see if they could find any evidence that would tie him to Denice Haraway. They couldn’t.
The police and the OSBI got frequent calls from other states where unidentified female bodies had been found. None of them matched Denice’s description. One that stuck in Dennis Smith’s mind was from Missouri, where the lower half of a woman’s body had been found in a parking lot. There were tattoos on the thighs. The police checked with the family, to make sure Denice had none. The dead woman was later identified as coming from the northern Midwest.
With each new lead Dennis Smith felt a small flicker of hope. When the leads did not check out, he felt a new sense of frustration. He was back to square one: what to do now?
The days grew hotter, more humid. Summer reached its peak. String beans and broccoli and tomatoes and yams and okra—lots of okra—sprouted in the gardens that many Ada residents tend behind their homes. The rodeo made its annual visit to Ken Lance’s sports arena, and for a few days Ada’s motels were crowded. The county fair was held at the old rodeo grounds. The husks of the pecans on the leafy trees all over town began to shade from green to brown.
On Labor Day, Ada broke into the nation’s sports news; the million-dollar All-American Futurity at Ruidoso Downs, New Mexico, the richest
In the first few days, it had seemed better not to find anything; with the passing weeks it seemed, at least to Steve’s friends, that it was time to find something, to learn what had happened to Denice.
On Memorial Day weekend his friends convinced Steve to get away from this for a while. He agreed to join Monty, Gary, Brad, others on a boat trip down the Illinois River. It was their first time away from the case in the month since Denice had disappeared. The water swirled beneath them. The wind whipped through their hair. Steve remained quiet most of the time, alone with his thoughts.
One day he went to the financial office at the college. A hush fell over the clerks. Everyone seemed to know what he was there for: to pay off his wife’s student loan.
Spring became summer in Ada. The fields in the outlying areas were green. Lilacs and hollyhocks and roses took turns blooming on the small lawns that front most of Ada’s houses. They bloomed on the large ranches surrounding the town, and near the small working-class houses, and in colored town, which is what the small black section is still called. Colored town used to be right downtown; but a few decades back, as Ada grew and downtown real estate became more valuable, the city fathers razed colored town and built a new one out on the highway, across from the small airport at the northern edge of the city.
Stories about the case in the Ada
News
stopped in mid-May; but members of the Haraway family called the police frequently—every day in the early weeks—to see if there was any news.
Every few weeks, a bright new lead seemed to flare briefly, tantalizingly, before the eyes of the police, and then die. In mid-summer, a man named Gary Allen Walker was arrested in Tulsa. He allegedly had killed nine or ten women, leaving a string of bodies through several states. His method of operation did not seem quite the same as in the Haraway case, but Gary Rogers and Danny Barrett went hopefully to Okmulgee to see his parents. They found that Walker had been with them the night Denice Haraway disappeared. He later confessed to other killings, but not to killing Denice Haraway.
A man was arrested in Texas and accused of killing several women there. OSBI agents went to interview him, to determine his whereabouts on April 28; he had not been in Oklahoma. Another man was arrested in Texas, accused of kidnapping and raping a woman. OSBI agents went down to check out his clothing, his car, to see if they could find any evidence that would tie him to Denice Haraway. They couldn’t.
The police and the OSBI got frequent calls from other states where unidentified female bodies had been found. None of them matched Denice’s description. One that stuck in Dennis Smith’s mind was from Missouri, where the lower half of a woman’s body had been found in a parking lot. There were tattoos on the thighs. The police checked with the family, to make sure Denice had none. The dead woman was later identified as coming from the northern Midwest.
With each new lead Dennis Smith felt a small flicker of hope. When the leads did not check out, he felt a new sense of frustration. He was back to square one: what to do now?
The days grew hotter, more humid. Summer reached its peak. String beans and broccoli and tomatoes and yams and okra—lots of okra—sprouted in the gardens that many Ada residents tend behind their homes. The rodeo made its annual visit to Ken Lance’s sports arena, and for a few days Ada’s motels were crowded. The county fair was held at the old rodeo grounds. The husks of the pecans on the leafy trees all over town began to shade from green to brown.
On Labor Day, Ada broke into the nation’s sports news; the million-dollar All-American Futurity at Ruidoso Downs, New Mexico, the richest
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