tree and waited. In the distance, the interstate stretched out before them. Eastward, the Susquehanna was a thick brown smudge where it passed beneath the highway about a mile away. Red brake lights blinked periodically as cars approached the overpass.
“Shit,” Josie muttered. “Look at that. I think the river might be overtaking the interstate.”
Gretchen wiped rain from her eyes and squinted in the direction of the river. “There’s a creek that runs parallel to the interstate on the other side, isn’t there?”
“Yeah,” Josie answered. “That overpass is going to be underwater in the next hour.”
She took out her phone and called dispatch to ask them to call the emergency management department and the state police. As she spoke, she felt a thickness in her throat and tears welling behind her eyes. What was happening to her town? How much longer was this going to last? What would be left? She had spent her whole life in Denton. She’d graduated high school here. Gotten married here. Served on the police force for years. She had sacrificed so much for this city—literally bled for it on more than one occasion. It was hers and it was decimated. Turning away from Gretchen, she took in a shuddering breath and tried to focus on giving the dispatch officer instructions. For the first and only time since the flooding had started, Josie was grateful for the rain. Hopefully, Gretchen wouldn’t be able to tell she was becoming emotional.
Ten minutes later, the brake lights were a steady glow as the water sloshed over the barrier and onto the overpass. There was no sign of Alice. Josie dialed her number, but she didn’t answer.
“What do you think?” Gretchen asked. “She get spooked?”
Josie rubbed her temples, trying to keep the headache forming behind her eyes from getting worse and any errant tears from leaking out. “I don’t know. Maybe this was just a test. Maybe she can see us, but we can’t see her. She wanted to make sure we would come alone.”
They took a slow walk back to the Stop-N-Go, eyes searching all around for any woman sitting in a vehicle or standing beneath a tree. Across from the Stop-N-Go on one corner was simply a grassy knoll beside the entrance ramp to the interstate. The other two corners held a bank, which was closed, and a modest ranch-style home. From where they stood, Josie didn’t see anyone who might be Alice.
“Let’s go,” Josie said.
As they got into the car, the long wail of the emergency siren sounded again in the distance.
Twenty-One
At the stationhouse there was a reprieve: the press was gone. Josie and Gretchen tromped up to the second floor where Mettner sat at his desk. His brown hair was in disarray, and his clothes looked wet. “Hey, boss,” he said.
“Where are the reporters?” Josie asked.
“Amber is giving a press conference over at the command post,” he explained. “Hey, I’ve got something.” From the floor, he picked up a cardboard box and set it on his desk.
“What’s this?” Josie asked as she came around to peer into it.
Mettner used both hands to slick his hair away from his face. “Hempstead is still under water. Nothing to see there. It will probably be another day or two before the water recedes. But I did locate the wreckage of Mrs. Bassett’s house.” He pointed to the box. “Those are some of her personal belongings. I grabbed whatever I could safely gather. Maybe when Emergency Management is able to do more of a clean-up, they can get further into the house and find more.”
Josie stared at the contents: a few framed photographs, a small jewelry box, a couple of pairs of shoes, and several items of clothing. “Mett, this is great. I’m sure she’ll be thrilled. We just have to figure out where Emergency Services placed her, and we can get this stuff to her.”
Gretchen reached into the box and started taking items out. “Let’s see if we can get some of this dried out.”
They laid each possession out on paper towels on one of the empty desks. Mettner found a box fan in third floor storage, and they used that to speed up the drying process. Then he went out on a few more emergency calls while Gretchen tried to track down which salon Vera Urban had worked at nearly twenty years earlier. Josie took on the task of tracking down Mrs. Bassett, who—as it turned out—had been placed at Rockview Ridge, Denton’s only skilled nursing facility, where