The Shadow of Harvest Bridge

I stared at the case files piled on my desk. There were way too many unsolved murders in Wichita. For a population of just over 300,000, this seemed excessive. But they would have to wait just a little longer. It had been a week since my Mexico adventure, and I was still working on the paperwork. I groaned as I pulled up yet another document on my computer. An international case sounds fun until you have to fill out fifteen hundred reports about it. My eyelids grew heavy as I typed. Sleep had been hard to come by since Mexico. My dreams were fraught with nightmares. A gun to my head, my life replaying like a silent film, scenes growing ever stranger until a gunshot rang out and I jolted awake. I rubbed my eyes and grabbed my coffee cup for a refill. Surely the dreams would subside soon. My boss said I should have taken a vacation before coming back to work. What did he expect me to do? Spend all my money to fly out to a beach somewhere so I could sit and bake in the sun? No thank you. He should be thrilled I’d rather be at work. Just as I stood up, my desk phone rang. I threw my head back with a huff and picked it up. “This is Baker.” “Elsie.” I froze. That was a voice I hadn’t heard in a while. “That’s what some people call me.” “It’s Maggie.” A small smile tugged at my lips. “I kind of figured. Wow. It’s been a while. What do you need?” Maggie chuckled softly. “Still all business. You haven’t changed much. You’re not even going to ask how I am?” “Well if you’re calling a cold case detective, I can guess that you’re not doing well.” I sat back down in my chair, no longer feeling the need for coffee. “What if I were just calling a friend?” “After all this time? That’s suspicious.” “And why is that? “We haven’t seen each other in ten years. Who would call us friends?” I grabbed a stress ball off my desk and squeezed it to relieve my growing uneasiness. “A sentimental person. I would have called sooner, but you changed your number.” “Yeah, that would make it difficult. Almost like I didn’t want to be found. But here we are.” I sat back and propped my feet on my desk. “Maybe you should have been the detective.” Maggie laughed. “It really wasn’t that difficult. That last case you closed was all over the news. ‘Detective Elsie Baker solves 15-year disappearance of Ernest Walker’. How’d you figure out he was still alive?” “Lots of time staring at case files, a few phone calls, a few interviews. The pieces came together, and voila.” “You make it sound so easy.” “Not really. So, do you have a case of a presumed-dead missing person who’s really hiding out in Mexico you need me to solve?” I absentmindedly rubbed my scalp again. “Not quite. But I would love to meet with you. It’s a long story.” “As long as you’re coming here, I’m game.” “Yep, that’s what I meant. How about we grab dinner tonight?” I sat up so quickly I almost fell out of my chair. I reached out to catch myself, but the motion sent a bowl of paperclips scattering across my desk. “That’s fast. Are you already in Wichita?” “Yes. I called to be polite, but I wasn’t going to take no for an answer. My next move was to ambush you when you got off work. Cold case detectives don’t carry guns, do they?” I managed to sit upright again. “They come in handy sometimes. Plus, I look a lot cooler when I carry.” “I bet you do,” Maggie laughed. “6:00 at the west Applebee’s?” “You know, they do have other restaurants in this town. But I suppose anything other than Pizza Hut is a delicacy for a Benson girl like you.” “We have a Dairy Queen now. It’s where Burger Barn used to be.” “No way. When did Benson become a culinary destination?” She breathed a light sigh. She was probably getting annoyed by my quips. “Is Applebee’s ok? You can suggest some fancy Japanese steakhouse, but then you’re buying.” I smirked—just like old times. “Applebee’s is fine. I haven’t had wings in a while.” “Good. I’ll see you there. Bye, Elsie.” “See ya, Maggie.” I hung up the phone and sighed, my mind as scattered as the paperclips on my desk. My past had just called, and I couldn’t decide how I felt about it.