Читать книгу Murder In The Heartland - M. William Phelps - Страница 25

Prosecutors believe that Lisa Montgomery left Skidmore with the child and traveled west out of town on Highway “DD,” toward Hickory Creek and the Nodaway River. “The blacktop road,” Ben Espey called it.

“She was heading out of town, going west,” said Espey, “while we were heading into town, from the east.”

They missed each other by fewer than thirty minutes.

Lisa probably chose Highway “DD” because it bypassed the more direct route of Highway 113 to Highway 71 toward St. Joseph and Kansas City. She must have realized urban authorities, outnumbering those in the outlying towns almost ten to one, would be looking for anyone—male or female—traveling with a newborn baby.

When Espey found out that the last vehicle to be seen at Bobbie Jo’s was a red car, he radioed the lead out to every law enforcement agency, while his office in Maryville sent out a teletype. Shortly after the call went out, a Missouri State Highway Patrol (MSHP) cruiser engaged a red car in a high-speed pursuit on Highway 71 near Maryville.

“That pursuit,” said Espey, “ended up back in toward us in Skidmore, so we joined the chase.”

Espey wouldn’t normally have left his post at a crime scene, but someone over the radio said, “Red car in pursuit on seventy-one, possibly connected to the death in Skidmore.”

When Espey heard that, he took right off.

Fifteen to twenty minutes later, law enforcement ended up cornering a man in a red car on Route 29. He had nothing whatsoever to do with the crime. He was running from police because he had some overdue tickets and thought they were going to put him in jail.

Learning this, Espey headed back to the Stinnett home.

By now, the Buchanan County CSI team had logged on to Bobbie Jo’s computer and figured out Darlene Fischer was, indeed, the last person to meet with Bobbie Jo, according to the e-mails they were able to retrieve. Based on one specific e-mail Darlene had sent to Bobbie Jo, authorities thought they knew where she lived: Fairfax, Missouri, one county over.

Espey and one of his deputies took off, lights flashing, sirens blaring, for Fairfax, to see if they could locate Darlene Fischer.