"Where was Patsy going?" Dean asked.
"I don't know for sure. She talked about a friend in Chicago but gas was costing lots more than we thought and she was getting real tired from driving. She gave me a couple of hundred bucks and left me at this bus station in this little town in Illinois-I don't remember the name. That's when I called Fred. I had to change buses, but the last guy dropped me off right here in Ouray at the Variety store!"
Fred O'Connor rubbed his chin and tried not to look guilty. "She was already at the bus station. I figured she might as well come back here rather than get messed up with the authorities again."
"I didn't talk to anyone but the driver, like you said."
"Kids take trips alone all the time. When I was twelve I hitchhiked from Boston to Birmingham."
Dean grimaced but withheld comment, while Cynthia looked askance at the news that Patsy Boyd had summarily abandoned her daughter. "Your mother just left you there?"
Martha reached in her pocket and triumphantly presented a crumpled piece of paper. It read, "I want my kid Martha Boyd to live of the deans at Bird Song in Colorado. I luv her but they do to and they can do better than me. I won't fite it. Patsy Boyd"
Cynthia took one look at the note and began to cry.
"What's a matter?" Martha asked, a frightened look on her face. "She really wrote it."
"Nothing," Cynthia answered. "I just feel so badly for Patsy. That's such a brave thing for a mother to do."
"We talked lots about it," Martha said. "She's nice and she loves me but she's really messed up and she knows it. That's why she can't take care of me. They'll probably send her back to jail when they catch her. When she gets out she wants to be a beautician."
The Deans knew they couldn't simply keep Martha without reporting her arrival to the Midwest authorities that were searching for the girl as a kidnapping victim, and her mother as a fleeing fugitive. Much as they detested having to make the phone call, both knew it was necessary.
Exhausted Martha was hustled to her bed and snuggled next to SB, the patiently waiting stuffed owl. She was asleep instantly. It was Dean's idea to telephone Jake Weller to intercede in breaking the news in the appropriate places that at least half the search was now unnecessary. A series of phone calls followed. The further good news was that no one seemed to be immediately concerned with addressing Martha's present circumstances. There was a question of jurisdictions and when Weller volunteered that Martha was safe and comfortable at Bird Song where she'd spent the last six months, no one seemed to protest. No, Martha Boyd had no idea where her mother was nor did she know the woman's destination, presuming Patsy had one. Dean reminded the voice on the other end of a three-way conversation that mother and girl hardly knew one another. This seemed to satisfy the official, who was obviously embarrassed over the entire debacle and infinitely relieved that at least half their problem was solved without any accusatory newspaper headlines. Dean crossed his fingers that bureaucracy would take some time in unsnarling its spaghetti of red tape and Martha would remain in a back corner of their interest. And no, Jake Weller told them, there were no further details on Fitzgerald's absence.