When Cathy arrived at the preserve, she saw two other cars parked in the parking lot, but nobody was around. She decided to first look off the main trail for Linda and keep an eye out for the strawberry lemonade glass that Linda would have had with her. Some of the terrains were flat and grassy while other areas were hilly and rocky. Cathy carefully walked up some of the hilly areas first. She looked around and thought, this is beautiful, now I know why Linda comes out here so much.
About a quarter of a mile away and up high in the sky, Cathy saw a few birds, flying in a large circle. She knew what that could mean so she hustled her way up the hill in that direction. Huffing and puffing, Cathy made it to the top and looked down the other side. There was something dead down there but she could tell that it didn’t look human.
“L-i-n-d-a,” Cathy yelled anyways.
After catching her breath for a few minutes, Cathy turned around and carefully made her way back down the hill. I wouldn’t think that she would go down that other way, it’s too dangerous, Cathy thought. Once she got back to the bottom, she walked the pathway to the grassy flat area and looked around. This is strange, why would this grass lay like this, Cathy thought as she walked around.
“I wonder if this is the area where the police found Linda’s phone,” Cathy stopped.
The grassy area must have been as large as a football field if not more. Perfect area for antelope to graze, but there weren’t any… Not at this time anyway. Cathy walked around and called out for Linda but heard nothing. She eventually made her way back to the path and saw four other people.
“Excuse me, have you seen this girl? She’s my daughter and I can’t find her,” Cathy showed them a picture of Linda on her cell phone.
“No Maam, sorry,” the young man said.
The two young women and other young man shook their heads no after looking at the photo then continued toward the parking lot. Cathy noticed a garbage receptacle off to the side and lifted the heavy lid. Inside she saw some beer bottles, soda cans, and one plastic glass that resembled the one from the coffee shop. Well, this only proves that she finished her drink before she went missing, Cathy thought.
Cathy pulled the garbage bag out of the receptacle and took it with her. Maybe the police can get some fingerprints off the bottles and cans, she thought. Cathy left the preserve and headed back into town. She stopped at the station and was able to talk to Deputy Dean.
“Look, I found this at the preserve. There’s a plastic glass in here that my daughter probably drank from, and other bottles and cans. You can get prints from them and ask those people questions right?” Cathy handed deputy Dean the bag.
Deputy Dean looked inside the bag, “What makes you so sure that the glass was Linda’s?”
“I talked to Jeff Bower at the coffee shop by the mall. He told me that Linda would get a frozen strawberry lemonade every time she went for her walks at the preserve. That is the glass that it comes in,” Cathy said.
Deputy Dean looked at Cathy, “Okay, we’ll see what we can do. Thank you for bringing this in, but go home now and wait to hear from us.”
Even though Cathy felt like she was being talked down to, she told the deputy that she has to pick her niece up from the airport first. Cathy left the station and headed out of town towards the airport. Joann’s plane should be landing in about an hour so Cathy should be there on time to pick her up.
Deputy Dean showed chief Luis the garbage bag and told him what Cathy told her. He instructed her to take the bag to the lab to see what they can get from the garbage. Maybe they will get some kind of lead from whoever threw out the bottles and cans. So deputy Dean went to the lab with the bag and asked the technician to put a rush on it. She was told that the results wouldn’t be available until tomorrow though.
When Cathy arrived at the airport, she waited at the counter of a coffee shop for Joann to call her. She sat there with her cell phone looking at Facebook. So many of Linda’s friends had made posts that read, Linda, come home, we miss you. Cathy started to tear up but she wiped her eyes and composed herself. The barista saw that, walked over to Cathy, and asked if she was okay.
Cathy nodded her head yes and sniffed, “you haven’t seen this girl around have you?”
The barista looked at the photo, “no, I haven’t. Is she your daughter?” She asked.
“Yes, she’s been missing since yesterday,” Cathy said.
“I’m sorry… I’m sure that you will find her though,” the barista said.
Cathy sat there and drank a bottle of water that she purchased there. It wasn’t long before she heard the announcement of Joann’s flight coming in over the loudspeaker.
Please join me again for more of: Unexplained Encounter.