Georgie Girl Ch. 13-15

We were introduced to Willis Overland, an auxiliary officer in the patrol and a local expert on the ranches in the immediate area. He was a purveyor of feed and grain supplies and knew almost every rancher within a hundred miles. We sat with him and explained what Georgette was doing and what she was trying to learn.

"So, you daughter was surveying the ranches trying to learn about water quality and how much water they used, is that it?"

"Roughly," Thomas replied.

Mr. Overland had the frustrating habit of talking only to Thomas and ignoring me. He was a big man, well over six foot, in his fifties and looking like he hadn't missed too many meals. I bit my tongue and let him continue.

"Well, some of those boys won't be too forthcoming, if you know what I mean. Any hint of contaminated water might mean contaminated crops or cattle. Some of the ranches haven't been too responsible about managing their animal wastes. We know some of the wells are polluted from the testing that's done randomly. If your plan is to find a way to identify those wells and report them, then I'd worry about her safety."

"No ... that's not what she was doing at all!" I nearly shouted. "We're trying to develop a way that the smaller ranchers can clean up their water and not have to worry about it."

I felt Thomas's hand on my arm, steadying me.

"All right, Son, don't get all uppity with me," Overland said in a condescending tone. "I'm just tellin' you what's so, that's all. This your boy?" he said, turning back to Thomas.

"No, he's my future son-in-law. It's my daughter we're looking for, so let's get down to the details. What did you learn from her itinerary?"

Overland looked back at me, sizing me up I suppose, then back to Thomas.

"Here's what I think she had in mind," he said, pointing to the big state map on the wall. "From what I can see, she was planning to work northeast on 87 to Fort Benton, then south on 80, cutting back northwest on 87 at Stanford. That's a triangle of about a hundred-and-fifty miles. There's at least a dozen ranches both sides of that route, so you've got your work cut out for you.

"You see all these skinny black lines here," he said pointing to a spider's web of crooked lines on the map. "These are all unmarked roads. Some lead to the ranches, some are service roads. They're all dirt and can get washed out now and then in a heavy rainstorm. I don't know why she'd need to use them much, but that's another place to look."

"There must be thirty or forty of them," I said in frustration.

"Yep, at least. But if I was you, I'd stick to the roads that lead to the ranches only. I can't see her wandering around in the middle of nowhere if she had work to do. I know I sure as hell wouldn't."

"She has a GPS unit. Would those roads show up on it?" I asked.

"Some do, some don't. Some of those so-called roads don't amount to much more than a goat trail. Can't see her messing around in that area."

"Do you have any clue which way she might have been heading when she left?" Thomas asked.

"Well, like I said, the order that her list of places was in ... if she was following that ... was up 87, down 80 and back on 87. Clockwise on the triangle," he said, pointing at the map.

"Thanks," Thomas said, extending his hand. "You know this area very well, I'm told. Do you have a cell phone we can reach you on if we have any questions?"

"Sure, I got one of them new-fangled iPods, just like the kids do. Got GPS and everything on it. Here's my card, the number's on it."

"Thanks again. We appreciate your help."

"Good luck," he said, still ignoring me.

"Well," I said, "at least we know where to start."

"We'll be lucky to do four ranches a day," Thomas mused. "Let's find out what the highway patrol is doing about the ground search before we get to chasing their tails, going the same places they are going."

I nodded. Thomas was thinking a whole lot clearer than I was. I was really glad he was along with me.

The sergeant explained that they would follow the clockwise route that Willis Overland had suggested, interviewing the ranchers along the way to see if they had seen or talked to Georgette.

"She was missing one day after starting, so if Willis was right, she wouldn't have got very far up 87 in a day. Unless he's wrong and she went in another direction, that's what we think is the best way to find her."

I nodded. That made sense. I went back to the big state map and looked at the route we thought she may have taken. It wasn't a topographical map, so I couldn't tell much about what the surrounding territory was like.

"Thomas, what if she went the opposite way, southeast to Stanford? Our motel has high-speed wireless. We could use Georgette's laptop to look up Google Earth and see what the surrounding land is like between here and there."

"All right, that gives us something to do. I'll let the sergeant know what we're doing then meet you at the car."

When we got back to the motel, we used the card we had been given for Georgette's room and I pulled up Google Earth right away, starting with Great Falls and tracking southeast along highway 87.

"Thomas, look at this. The flatlands seem to end at a town called Belt. There's only a bit of farmland about halfway between Belt and Stanford. There could be some rough country between Belt and the highway 80 junction."

"That's a lot of country to cover, John. I suggest we start in the morning and take our stuff with us. We'll leave Georgette's room just as it is except we'll take the laptop. I'm sure we'll find motels at various way points along the highway."

"Yeah, sure, sounds like a plan," I said, not feeling very positive. Perhaps tomorrow would tell us if we were on a wild goose chase.

To Be Continued