Crime Wave

It’s a tight local spread. Scales figures his wife will be gone one hour.

9:00, 9:30, 10:00. No Betty Jean. The baby wants food. Scales feeds him and slaps on fresh diapers. He’s ticked off and worried. He’s working on pissed off and scared. He starts running abandonment tapes.

Betty left me and the kids. Betty stuck me with the kids. Betty’s got a boyfriend. They’re at his place or a bar or a motel. They’re bopping at the Nashville West.

He calmed down. He switched tapes. Betty needs some time by herself.

To unwind. To cut loose. To visit her girlfriends.

He called Connie, Terry, and Glenda. They said they hadn’t seen Betty, He ran tapes from 10:30 to midnight. He called the El Monte PD and the California Highway Patrol. He described his truck and his wife. He asked about car wrecks.

No go:

Your truck was not involved in any reported collisions.

He ran crash tapes to 2:oo A.M. He called the El Monte PD back. He got another No. The desk man said sit tight and wait by the phone.

He tried to sit tight. The tapes kept spinning. He left his kids alone and walked by Crawford’s Market and the Nashville West. They were closed. He didn’t see his wife or his truck. He walked home. He called the girlfriends again. He got three more No’s. He fell asleep on the couch and woke up at 5:30. He called Betty Jean’s dad in Corona. Bud Bedford said he hadn’t seen or heard from BettyJean. He said he’d shoot up to El Monte.

Bill Scales and Bud Bedford connected. They drove by Durfee Drugs, the bank, and the market. They did not see Betty Jean or the truck. They drove to the El Monte PD. They filed a missingpersons sheet. Scales said his wife was devoted. She wasn’t a runaround chick. She didn’t smoke dope or chase men. She wouldn’t just split unannounced.

The cops told Scales and Bedford to sit tight. Don’t think car wrecks or abductions. We’re legally constrained until your wife is gone forty-eight hours. Think car wrecks or abductions then.

Bill Scales thought it now. Bud Bedford thought it. They did not sit tight.

They drove the #10 Freeway east/west. They drove the 605 north/south. They stopped at gas stations. They talked to attendants. They described Betty Jean and the truck. Scales got a bug up his ass. He knew his wife was kidnapped. He knew the guy stopped to gas up.

More No’s. No’s straight across. No Betty Jean/no truck.

Bedford went home. He’d divorced Betty’s mother years back. He had to break the news and say it don’t look good.

Scales stuck the kids with a baby-sitter. He borrowed a car and went at the freeways systematically. He hit gas stations. He flashed a snapshot of Betty. He got a straight run of No’s.

Wednesday, 1/3 1/73:

The missing-persons investigation kicked in pro forma. An APB went out. A Teletype detailed the truck and Betty Jean Scales:

WF/DOB 3/6/49, 54″, 115, brown hair, brown eyes. Last seen wearing a red-pink top, brown Levi’s, and white tennis shoes.

1:30A.M. Thursday, 2/1/73:

An El Monte PD unit spots the truck. It’s parked in the lot at Vons Market. The location: Peck Road and Lower Azusa. The location: two miles north of 2633 Cogswell. The location: 2.5 miles north of Durfee Drugs, the bank, and Crawford’s Market.

A patrolman impounds the truck. He tows it to a yard in South El Monte. He talks to a clerk at Vons Market. The clerk says the truck was in the lot at least forty-eight hours. He noticed it around 4:oo A.M.–Tuesday, 1/30.

Eight hours after BettyJean left her apartment.

The El Monte PD contacts Sheriff’s Homicide. The Scales thing vibes murder. Deputy Hal Meyers and Sergeant Lee Koury drive to the tow yard.

They examine the truck.

In the bed: metal scaffolds, a milk crate, an empty cardboard box, a leather tool holder, a matching belt, and a length of rope. In the cab: three bottles of baby formula in a small box. A purse, a white bra, white panties, one left-foot white tennis shoe, and a pair of brown Levi’s.

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