places to stop and check, my progress was painfully slow . The people I spoke with were, in many cases, not the ones that were working at the time Callie and Tanya would have come through. Add to that the fact that motor homes were an extremely popular form of transportation in the southeastern states and my chances of meeting with success in my search were pitifully remote. But if I could make even one confirmed sighting, I reasoned, I would be f u rther ahead than I was now.
I got a break just out of Savanna, Georgia, late in the morning . We had travelled through here on our return from our last trip and I remembered a little roadside joint that advertised thirty-two different flavors of ice cream. Tanya had made a big noise about stopping to get a treat and we had indulged her. She had befriended the old fellow who served her and we practically had to force him to accept payment from us. It occurred to me now that it was very likely Callie might be inclined to stop here again.
As I entered the little store the same old guy was behind the counter and he looked up and smiled at me.
“ I don’t suppose you remember me from about six weeks ago ,” I said . “ My wife and I and our six-year-old daughter stopped here in February.”
“I’m sorry, sir,” he replied . “I see a fair number of folks come through here in the course of a month. Was there a problem?”
“No,” I assured him. “I was just hoping you might have seen my wife and daughter again in the last few days. T hey’re missing. They were travelling from our home in Florida up to Maine in our motor home and I haven’t ---”
“Wait,” he said. “ D riving a motor home you say .”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“One of those big diesel rigs, was it?”
“Yes.”
“Well, sure,” he said. “They stopped here … let’s see, three, no four days ago as I recall. Your little girl mentioned she had been here before on their way back from their last holiday. ”
“You’re sure it was them?” I asked. “My wife is tall, very pretty, with dark hair. My daughter has blond hair that was probably in a ponytail .”
“Y es , that sounds like them all right.”
“Did my wife say anything unusual? Indicate that they were having any kind of problem at all?”
“No, sir, she didn’t. Everything seemed entirely normal as I recall.”
“Did you see them pull back out on the highway?”
He thought for a moment before he answered. “Yeah, I did. I remember watching her be cause it was kind of unusual for a woman to be driving a big vehicle like that all on her own.”
“She headed north?”
“That’s right.” A thoughtful look came over him. “You know,” he said, “now that I think about it there was something a little strange that happened right about then.”
I prompted him to continue.
“There was a car had pulled over just across the road , sheltered under the trees . The driver didn’t get out, just sat there. But he took off very soon after your wife left. I remember thinking it was almost like he was following them.”
I shuddered at the thought of what this meant. On the one hand I was encourag ed to be making some headway but , on the other, it provided very strong evidence that my family was indeed in terrible trouble.
“ A man was driving?” I asked.
“Yes, I’m sure it was a