Cold Justice: A Judge Willa Carson Mystery (The Hunt for Justice) by Diane Capri Read Free Book Online

terrified. He left the house in anger, jumped into that Toyota SUV you almost slammed, and—” he shrugged again.
    “He didn’t even try to contact his child in all that time?”
    “Wife says not.”
    “What about his job?”
    “He had a partner in his hardware business who hasn’t seen him in the past fourteen months, either. David Mason. I believe you met him earlier today at Eagle Creek Cafe, didn’t you?” Kemp continued to drink his coffee but he watched me closely. How did he know where we ate lunch or that we met Mason?
    Somehow, his research on me had included where we went after we left him at the murder scene. That was the important piece of Intel.
    “Where did Richards go when he left town?”
    “We don’t know. Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Detroit. Wherever he could find a casino or a poker table, would be my guess,” Kemp said.
    “He was addicted to gambling?”
    Kemp nodded. “Caused him and his family no end of grief, I can tell you.”
    Probably created quite a few local enemies, too. Some of them might even be capable of murder. “Did you try to locate him after he disappeared?”
    “He’s a grown man. If he wants to desert his family, there’s no law against it as far as I know. Not the sort of thing we’d conduct a nation-wide manhunt over, anyway.”
    “Makes him a deadbeat dad and a sorry human being, though,” I said.
    “You got that right.”
    “Didn’t the wife try to find him?”
    “The family hired a couple of private investigators, I’m told. But they didn’t find the guy. People don’t want to be found, there are still lots of ways to hide in this country.”
    “If that’s what happened,” I said. People are kidnapped for ransom or human trafficking or any number of reasons. But Leo Richards might not fit those victim profiles. I’d need to know a lot more about him than I did now to figure that out.
    “Meaning what?”
    “There should have been a plane ticket or something,” I replied.
    “Maybe,” he shrugged again. He waited a beat, “Like I told you before, this is a small town. He didn’t come home and never went back to work and nobody has seen him since then. He’d ruined a lot of lives already. I’m not sure people cared much about him by then. Guy’s gone and good riddance, you know?”
    I took a sip of coffee and almost spit it back. Stone cold. I hated reheated coffee, but I needed warm liquid and now was not the time to get all precious about my caffeine. I popped the cup into the microwave for a couple of minutes.
    While I waited, I shook my head to clear it of sleep’s last cobwebs and asked, “Did you check the mileage? On the Toyota?”
    “Yes.”
    “Loquacious, aren’t you?”
    “I try.”
    I grinned. I didn’t want to like the guy, but it was hard not to. “And? What did you find out?”
    Kemp said, “Well, that’s a curious thing, too. The Toyota is about ten years old. Like most vehicles around here, it’s got a lot of miles on it. Close to two-hundred thousand. His wife says Leo had the vehicle serviced a few days or so before he disappeared. We checked with the mechanic. He said Leo always took good care of the Toyota and the mileage was close to two-hundred thousand last time he serviced it.”
    The microwave dinged. I pulled out the cup and took a sip of the heated coffee and burned my tongue. “Crap!” I drew a cold glass of water and swished it around in my mouth, which seemed to help my scalded tongue not one whit.
    Kemp looked at his watch. “Judge Trevor is expecting us. We can talk about the rest in the car. Are you going dressed like that?”
    Which is when I looked down and noticed I was wearing my pajamas under my cardigan. Now how the hell had that happened? George. Obviously. I hoped.
    “I’ll be right back,” I said, as I ducked into the bedroom to slip into my jeans again. It took me only a few seconds to dress in the warmest clothes I owned. I ran a quick toothbrush around my teeth and finger-combed my