Expert Witness by Rebecca Forster Read Free Book Online

said.
    “But someone could have taken her outside of it,” Archer countered.
    “Yeah,” Liz said. “Or she’s on a bender.”
    “Josie doesn’t drink that way.”
    “Everybody drinks sometime.” Liz’s grin indicated she knew that from personal experience. “I don’t know Josie all that well, but I’d say she has a hard time getting on with her life. She’s always being side tracked by one thing or another. You know, like saving the world, lifting up the downtrodden. Not like you and me.”
    Archer almost laughed at how off-base Liz Driscoll was. He carried every pain, every joy, and every uncertainty with him every damn day. He didn’t share any of it unless someone got real close, and Josie was about as close as anyone had got to him in his whole life.  Liz mistook his silence for petulance and tried again to engage him.
    “I looked up the Rayburn trial. That woman? Linda Rayburn? She almost killed Josie, didn’t she? And now Josie’s guardian for a killer’s kid.”
    “Is there a point, Driscoll?”
    “Point being, the attack was bad.”
    “Broken ribs. Shiner. Cracked cheekbone. Dislocated arm.” Archer filled in the laundry list he knew was coming.
    “Head injury?” Liz hooked her thumbs in her belt and talked slow, but he didn’t need the lead.
    “I see where you’re going, but no,” Archer shook his head. “Clean bill of health.”
    “Yeah, but there was the McCreary thing, too.  He had her under those waves a good long time. How long did she spend in the hospital after that?”
    “Two days. Totally cleared by every doctor who saw her. Josie’s an athlete. She’s strong.”
    “That doesn’t rule out residual damage. Blood clot. Something,” Liz went on.
    “I called Torrance Memorial and Little Company of Mary hospital this morning. No one matching her description was brought to emergency.”
    “Maybe she couldn’t get to a hospital. Maybe she hasn’t been found.”  Liz kept at the argument while Archer raised his camera and angled one from the passenger to the driver’s side. Liz shut the driver’s door to give him a clean shot, still talking as she came around beside him. “On the off chance something’s going down, though, I’ll have this baby towed.”
    “It’s Redondo’s jurisdiction,” Archer pointed out.
    “Redondo PD has no reason to take it. You want the restaurant to tow it? Let it sit in a lot and leave possible evidence unprotected?”
    Archer’s lips tipped. He cast a sidelong glance. “I thought there wasn’t anything to be worried about.”
    “Just helping a friend, and protecting my sweet little butt in case there is. Don’t want you suing the city because I was derelict.”
    Liz’s wide grin transformed her face. That pug nose of hers looked way cute and the wrap-around glasses didn’t look so ominous. No matter how hard she tried, though, she wasn’t going to get Archer to smile back. He just wasn’t that kind of guy.  Archer snapped one more picture, grateful that the detective was getting a hinky feeling about this too. He dropped the camera to his side and gave Liz’s arm a squeeze.
     “Thanks, Liz. I’ll wait for the truck. You go on and save Hermosa from itself.”
    She gave him a friendly slap on the rear and a ‘hang in there’ as she took her leave. Archer watched her go. They had been acquainted a long time but had never really gotten to know one another. Liz Driscoll, he thought, just wasn’t the kind of woman who got to know anyone really well. She probably liked it that way. Then Archer just didn’t think of her at all.
    Leaning against the Hummer, running through the images on the camera, he formed a strategy for the next twenty-four hours: check the offices in the adjacent complex, check with the folks at the Blue Fin Grill, follow up on everyone who had contact with Josie in the last week, get a lock on her cell from the provider, get these pictures to someone who could analyze them properly.  His planning was