Heartstopper by Joy Fielding Read Free Book Online Page B

heading home. Pauline wouldn’t be pleased. But then, with any luck, she’d be asleep by the time he crept into bed. “Do you have a recent picture of your daughter?” he asked.
    Judy reached into her red leather purse. “I have this one. She never liked it. She says it makes her nose look too big, but it’s always been one of my favorites because she looks so happy.” She removed the small, color photograph from its red leather frame and handed it across the desk.
    John smiled at the image of the pretty girl with the long, reddish blond hair. Both mother and daughter were right, he thought. The picture did make Liana’s nose look bigger than it was, but her smile was wide and genuine. She did indeed look happy. He hoped she was somewhere smiling right now. He didn’t think so, he realized glumly, pocketing the picture. “I’ll take this over to Chester’s, maybe stop at a few other places, show the picture around, see if anybody’s seen her. If she’s not back by morning, we’ll make up some flyers, post them around town.”
    “Should we alert the media?” Howard asked.
    “That won’t be necessary at this time.” John almost smiled. There was no real media in Torrance, other than a biweekly newsletter that consisted mainly of local produce prices, advertisements, and obituaries. Most people in the area received either the
Sun-Sentinel
out of Fort Lauderdale or the
Miami Herald.
If Liana still hadn’t turned up by theweekend, he’d alert both those papers, as well as the sheriff’s departments in each city. If necessary, he’d contact the FBI.
    “Do you think she might have been kidnapped?” Judy asked, again reading his mind.
    “Well, it’s been over twenty-four hours and you haven’t received any ransom notes,” John told her. “I think you would have by now.”
    “What if it’s not money they’re after,” Judy continued, speaking more to herself than to the sheriff. “What if some lunatic took my daughter, what if he—”
    “Judy, for God’s sake,” her husband interrupted.
    “Let’s try to think positive thoughts,” John advised, although positive thoughts wouldn’t do Liana Martin any good if, in fact, some lunatic
had
grabbed her. He made a mental note to ask everyone he interviewed tonight if they’d noticed any strangers in the area in the last few weeks, and he’d tell his officers to do the same. “In the meantime,” he said, coming around the desk, “you go home, and try to stay calm. I’ll call you after I’ve checked around a bit. Here’s my cell number. Phone me right away if you think of anything else. Don’t worry about what time it is.”
    “What if she’s hurt? What if she’s lying on the side of a road somewhere?”
    “We’ll organize a search party in the morning,” John told Judy Martin, knowing that if her daughter was, in fact, lying on the side of the road anywhere in the area, the odds were good she wouldn’t be there for long. There was a good reason they called it Alligator Alley.
    He ushered Howard and Judy Martin out of his office, promising again to call them as soon as he’d checked things out. “We’ll find her,” he promised, as another troubling image seized his brain. He recalled another woman who’d sat in his office approximately one month ago, hands twisting in her lap, eyes brimming with tears, as she told essentially the same story. He’d dismissed her concerns—thewoman was from nearby Hendry County, and therefore technically not his problem, and she’d admitted her daughter was a habitual runaway and drug addict who often turned tricks to support her habit. He hadn’t given the girl’s disappearance much thought, but as he watched Liana Martin’s distraught parents get into their car and drive off, he couldn’t help but wonder if the two disappearances were somehow connected. “You’ve been watching too much television,” he scoffed, trying not to picture his own daughter, Amber, her skinny body lying twisted in