Missing by L C Lang Read Free Book Online

two weeks. What bothered her was that they had already partnered him with someone else. Was it a permanent move? She hoped not because she liked working with Sam. Shaking her head, she turned her cell phone off, then took it back to the bedroom and plugged it in.
    Maggie walked back out to the porch and sat down on the lounge chair. It was now dark and the crickets were going crazy talking to each other. Looking over to the other hill, she could see the faint light of the airport. The night was quiet, except for the noise of the bugs outside. Her closest neighbor was a mile away. Hers was the last house on the road. It was a very private place. A perfect place to get away at. She was now glad she had thought about coming here.
    While she sat listening to the quietness, she thought of her conversation with Scott. She knew she was right; she didn’t need anyone reminding her of why she was now here. Fact is, she couldn’t get it out of her mind. Maybe it is time to deal with what happened. Maggie leaned back against the lounge chair, looked at the darkness outside, and let the events run through her mind.
    Richard Rivera was an angry man. He took his anger out on his wife. One day, she’d had enough. She packed up their two young kids and left before Richard came home from work. When he found they were gone, he became angrier. First, he went to her parent’s house. She wasn’t there and they told him that, but he didn’t believe them. A few minutes later, he left their house and two people were dead, gunned down. This was when Maggie and Sam became involved in the case. For two days, they looked for him. If someone hadn’t been able to call 911, they never would have known where he was until it was too late.
    Maggie closed her eyes, as she remembered the scene that was seared in her mind. Richard’s wife worked in a day care center a few blocks from where they lived. She had hid somewhere for a few days with their two children and then, thinking she was safe, went back to work. She had their two children with her, a three-year-old boy and a two-year-old girl. Who would have thought he would have gone to the day care center, and then locked the doors?
    But, that is what he did. What happened before they got to the day care center, Maggie wasn’t sure. However, based on what the medical examiner had told them, it was pretty much a slaughter. He not only gunned down his wife and their two children, he killed eight of the ten adults and ten of the twenty-five children that were inside the building. He opened fire on everyone he saw.
    Then he set the place on fire.
    Five more of the children died in the fire. The two remaining adult survivors gathered the rest of the children and hid themselves. Most suffered smoke inhalation and burns on their hands and legs as the fire spread quickly through the old wooden building.
    When Maggie and Sam had first arrived, flames were popping out the side windows and smoke was pouring out. The day care was located in an old one-story frame building. They tried to get in the front door, but Rivera had locked it from the inside.
    Two officers worked on the front door and three others went around to the back of the building. When the fire department arrived, there hadn’t been any shots for several minutes. Thinking it was safe, three officers broke through the back door, with the firefighters behind them. They found the survivors huddling near the back door trying to protect themselves against the fast moving fire. Someone had barricaded the door from the outside, so the survivors couldn’t get out. The police took them out of the building and the firefighters took over fighting the fire.
    In the front of the building, Maggie had done what she could to get inside the building. A large window was next to the front door. It hadn’t blown out and she could see the fire inside. Pulling the sleeve of her jacket down over her hand, she broke the front window with the butt of her gun. Just then,