Missings, The by Peg Brantley Read Free Book Online Page B

add Hispanic/Latino under each name. Daniel added the word illegal .
    “We don’t know that they were here illegally, Daniel, and there’s no doubt regarding the Benavides family’s status,” Chase said.
    “I have a question,” Terri said while Daniel corrected the board.
    “Shoot.”
    “Why didn’t we know about the two county homicides until now? It’s not like Sheriff Coble to keep stuff to himself.”
    “Coble sent the information. It just didn’t make it through the channels.”
    Daniel glanced up from his muffin, and arched an eyebrow. “Butz?”
    “Yeah,” Chase said.
    Chase watched Daniel’s lips compress into a hard line, but he didn’t say a word about the ignorant racist attitudes of their lieutenant. Instead, the Hispanic detective reached for a marker and stood in front of the column titled MOTIVATION.
    “Are you knuckle-draggers ready?” Daniel asked.
    “We have shit for information,” Terri said, staring at the board.
    “Well then, we’ll start with shit,” Chase said.
    The three detectives shot out a few possible ideas, then fell silent as they considered the list they’d come up with. The possibility of a serial killer seemed to top the list. S/K WHO TARGETS HSPNC/LTNO S/K MEDICAL STUDENT W/A GRUDGE AGAINST HSPNC/LTNO ONE REAL MURDER BURIED BY KILLING OTHERS CULT
    Whenever Chase read the shorthand for serial killer, “S/K” he always said “sicko” to himself. “We’ll leave these up there for a while,” Chase said, “but I don’t think we’re dealing with a textbook serial killer.”
    “Why not?” Terri asked.
    “Couldn’t tell you for sure, but it feels squirrely. For one, there’s not enough time between some of the DBs. Most S/Ks have a little downtime before they need to kill again.”
    “But we’ve got a targeted group,” Terri said.
    “There could be a lot of explanations for why Hispanics seem to be the target.” Chase thought about his visit with Ramona Benavides. “Illegals are not likely to go to the law—for any reason.”
    Terri’s cell phone rang and she checked the Caller ID. “I’ve got to take this.” She left the conference room and closed the door behind her.
    Chase turned to Daniel. “Do you know what’s going on with Terri?”
    “Does anyone ever know what’s going on with Terri?”
    Chase shook his head. Terri Johnson won the prize for enigma in the department. A lot of cops had tried to date her. If she dated any of them—and Chase couldn’t recall one name—they’d gotten to bat one time and not again. No one knew much of anything about her. She did her job and she did it well. You want more? Forget about it with Detective Johnson.
    A new patrol officer walked into the meeting room. “We’ve got the witness—that homeless guy? Patrol found him about thirty minutes ago and brought him in. He’s in the interview room.”
    Chase checked his watch. “Thanks. I’m on my way.”
    He turned to Daniel. “I’ll follow up with the religion angle today. You and Terri go through Rachelle’s cell phone records. Track down every number. We’re looking for names that don’t belong. Finish checking out her computer and copy as much of the profile pages as possible for all of her social network contacts. Call me if you find anything significant. Otherwise, we’ll meet back here at five-fifteen.”

Chapter Fourteen
    Aspen Falls Police Department
    Friday, September 21
    Before walking in to the interview room, Chase took a look at his only witness through the open door. If these cases were connected, which his gut told him they were, then their best piece of evidence at this point rested on notoriously unreliable eyewitness testimony. Their conviction bank sank further by virtue of the condition of the twitching doper in the other room.
    Chase glanced down at the paperwork from patrol. Stephen Hamilton, aka Skizzers, sat in the interview room. The scruffy man, dressed in filthy jeans and what looked like four sweatshirts, fidgeted. He