The Gillespie Five (A Political / Conspiracy Novel) - Book 1 (42) by T.K. Harris Read Free Book Online

whatever they could to find her husband.  She still refused to believe that her husband may have just skipped town, even after Lee had mentioned the five thousand, plus, dollars from Frank's computer hardware sales that had disappeared with him.  But he'd been working on the force nearly twenty years and had seen a lot.  The picture his men painted from questioning the neighbors was one of a troubled marriage with the threat of divorce.  Add that to the amount of money that had disappeared and the fact that there had been no signs of a struggle in or around the store, and the picture didn't get any better. 
    The only oddity was that her husband's car still sat in the parking lot a few blocks down from the store.  But, by his way of thinking and experience, Lee figured that Frank Borne had decided to bail rather than face a messy divorce, and he'd left the car and taken the cash to go off the grid.  They were looking for traces of other cash he may have been stock piling for this moment.  Whatever his plan, Lee didn't think he was coming back.  He hated to see it, especially when the woman was left high and dry with three kids, but it happened.  More times than he cared to know.
    Sitting back down at his desk, Lee turned to his next case, this one in another district.  The Moore kid.  Gone now for over a week, with no clue as to his whereabouts.  There had been no sign of a struggle in his dorm room, his car was still at the college and they knew he’d disappeared sometime overnight only because he’d shown up for class on the Wednesday but not on the Thursday. The kid didn't seem to be a partier, had only a few friends that they knew about, and seemed to be making good grades.  He had no real money of his own, wasn't using his credit cards, and had made no phone calls though his phone was gone.  So was his computer. 
    After speaking with his teachers, neighbors and the places Tommy had worked, Lee knew that Thomas Moore seemed to be a good, all-around kid.  Of course kids were known to go a little wild in college, so maybe he had gotten into something.  Lee really hoped it was some wild hair that had made Tommy decide to skip out with some friends for a couple of days without contacting anyone.  Maybe just spreading his wings and experiencing his freedom.  But if that was the case, how was he paying for it? 
    The one thing they had found that spawned a possible alternative scenario, was that Ken Moore was a man of considerable wealth, and that meant there might be a case to make for kidnapping.  Although it was unusual not to see some demand for ransom after such a period of time, he had heard about it happening before.  One kidnapper didn't reach out for over a month.  By that point, the desperate parents of the eleven year old girl hadn't bothered to call the police until after they had handed over the money and gotten their daughter back.  Lee couldn't blame them.  Even if it meant they lost any possible way of tracing the kidnapper, since the traumatized girl could remember little.
    Spreading his wings, or kidnapping?   Both options were slim chances, but at least they were chances. Lee had already presented the first option to the parents, who had been doubtful.  Today, he would present the second.
    The parents arrived promptly at two, and fairly barged into his office.  Both looked as if they had aged years from the time he had first spoken with them.  Lee indicated the two chairs in front of his desk and watched as the mother took a seat.  He remembered how pretty he'd thought she was with her short blond hair and light blue eyes. Eyes that had been worried but hopeful.   Now, those eyes were dull, and deep lines of worry were etched along the sides of her mouth and across her forehead.  She was paler than he remembered.
    Of the two, he could tell she was taking this the hardest.  A missing kid was one of the worst cases to handle, especially since many of them didn't have happy