Vanished in the Night by Eileen Carr Read Free Book Online

the arm.”
    She stood. “Seriously, Dad, what did they ask? Do you think they’re even going to try to find out what happened to Max?”
    Osborne finished tying his shoes and stood. “How the hell should I know, Ronnie? Why the hell should I care? Why should you?”
    “I care because he was my brother. You should care because he was your son.” She crossed her arms over her chest as if that way she could keep her heart from cracking.
    “He wasn’t my son. Wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out. Max wasn’t even light enough to pass.”
    Veronica clenched her fists. It made her almost physically ill when her father said things like that. “When was the last time you saw him, Dad?” She’d never asked before because Max wasn’t exactly a topic you brought up for fun.
    “Same time as you. When they hauled his sorry ass out of this house and up to that reform school.” He stood, hitched up his uniform pants, and headed toward the door. “You coming? Or are you going to hang around here a little?”
    “You never heard anything from him again? What about Mama? Did he ever call or send a letter or anything?” she pressed.
    “Ronnie, don’t dig into this. What happened, happened.As far as I’m concerned, it’s good riddance to bad rubbish. The cops stopped by. They asked their questions. They’re probably going to drop the whole thing and forget about it. I mean, what else can they do?”
    Veronica followed him toward the door. “Don’t you want to know why, though? Don’t you want to know what happened to him?”
    “Why? It wouldn’t make any difference. Besides, it’s not like he was going to find the cure for cancer or make peace in the Middle East. He was a fuckup and was going to stay a fuckup. It was probably some giant fuckup that landed him wherever they found him. Let it drop, Ronnie. Nobody cares what happened.”
    They were interrupted by a loud knock on the front door. Osborne threw his hands in the air. “ Now what? I’m going to be late for work.”
    He marched to the front door and pulled it open.
    Cops on the doorstep. Again.
Veronica’s presence made Zach pause for a second as he served his search warrant. “George Osborne, I have a warrant here to search your home.” He handed the papers to Osborne and then shouldered past him. “Good morning, Ms. Osborne. Nice to see you again.”
    She pressed her lips together and moved out of the way. She was wearing scrubs and looked tired. Right,she worked the night shift at St. Elizabeth’s. Her hair was pulled back into a no-nonsense ponytail.
    Zach nodded to his small group of officers and they fanned out through the house. He didn’t have a lot of boots on the ground since this case was so cold.
    Osborne gave him a disgusted look. “I’m going to work. Don’t break anything or I’ll sue your asses from here to kingdom come. Ronnie, lock up when they leave.” He marched out of the house.
    Veronica sank down on the couch as if someone had let the air out of her. “Have at it. I don’t know what you think you’re looking for, though. Max hasn’t been here in twenty years.”
    Most likely, Max hadn’t been anywhere in twenty years. Zach headed out to the backyard. It was too much to hope to find a freshly dug pit there, but he had to check.
    Frank followed him. “She has a good question, Zach. What precisely do we think we’re going to find here?”
    Zach stood in the yard with his hands on his hips, taking in its complete lack of places to hide a body. “We don’t go in looking for something specific. We gather evidence and let the evidence point us in the right direction. Remember?”
    “That does ring a bell.”
    “We have the stepfather of the victim with a drinking problem and a violent background.” Veronica hadbeen truthful when she said her father had a minor record. It looked mainly like bar fights. Most of the time, charges had been dropped after Osborne agreed to make reparations. Still, it was a