Vanished (Private Justice Book #1): A Novel by Irene Hannon Read Free Book Online

started toward the passenger door.
    Cal hesitated. Caught his partner’s arm. “Wait. Let’s do one more pass. Moira said the woman was standing about fifty feet away when she slammed on her brakes. Why don’t we mark that spot from the beginning of the skid tracks, assume she was thrown, and do a search in a tighter radius?”
    Dev didn’t object, though Cal wouldn’t have blamed him if he had. They’d gone over the whole area thoroughly already, and daylight was fading.
    His partner did have a comment, though. “She got under your skin, didn’t she?”
    Cal opened the passenger door and leaned down to retrieve a flashlight from the glove compartment, willing the flush on his neck to stay below his collar. “Her story did. I’m convinced she saw more than a deer in her headlights. And I don’t think she imagined the guy who stopped, either.”
    “If she didn’t, we have a real mystery on our hands.”
    “One that won’t get solved if we give up.”
    “Okay. Gauntlet accepted. Hand me a flashlight too.”
    Cal passed the second one over, and Dev gestured to the pavement. “You take the right side of the stripe, I’ll take the left. You want to go out twelve feet from the center point?”
    “Sounds reasonable. She wasn’t driving at a high speed. I doubt a person would have been thrown farther than that.”
    Cal flipped on his flashlight, aimed the beam at the pavement, and began a second, meticulous search, dodging a curious motorist who happened by.
    Ten minutes later, as he was about to complete his circuit and call it a day, the beam of his light landed on a small white object wedged between two broken pieces of asphalt at the side of the road. It looked a lot like a rock, but the shape made him pause.
    Dropping down to the balls of his feet, he kept the light focused on it. Leaned closer.
    “Find something?” Dev joined him.
    “I don’t know. What does that look like to you?” He pointed to the peanut-sized object.
    Dev inspected it. “A rock?”
    “I think it’s a tooth.”
    His colleague bent down. “That’s possible. Let me get a magnifying glass and some tweezers.”
    “Bring the camera too. And an evidence envelope.”
    Two minutes later, Dev was back. Cal laid a nickel beside the object and moved back as Dev took a close-up shot.
    After removing one of the pieces of asphalt, Cal gently worked the object out with the tweezers and held it up.
    It was a tooth.
    “Wow. I can’t believe you spotted that.”
    “Twenty-twenty comes in handy on occasion. You want to fill out the envelope?”
    “Yeah.” Dev fished a pen out of his pocket and noted the case number, date, time, location, and a description on the front. After initialing it, he flexed it open.
    Cal dropped the tooth inside, sealed the manila flap, and added his initials to Dev’s.
    “This may not mean anything except that someone lost a tooth in this area.” Dev stood. “Could be from a kid who fell off a bike. Or even an animal.”
    “I know. But it won’t hurt to tuck this away in our evidence closet.”
    “It’s not enough to take on this case, Cal.”
    At his partner’s quiet comment, Cal led the way back toward the car. “I know that too.” Much as he’d like to help Moira Harrison, there simply weren’t any tangible leads to track down.
    They slid into their seats in silence. Cal buckled up, started the engine, and aimed the car toward St. Louis.
    And as they began the long drive home in the dusk, he found himself dreading tomorrow, when he’d have to call and give a lovely lady some bad news.

    Why wasn’t there any broken glass in her car?
    Still wrestling with that question, Moira slid the key into the lock on the front door of her condo, twisted the handle, and stepped inside. The loud beep of the security alarm reminded her to punch in her code, and she did so on autopilot. Lucky thing she and Linda were such good friends, considering how she’d zoned out for the remainder of their walk.
    She