All Good Deeds Read Online Free PDF Page A

called the older neighborhood kids Kailey walked home with, and they said she wasn’t with them. She hadn’t even left school with them–a fact they didn’t notice until they were halfway home.
    This is why I couldn’t be a parent: I’d seen too much, and I didn’t trust anyone. Not even older kids. Especially not older kids. Even if they had the best intentions, they were too easily distracted, their maturity not fully developed enough to understand the consequences of taking their eyes off the younger child. Kids are self-centered by nature. It’s a biological trait some never grow out of.
    I hopped out of the car and headed up the sidewalk. The cherries of one of the police cars rhythmically flashed, the red light piercing the night sky like a frantic pulse. Keeping my head down, I pulled my private investigator’s license out of my purse and steadied my nerves. This wouldn’t be the first case I’d barged in on without permission, but the personal stakes were definitely higher.
    The uniform guarding the door looked like he’d just walked out of the academy. He shuffled nervously as I approached, glancing everywhere but directly into my eyes. Good to know I could still turn heads. Thirty-three had been a tough birthday, with fresh wrinkles and gray hairs popping up almost overnight. Add that to my mother’s constant digs about my malfunctioning biological clock, and I sometimes felt like I should be applying for assisted living. If I didn’t genuinely care for my stepfather, I’d stop speaking to the woman.
    “You live here, ma’am?” The officer rolled his shoulders back and stuck out his chin, but his cracking voice betrayed him.
    “No, I’m here to speak with Jenna Richardson.” I held up my license. “A friend of the family called me.”
    The rookie’s hand fluttered to his shoulder mic. “I didn’t know you were coming, and I’m not supposed to let non-residents in. I’d better–”
    I didn’t let him finish. “You’re wasting time. I’m a trained counselor with ten years’ experience in CPS. I can help find that little girl before her abductor does something terrible.”
    “It’s only been a few hours. We don’t yet know she’s been abducted. She may have wandered off.”
    I sidled up to the nervous uniform and lowered my voice to a conspiratorial tone. “Your superiors are no doubt busy as hell. Are you really going to bother them over a visit from a private investigator who was called in to help, just because I’m not on your list?”
    “Let me see your license again.”
    I obeyed and waited in silence. Rookie finally nodded. “Ten minutes is all I can give you.”
    The Richardsons lived on the second floor in a corner two-bedroom apartment. Another uniform answered my knock, and I assured him the officer downstairs had cleared me. “I’ve only got ten minutes.” I brushed past him.
    Jenna Richardson sat alone in what appeared to be the main living space. I made my way over to the small woman who reminded me of a china doll I once had. Pale remnants of a summer tan lingered on her skin. I knelt next to her curled form in the recliner.
    “Jenna, my name is Lucy Kendall. I’m a private investigator.”
    She gazed at me with vacant eyes, clutching a cellphone to her chest so tightly I saw white knuckles against the pink of her scrubs.
    “Have you found my daughter?” Her voice cracked.
    I held out my license. “No, not yet, I’m sorry. I used to work with CPS, and I’m a private investigator now. I heard about Kailey’s disappearance, and I want to help.”
    Her eyes were bloodshot, like she’d just gone a round with a prize fighter. “I can’t afford a private investigator.”
    “Don’t worry about that. I’m taking the case pro bono, if you’ll have me.”
    Jenna’s pale lips pinched together. “And then you’ll saddle me with a bill?”
    “Absolutely not.” I took her hand in the hopes she’d understand how much I wanted to help. “I just want to find