Disappearance at Devil's Rock Read Online Free PDF

Visitors Center down a dirt-and-gravel path to the mansion. The detective is in her late forties. Her graying, light brown hair is kept in a neat, straight bob cut. She’s tall, angular, all arms and legs, and built like a scarecrow that’s low on straw. Her skin is more Mediterranean than Irish, thanks to her mom. She wears a blue pantsuit, a single button above the waist.
    Elizabeth knows Allison more than well enough to greet her by her first name. They’ve met and exchanged pleasantries on numerous occasions at Town Hall, but it was this past spring when they had their longest conversation. They were at a graduation party of a mutual family friend. Allison talked about how hard it was deciding to move her father to a nursing home. Elizabeth discussed the rigors and challenges of being a single mom. They both talked about dealing with teens in general; Elizabeth as a mom of a new one, and Allison having dealt with teens her whole professional life. All the heavy, personal stuff eventually morphed into a casual conversation about town gossip and politics and then about nothing much at all. They both laughed and drank too-warm glasses of wine, and they made noises about getting together and hanging out later that summer, which never came to pass. That party seemed like it happened yesterday. Elizabeth wonders if Allison remembers meeting or seeing Tommy there.
    Allison says, “Hello, Elizabeth,” and she holds out her hand for the rigid formality of the handshake.
    Elizabeth puts her hand inside of Allison’s. Her fingers are cold and do not react to the handshake. “Hi, um, Allison. Or, sorry, Detective Murtagh?”
    â€œNo, please. Allison is fine.”
    They exchange weak and sad smiles.
    Allison’s dark blue pantsuit looks sticky and clingy in the heat. The local forecast has the temperature lurching into the nineties and to be weighed down with a typical summer-in–New England humidity that’s as oppressive as the Puritans.
    â€œOkay.” Elizabeth sighs, emptying of all her air as though to build herself up to this conversation she must first deflate herself. Elizabeth wears baggy blue shorts and a billowy, fraying white T-shirt, its once-clever graphic long gone, eroded by years of callous spin cycles and tumble dries. “So what do we know so far?”
    Allison says that according to the statements given by Tommy’s two friends, the three of them were sleeping over at the Griffin house when they snuck out to drink beer and hang out at the Borderland landmark called Split Rock. Luis Fernandez had referred to the landmark as Devil’s Rock, which initially confused the interviewing officers who were familiar with the park and had never heard the rock referred to by that name. The two boys claim Tommy drank half of the six-pack they brought, and then he ran off into the woods by himself. They claim his running off was sudden and without explanation. The boys were adamant that they hadn’t been making fun of Tommy, hadn’t been doing anything that would’ve angered, embarrassed, or dismayed him. They presumed Tommy was playing a prank, hiding somewhere in the woods to jump out and scare them. Tommy didn’t respond to their shouting, and he wouldn’t answer their texts. They claim to have searched the area around Split Rockfor almost an hour before deciding to go back to the Griffin residence with the hope that Tommy had doubled back to the house to scare them or laugh at them when they arrived. They didn’t call anyone’s parents while they were on their way out of the park as their phones were dead, having spent the batteries while using the phones as flashlights. Tommy was not at the Griffin residence upon their return at approximately 1:25 A.M .
    Minutes after Elizabeth called the Ames Police department, Tommy’s name and information were entered into the statewide system created for missing children and teens. Officers began