Expert Witness Read Online Free PDF Page A

being. Those women would owe their lives to him, and he would own them forever. Timing was crucial. He would have to be smarter than smart; he would be more than brilliant. He would not be surprised or blindsided ever again.
    He sat up. He was not sorry he lingered through the dawn because now he was refreshed and ready to finish. The pallet was gone. Pity no one would ever know what it had taken to build it or the lengths he had gone to dispose of it   The pieces were scattered so that they looked like a natural part of this God-forsaken place.  Maybe he would leave a note to be opened upon his death so people would know how darn smart he had been. Maybe not.  It would just be one more thing to do and his death was not imminent. There was plenty of time to pen just the right admission or, if it was more appropriate, confession. It was now time to run through his list even though he was sure he had left nothing undone.
    Drinking water within reach.
    Door closed and locked.
    Guests immobilized and isolated.
    Nothing of him left behind.
    He was so pleased with it all.  But there was so much more to come. Now, though, he had to go. He mustn’t be late. He was sure the real show would begin today, and he wanted to be ready.
     
    Burt’s By the Beach Restaurant, Hermosa Beach
     
    Faye Baxter was visiting her daughter in San Diego, but a quick phone call confirmed she had neither heard from Josie nor was she privy to her full caseload. When they had decided to share office space but not form a partnership, the two women respected one another’s professional space. Faye hung up the phone promising to contact Archer or Hannah if she could think of anything that would help. The last thing Archer heard was that she would pray that everything would be okay.
    Archer figured that couldn’t hurt. He’d done some praying of his own the night before. When Josie still hadn’t shown up by dawn, he knew he would have to rely on the resources he had at his fingertips.  The first stop was Liz. He hadn’t really expected her to jump on a missing persons’ report, but at least she was on notice.  The second step was to put out a call to Josie’s closest friends in the community. If need be, Archer would expand that circle but for now it was Burt, Billy Zuni and Hannah.
     Billy Zuni, Josie’s favorite underage, pro bono client, didn’t seem to have much to recommend him except a good heart. He surfed, was truant, and mooned after Hannah when she allowed it. He always had a lid, which was a crime, but would share his weed with anyone so people looked the other way. He was a poster boy for those lost to the sun, sand, surf and his single mom’s neglect. Today his bright-white grin was washed away by a wave of concern.
    Burt, proprietor of Burt’s by the Beach, was Hermosa’s innkeeper. It was Josie who made sure Burt got what he deserved after a motorcycle accident left him close to crippled. George, the night man, was tending bar, so Burt could pow-wow on the matter at hand. He was neither as glum as Billy, nor as intense as Archer. He would be the Greek chorus, the devil’s advocate, the ear to bend, or the shoulder to cry on.
    Hannah sat still as a statue. Her tendency toward self-protective defiance, self-mutilation and obsessive-compulsiveness would always be under the surface, but now all that was hidden behind a composed and beautiful face.
    “Okay, then,” Archer said. “The cops are going to play wait and see, so it’s up to us to move things along. Burt? You’ve got half of Hermosa coming in here and they bring the rest of the South Bay with them. I’m thinking you can chat everyone up. Josie is well known in all the beach cities.  Do you still have that picture I took of her at the ATV tournament? The one she made you take down?”
    “That I do, my friend,” Burt said, “and it’s going right back up until she makes me take it down again.”
    Archer smiled. He had clicked the shutter just as Josie went for a