Missings, The Read Online Free PDF Page A

good before.”
    Ramona blushed. He sensed she still didn’t like him in her house. But somehow, they’d managed to come to a truce. Chase knew the older woman didn’t completely trust him, but for now, they could find a way to work together toward the same end.
    Daniel pulled out his notepad and the older woman bristled.
    “Please, it’s to help us remember. That’s all,” Chase said.
    Chase caught Elizabeth’s attention. “I’m going to ask your mother a lot of the same questions I asked you earlier. Please let her answer in her own words. We never know when something important might be revealed.”
    Elizabeth nodded.
    Almost a half an hour later, with the answers to all of the questions more or less matching the ones he’d received earlier from Elizabeth, Chase asked if they could please see Rachelle’s room. “We may need to remove some things for further examination, but we will leave you with an itemized list and will return those items when we’re finished.”
    “Course.” She waved her arm in Elizabeth’s direction. “You take.”
    He needed for it to be just him and Daniel in the room so after Elizabeth opened the bedroom door, he asked her to go help her mother find a good photograph of Rachelle they could have for the file.
    The two detectives stood in silence inside the small room for a moment, each getting their own impressions of its occupant.
    “You know, we’re lucky they have their own bedrooms,” Daniel said. “I shared a room with my brother until he went into the Army.”
    “I was thinking the same thing.”
    Two mismatched bookcases, filled with novels and a few books on economics, sat against one wall. Chase walked over to examine it more closely. Some of the novels were classics. In Spanish. A small desk butted up against another wall under a window. It was organized and ready for the next time someone sat down to study. Two dog-eared textbooks on social work caught his attention. One dealt with immigrants and refugees, the other with health care.
    A small laptop was closed in the center of the desk, and Daniel unplugged it from the wall to take back to the station. His expression as he readied the laptop for transport told Chase that Daniel had figured out the purpose for his presence had been more diplomatic than technology-inspired.
    “You could have just asked, Chase.”
    “I didn’t have time. Forgive me?”
    “I’ll think about it.”
    “While you’re thinking, would you get in touch with the college and make sure she made it to her class this morning? We have to get a timeline going.”
    Rachelle Benavides had left the house at seven o’clock that morning to catch a bus to her economics class at the college. She should have been home by eleven o’clock.
    Even without the two Hispanic DBs Chase had on his caseload, this whole situation felt bad. Rachelle Benavides was either in trouble—or dead.

Chapter Eight
    Aspen Falls Police Department
    Thursday, September 20
    Squadmeeting. Chase sat with Daniel Murillo and Terri Johnson. The three detectives in the Aspen Falls PD—plus Lieutenant Butz, who hadn’t investigated squat since 1987 and wouldn’t know a bloodstain pattern if it had a label, and whose last name inspired more than one deserving joke—sat in the room. All three detectives had better things to do, but when your superior called a mandatory meeting, and you liked your job, you went.
    Welcome to my world . Chase kept capping and uncapping his pen, a dead giveaway to everyone who knew him that his brain had processed Lieutenant Melvin Butz’s carefully planned detective squad meeting outline, and it no longer mattered. Chase knew all of the questions and all of the answers, and the total waste of time galled him.
    The officer-involved shooting Chase had just closed wouldn’t come to trial for months. He’d already met with the DA’s office and turned over his file. The court case would take a chunk of change from his day, but what else was new?