Private Dicks Read Online Free PDF Page B

snatched the girl?” Rhodes asked.
    “I don’t know,” she sighed. Gomez put down her coffee cup
and dragged both hands through her hair. “I’ve been looking for this girl for
over a week and no one saw anyone hanging around her house or school or the
youth center. You’d think the investment banker would’ve stuck out in that
neighborhood.”
    “Youth center?” Rhodes repeated, belatedly making the
connection. His lack of sleep was really putting him off his game. “Where’s the
grandma’s apartment?”
    “Thirty-second and Stout.”
    “Six blocks from Carlos.” Wash said, glancing at him
sharply. “You think there’s a connection?”
    Looking back and forth between the two men, Gomez asked,
“Connection?”
    Rhodes took a sip of his cooling coffee to give his brain
time to process the possibility. “We’re looking into another disappearance—a
fourteen-year-old boy,” he finally explained to Gomez. “His…family hired us.
Cops think he’s a runner but the brother doesn’t agree. Same deal as your
girl—good kid, smart, no real reason to take off.”
    With a skeptical grunt, Gomez sat back in the booth. “You
think my guy grabbed them both? Where’s your kid then?”
    Before she even finished speaking, Wash was shaking his
head. “A boy and a girl? Most of these kiddie-raping freaks have a
preference.”
    “Yeah, it’s pretty implausible but…” Rhodes twitched his
shoulders, not liking the situation. “Two kids, a year apart in age, go to the
same youth center, snatched from the same neighborhood—your girl go to G.W.?”
When Gomez nodded, Rhodes added, “Same school. This seem like a pretty fucking
big coincidence to you two?”
    “This whole thing is messed up,” Wash stated. “What was this
guy from—what’d you say? Ohio?—doing here anyway?”
    Gomez shrugged. “Talked to the guy who owns the loft where
it went down. Said Sanderson was a friend of a friend, was in town for business
and needed a place to stay. This loft unit hadn’t sold yet, so the owner let
Sanderson use it. The building owner is some developer, converted a bunch of
old warehouses into lofts, a dance club, stuff like that.”
    Pulling his small notebook from his pocket, Rhodes asked,
“What’s this developer’s name?”
    “Barry Ness.”
    His head coming up at her tone, Rhodes looked at the
detective. “You didn’t like him.”
    She shrugged, shook her head and then shrugged again.
    Wash laughed. “Maybe, no, maybe?”
    After shooting a glower his way, Gomez turned to Rhodes and
told him, “Didn’t like him but I’m not sure why. Probably he’s just a rich
asshole and it has nothing to do with the case.”
    “Good to know though,” Rhodes said thoughtfully.
    “Not to ask a stupid question—” Wash began.
    “When has that ever stopped you?” Gomez smirked at him.
    Ignoring her interruption, he continued, “But why did you
want to meet with us?”
    “I didn’t.” When both men looked at her curiously, she
clarified, “I wanted to meet with Rhodes.”
    “Whatever.” Wash rolled his eyes. “Why did you want to meet
with Rhodes then?”
    Shifting a little awkwardly, she admitted, “It’s pretty
clear cut. Everything indicates that Sanderson shot the girl and then himself.
Since the official investigation is pretty much closed, I was hoping you could
continue it more… unofficially .”
    “Why, Melie!” Wash gasped, his eyes wide with pretend
horror. “Are you actually going against orders?”
    “No,” she snapped, before dropping her eyes for a guilty
second. “I wasn’t actually ordered not to ask you guys to look into
things.”
    Wash snorted. “Sounds like semantics to me.”
    “Fuck you, Washington.”
    “You wish.” It was his turn to smirk at Gomez.
    “Enough.” Both Wash’s and Amelia’s heads turned at Rhodes’
command. “Bring us copies of the files on your girl and Miguel Herrero and
we’ll see what we can do.”
    “I’ll send them over. Thank you.”