The Perfect Murder Read Online Free PDF Page B

about him. He has an airtight alibi. He was in Arkansas when the girls went missing, staying with a cousin. As a matter of fact, he's still there."
    So she wouldn't have to visit the pool hall this coming Friday. "What about the car?"
    "We processed it from bumper to bumper and found nothing suspicious. No blood. No foreign strands of hair or other trace evidence. No unusual objects. No 32

    receipts. Nothing. I'm guessing whoever kidnapped these girls didn't have to drag them from the car."
    "You're saying they got out willingly?"
    "It appears that way."
    "So maybe a fellow motorist flagged them down to ask for help? Or waved for them to get off the road because something was wrong with the car?"
    "Or they saw someone they knew and trusted," David added. "A guy one of them had met at a dance place. A friend from work."
    "That opens up a lot of possibilities."
    "This won't be an easy problem to solve, Jane."
    She nudged Kate's fingers away from the fruit salad she'd made for dessert.
    "What about the media?" she asked David. "Could they be of some help?"
    "I've been in regular contact with them. They're running the story again tonight."
    She'd have to record the news. "Maybe that'll stir up some leads."
    "It always does--but I can't promise they'll be viable."
    "You've already interviewed all the girls' neighbors, coworkers, friends?"
    "Of course."
    "Can I get a copy of your file?"
    "I don't see why not. Just don't mention that I passed it along."
    "I won't." She switched off the burner. The soup was ready. "Where are you now?"
    "Home with the kids. But I have the file with me and I have a fax machine in the back room. You want it tonight?"
    "If you wouldn't mind."
    "I don't mind."
    She laid the spoon she'd been using in the sink. "Fax it to TLS and I'll pick it up after I get Kate fed."
    "Pick what up, Mommy?" Kate asked as Jane disconnected.
    Setting her cell phone on the counter, she turned to her daughter, who seemed to be maturing more and more every day. "Some paperwork on my new case."
    "Your new case? You have your own case?"
    "Yep. I got my first one this morning."
    Kate smiled brightly. Her wide dark eyes, thick brown hair and creamy 33

    skin--as well as the curves that were just becoming noticeable--promised great beauty. Her face reminded Jane of a young Brooke Shields, but she had little chance of being very tall, not with a mother who was only five foot four and a father who was five foot nine.
    "So what's your case about?" she asked as she slathered butter on her bread.
    Oliver had gone to prison when Kate was three and had been killed shortly after he came out when she was seven, so losing him hadn't affected her as much as knowing what he'd done. But it was hard to live in the shadow of such evil. Jane preferred to shield her daughter from the uglier details of the cases they tackled at TLS. "I'm trying to find two girls, possibly runaways."
    "How old are they?"
    "Seventeen and eighteen," she said, dishing up the soup.
    "Why did they run away?"
    "We're not sure."
    She swallowed the bread in her mouth. "I hope you find them."
    Jane smiled. Maybe she'd been shortchanged in the husband arena, but having such a great daughter made up for it. For the most part, anyway. There were times Jane lay awake at night, remembering what it'd been like to love Oliver's brother, Noah. Despite the betrayal that'd caused her so much anguish, he'd been a good man, the exact opposite of Oliver. Tall, handsome, strong, honest, giving.
    He'd owned her heart.
    "What's wrong, Mommy?"
    Quickly pulling herself out of the melancholy that threatened whenever she thought of Noah--their love, their mistakes, her heartbreak, his murder--she summoned another smile. "Nothing, why?"
    "You had such a sad look on your face." Her daughter's lip came out in a pout.
    Jane carried Kate's soup to the table. "I'm not sad. We have a comfortable home, we're both safe and healthy, I like my job and you're doing well in school.
    You even get to spend