Read Online Cat Seeing Double by Shirley Rousseau Murphy - Free Book Online

right then, that he’d gone to a movie. A ten-year-old boy going to a movie alone, at this time of night? Dallas asked her what movie. She didn’t know, said she’d forgotten what the kid told her. Said whatever was playing in town. That there was only one theater, and one screen. Said she guessed he’d be home by midnight.” Ryan shook her head. “A ten-year-old kid running the streets at midnight. Dallas plans to go down in the morning, have a talk with her.”
    Charlie nodded. “If that old man is Gerrard Farger’s father—Curtis’s grandfather…They’ve had a warrant out for him. Max and Dallas were sure the two ran the lab together, but when they busted Farger the old man was gone, not a trace. Now, if there’s a connection to San Andreas, that’s a whole new track to follow. We may not make it to Alaska.”
    â€œI’m sorry.”
    Charlie shook her head. “Whatever Max decides is okay. We can take the cruise later. That old man needsto be stopped. At the time of the drug raid, the second bedroom in the Farger cabin had been cleaned out, where he might have bunked with the boy. Nothing but a bare cot against the wall and an old mattress on the floor, and the kid’s clothes. Juvenile officer picked those up after the bust, when he took the kid down to his mother. Not a sign of the old man, and during the trial Gerrard wouldn’t say a word to incriminate his father.”
    Ryan shrugged. “Nothing like family loyalty. Were they part of a bigger operation?”
    â€œMax doesn’t think so. More of a family business,” Charlie said wryly. “Farger apparently thought he could run a small operation without alerting the cops or the cartel.”
    Ryan laughed. “Sooner or later the cartel would have known about it—would have destroyed the lab or taken it over, made Farger knuckle under and follow their orders.” Both young women were very aware of the powerful Mexican drug cartel that operated in the Bay Area. “He’s lucky Max made the bust, he’s safer in jail. Was he farming marijuana too?”
    â€œDEA is investigating,” Charlie said. The cartel used its meth profits to bankroll marijuana operations across the state—a behemoth of criminal activity as dark and invasive, in the view of law enforcement, as if the black death were creeping across California destroying families and taking lives. In the national forests and other remote areas, the marijuana patches were guarded by gunmen who shot to kill, so intent on protecting their crops that a deer hunter or a hiker venturing into the wrong area might never be heard from again.
    And the toxic waste from meth labs was dumpeddown storm drains so it went into the sea, or was poured into streams so it got into the water supply, or was poured on the ground where it could stay for years poisoning fields and killing wildlife. Whoever said doing meth didn’t hurt anyone but the user didn’t have a clue.
    â€œYou are pale,” Ryan said softly. “We shouldn’t be talking about this stuff. You want to get out of the crowd, go somewhere quiet and lie down?”
    â€œI’m fine,” Charlie said crossly. “I don’t need to lie down.”
    But she wasn’t fine, she couldn’t get over being scared. She’d thought she was okay until, walking up the grassy aisle, with all their friends, everyone she knew and cared about, standing like a wall to protect her, she kept imagining the grass exploding in front of Dallas and Wilma, exploding with all those people crowding close.
    She felt ice-cold again. Her hands began to shake.
    Ryan put her arm around her, hugging Charlie against her shoulder.
    Charlie shook her head. “I’m sorry. Delayed reaction.”
    â€œI guess that’s allowed. You don’t have to be stoic and fearless just because you married a cop.”
    â€œIt would help.”
    They