Read Online Compulsion by Jonathan Kellerman - Free Book Online Page B

husband.
    “Apparently it wasn’t,” she snapped.
    He touched her elbow. She shifted away from contact. Ran a hand over the snapshot. “They threw those children in with strangers.”
    Milo said, “Did the detectives sixteen years ago canvass the neighborhood where Antoine delivered?”
    “They claimed they talked to everyone,” said Sharna. “If they didn’t, are they going to admit it?”
    She folded her arms across her chest.
    Milo said, “What was the name of the company that hired Antoine?”
    Sharna said, “Youth In Action. They closed down after Antoine disappeared. At least in L.A.”
    “Because of Antoine’s disappearance?”
    “After Antoine, the schools wouldn’t let them advertise. I went to the library, used a computer to look them up, couldn’t find any mention of them. Did that yesterday, when I found out we were coming here. The only person I remember was a Mr. Zint, called to tell me how sorry he was. Sounded to me like he was worried we were going to sue him. Didn’t know anything helpful.”
    I said, “Antoine worked with two friends.”
    “Will and Bradley,” she said. “Wilson Good and Bradley Maisonette. Friends since kindergarten. They helped carry the coffin and cried like babies. Said Antoine was selling the most.” Reluctant smile. “Antoine had a way of talking you into anything.”
    Milo wrote down the names.
    Sharna Beverly picked up the photo and held it to her breast. Her fingers covered the top of Antoine’s face. His eternal smile made my eyes ache.
    I said, “Did Brad or Will report anything unusual those five days?”
    She said, “No, and I asked them. The van dropped them off one by one in Culver City. Antoine got off first and was supposed to be picked up last. When the time came, he wasn’t there. The van waited an hour, then drove around looking for Antoine. Then Mr. Zint took Bradley and Will back to the school, which is where he always picked them up. Then he called the police. Bradley and Will were shook up, Bradley especially. He already lived through a drive-by.”
    Gordon said, “Not in our neighborhood. Visiting a cousin in Compton.”
    Sharna said, “It was me, I’d go straight to Texas, put hot pokers on that devil, run one of those electrocuting lie detectors they use on the al-Qaidas at Guantánamo. That’d clear it up soon enough.”
    She glared at her husband.
    He fingered his flag pin.
    “Lieutenant,” she said, “do
you
have any feeling about that story that devil’s telling?”
    Milo said, “I wish I did, Mrs. Beverly. The sad truth is these lowlifes lie as easily as they breathe and they’ll do anything to get out of dying.”
    “So what’s the plan?”
    “This is gonna sound frustrating, ma’am, but I’m really starting at the beginning. Seeing as Bradley Masionette and Will Good were close to Antoine and the last people to see him, let’s start with them. Any idea where I can locate them?”
    “It’s not in the file?”
    “The file, ma’am, is rather incomplete.”
    “Hmm. Well, Will coaches football at a Catholic school, don’t know which one.”
    Gordon Beverly said, “St. Xavier.”
    She stared at him.
    “It was in the
Sentinel,
Shar. Few years back, he was coaching down in Riverside, moved here. I called him up, asked if he remembered anything more about Antoine. He said no.”
    “Well, look at that,” she said. “What else don’t you tell me about?”
    “No sense telling when there’s nothing to tell.”
    Sharna Beverly said, “Bradley Maisonette did not turn out well. From what I hear, he’s spent most of his life in prison. Never did have a good family life.”
    Gordon said, “We’re a tight-knit family. Antoine comes home all excited about all the big money he’s going to make, I was happy for him.”
    Sharna said, “Magazines sell
themselves,
people love magazines more than
life
itself. I told him, ‘Antoine, what sounds too good to be true, is.’ I told him I needed to meet the people involved,