Read Online Frozen Past by Richard C Hale - Free Book Online Page B

doing the talking.”
    “You’re the lead. You lead. I follow. If you wanted me to do the talking, you should have told me. Now you’re trying to blame me?”
    “No—you’re not understanding. I’m saying I agree with you. I should have let you do the talking. I’m not blaming you for something you didn’t do. Am I that much of an asshole?”
    She smiled at him. “No, boss. You’re just a little rough around the edges.” She took a long drink of her beer and looked around the room as if for the first time. “Nice place. Where’s Reverb?”
    “Probably hiding from you. He’s not very social.”
    “Great watchdog.”
    He shrugged. “I trained him well.”
    She stood, walked over to the bookshelf and looked at the pictures. She grabbed the one of his dead son, looked it over and then set it down again in its spot. She knew about Michael, but thankfully never brought it up with him. Everyone knew about Michael.
    She wandered around the rest of the room, glancing at his limited knick-knacks and furniture and he watched her in a way he had never seen before. She had great legs and the skirt she was wearing showed them off. He figured the alcohol was contributing to this new perspective, but he didn’t care. She turned and noticed him noticing her. A tiny, little smile formed on her lips, but she said nothing. He quickly looked away.
    “What about the footprints in the snow? Anything on that?” he asked.
    She nodded. “All consistent with children or teenagers, unless the perp is a very small man or woman, which can’t be ruled out, of course. No other footprints were in the vicinity except for the rescue crew and ours.”
    “What’s your gut feeling?”
    “I think some kids were there. I don’t know what they were doing, but I bet they know something. If we can find out who, we can probably learn something about what actually happened.”
    “What about the accidental death scenario?”
    “Explain,” she said.
    “A group of kids kill their buddy by mistake, panic, and try to ditch the body. I’ve heard about it happening before.”
    “The only thing about that scenario that doesn’t make sense is the lack of a reported missing person. If the kid is local and had some horrible accident that’s being covered up, why hasn’t some distraught mother called us looking for her baby?”
    He saluted her with his beer. “Good point. Unless it’s some parent that doesn’t care or isn’t expecting their kid to be home. Maybe he was away at a sleepover or party and he wasn’t due back home until today. Could be overlooked for a day or two.”
    “Yeah. I guess we’ll see in the next twenty four hours. Should we check out the neighborhood kids tomorrow?”
    “That’s my plan.”
    “What about the Harrison kid? Think he knows anything?”
    He paused. “My gut feeling is yes, but I’m going to leave that can of worms alone for a while, don’t you think?”
    She nodded, drained her beer, crushed it and then added it to the pile of destroyed empties he had already accumulated.
    He laughed. “Have another,” he said, holding up the beer to her. She grinned and took it from him.
     

 
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter 11
     
     
    School on Monday was abuzz with the story of the boy pulled from the pool. It hadn’t made the news, not even a blurb in the paper, but that didn’t keep it from spreading like wildfire around the campus as the day went on. Luke kept out of the conversations, but kept his ears open hoping to catch some clue about who the kid was. By the end of the day, the rumors flying around about his identity amounted to nothing more than gossip and couldn’t be judged reliable. Could anything a teenager said be held truthful, Luke thought to himself? He wasn’t above criticizing his generation, who he knew to be fickle and irresponsible, himself included.
    At lunch he sat with Ellie, joked with her about everyday nothingness and held her hand as the rest of the kids noticed the new