Read Online Mortal Crimes: 7 Novels of Suspense by Brett Battles, Robert Gregory Browne, Melissa F. Miller, J. Carson Black, Michael Wallace, M A Comley, Carol Davis Luce - Free Book Online Page B

disappointment. “Besides, I thought it was a serial killer.”
    “We have to cover all the bases,” Jaime said quietly.
    “Well, it was a serial killer, wasn't it? Had to be. What about those other girls? You don't have to worry about Greg or Dave. They were both fine with her. They weren't so fine with me, but that's another story.”
    Jaime asked her about their trip to the county fair.
    “There was a guy. He was talking to her outside one of the bathrooms. I could tell he was trying to pick her up. She looked older than her age. Kristy was fourteen going on thirty. But I stopped that. I walked right up to them.”
    “What happened then?”
    “The man turned around and left. Just like that. Before I even got there.”
    “What did he look like?”
    “All I remember were his eyes. The look he gave me before he left. Of course, Kristy was mad at me for spoiling her fun. Talking to a complete stranger at the fair. I always get the blame.”
    Jaime tried to find out more about the man talking to Kristy, but that was all she could give them. “You entered a sweepstakes for a Ford Explorer,” he added. “Do you remember that?”
    She looked at them blankly. “What does that have to do with anything?”
    “Someone could have gotten your address from the entry blank.”
    Patsy Groves had nothing to say to that, but the look in her eyes told them this was just one more piece of blame she'd have to shoulder alone.
    Jaime left to meet the forensic anthropologist, Jean Cox, at the crime scene. They would look for graves they might have overlooked. Laura stayed behind to run down the carnival Micaela Brashear and Kristy Groves had attended shortly before their disappearances.
    The carnival that worked the Pima County Fair was easy to track—it took one phone call to the Southwestern Fair Commission, which put on the Pima County Fair every year. Behr Family Amusements, which had done the fair for the last eighteen years, was one of the biggest carnivals in the country.
    According to their website, BFA's regular route for the past fifteen years took them to Riverside, California, at the end of October. If Kristy Groves had met someone with the carnival, it would have been this one. But it also meant that Behr Family Amusements would have been in California when Micaela went to the carnival the previous October.
    Patsy Groves described the man trying to pick Kristy up as young. Smith was in his forties and balding. That was a discrepancy, but Laura couldn't ignore the carnival link. Maybe other men had spoken to Kristy.
    She called the carnival HR department (amazed that a carnival had a Human Resources person) and asked if they had ever hired a Bill Smith. The name was such an obvious alias, Laura expected her hear they'd hired several Bill Smiths. She gave the woman Micaela's description of him.
    “Offhand, I can't think of anyone like that, not with that name. But let me look in our files and I'll get back to you.”
    It went downhill from there. Laura spent an exasperating half hour trying to learn if any permits had been issued to carnivals in the last two weeks of October when Micaela disappeared. She called the city office where temporary business permits were issued; development services (electrical and schematic inspections); and the health department (food booth inspections). None of these panned out. Records of these kinds of permits were uniformly expunged from the system after five years. It also turned out, to her dismay, that Arizona was one of a dozen states that did not require ride safety inspections.
    Laura realized she needed to talk to Micaela Brashear again. She thought about calling Jaime, but he would be wrapped up at the crime scene for a while. She could talk to Micaela by phone, but it was always preferable to do interviews in person. A face-to-face interview allowed her to use all her senses.
    The weather disturbance that had infused the Tucson valley with the promise of rain was gone, leaving a