Read Online Murder Mountain by Stacy Dittrich - Free Book Online Page A

work major crimes. For reasons known only to him, he passed on those opportunities and stayed in missing persons, which he truly enjoys. As I anticipated, Nick was already in his office hard at work.
    I tapped gently on the door and Nick raised his head away from his own mountain of paperwork. Seeing me, he smiled and said, “Cecelia! How are you! My lord, girl! I heard what happened to you; you all right?” He stroked the stubble that was already starting to darken his chin. “Hmm, from what I heard you looked like when you first got back to work, I think it’s safe to say your face looks a lot better. But since I didn’t see you then, I still think you look bad. I’m so sorry.”
    “I’m all right, Nick, really I am. And as far as my face goes, believe me, it has improved—a lot.”
    “Bastard. Anyway, Cecelia, what can I do for you?”
    I then gave him a brief run-down on the Samantha Johnston case. Nick was already somewhat familiar with it, since it came through missing persons first before Kincaid took it away and assigned it to me; something that was obviously a sore spot for Nick. I also went into Matt Hensley’s claims and asked him if he would be able to help me with a few things. Specifically, I needed to know about any other missing women, optimally some with West Virginia ties, but, if not, connections to Roseland would do.
    “Cecelia, you realize that there are around forty to fifty open cases of missing persons over the last three years, don’t you?”
    “I know, Nick, and I know it’s going to take some time. I apologize.” I said this as sincerely and winningly as I could.
    “Well, most of the open cases that are women are usually those who ran away from abusive husbands and are in hiding, or, like you suspected with the Johnston gal, they’re just crack-heads who took off.”
    “I understand that, Nick, but I need to find out if anything this Matt Hensley told me is true.”
    “Allrightie, my girl. Lucky for you I’m not too busy, so I’ll get on this pretty much right away.” He thought for a few seconds, making calculations in his head, and said, “I’ll do my best to try and have this for you by the end of the week.”
    I thanked him repeatedly and went back to my office. Looking around, I determined this to be one of the many days when I didn’t want to sit in the office all day, so I grabbed the Johnston file and headed out to speak with Lizzie’s father, since he was first to report her missing. I had several questions for him, including the whereabouts of Lizzie’s car.
    Lizzie used her father’s address as her own, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that she stayed there most of the time. Lizzie’s father, Larry Johnston, lived in Roseland, of course, on Benedict Avenue. I wondered how he was friends with a county commissioner, but other strange friendships take place every day, that’s for sure, so I didn’t dwell on the matter.
    As I pulled into the Johnston driveway, I immediately noticed a maroon Buick, which I assumed to be Lizzie’s, parked there. One of my questions was already answered. As I walked up to the front door, I briefly scanned the contents of Lizzie’s car. There were piles of clothes, numerous fast food bags, and garbage strewn throughout—a clear indication of frequent travel. I knocked on the front door and it was several minutes before a tall, gray-haired man wearing boxer shorts opened it.
    “Larry Johnston?” I asked.
    “Yes?”
    “I’m Detective Gallagher of the Richland Metro Police Department. I’m here about your daughter, Samantha.”
    He opened the screen door and waved his hand at me, saying, “Come in,” in a tired voice.
    I walked in and looked around, noticing that the house was extremely small, but very clean for a Roseland house. I also scanned Larry Johnston up and down, something I do when I meet new people, trying to get a feel for them. Looking at him, I decided he’d probably been a fairly nice-looking guy back in