Read Online Ruthless by Debra Webb - Free Book Online Page B

Patrick to relax and feel as if he were in charge of the information exchange and that he was providing input to the investigation versus being questioned as a potential suspect.
    “Thirty years.” Jess made a note on her pad. Next to her Lori did the same, using the notepad on her smartphone. The old-fashioned way suited Jess just fine. “That’s an admirable accomplishment, Mr. Patrick. You retired last year?”
    “I did.” He cocked his head and studied Jess. “Do you really believe any of my meter readers could have been involved with the disappearance of those little girls?”
    Now they got to the heart of the matter. Jess had been waiting for him to get there before she launched the first direct question. She’d started with the top-ranking name on the list Alabama Power provided. A field supervisor. “We have to retrace the steps of anyone who visited the homes of the children on a regular basis. Someone who might have known all the families involved.”
    “Well.” He shrugged. “I’ll tell you the same thing I told the other cop who made that same statement thirteen years ago.”
    Jess stalled the frown that wanted to furrow her brow. “You were interviewed by someone from the Birmingham Police Department before?”
    He nodded. “Sure was. When that last little girl went missing, the Myers child, a Detective Corly or Corlon. He asked me about the meter readers for the routes that covered the Myerses’ home as well as the others that devil stole children from. Me and that detective went over each address, one by one, all the way back to the first abduction thirty-three years ago. The first two kids went missing before I started with Alabama Power,” Patrick pointed out, “but by the time the Myers child disappeared I was a supervisor, so I had access to the personnel files, knew the guys who’d worked those routes personally. Not one of those men would dream of hurting a child. I’d bet my life on it.”
    Unfortunately it wasn’t his life at stake.
    If the BPD interviewed this man, why wasn’t there a report? Jess had specifically looked for that connection after Lori suggested the possibility. She would be asking Black about the discrepancy. Meanwhile, she wanted to talk to that detective. “Could the detective who interviewed you have been named Corlew?”
    “This is a photo of Detective Corlew.” Lori showed Mr. Patrick the image on her cell. “Is he the man who interviewed you?”
    “Yes, ma’am, that’s him. He was a little younger, of course.” Patrick pointed to the screen. “I remember now, there was some kinda hubbub in the news about him a few years later. Got fired, I believe.”
    “Why don’t we go over the statement you gave Detective Corlew?” Jess suggested. “Perhaps you’ve remembered something you didn’t think to mention at the time.”
    Patrick shook his head. “I don’t mind going over what I told him but nothing about what I said then has changed. For the twenty or so years in question there were a total of six full-time meter readers and two fellows who filled in from time to time to take care of those particular routes during vacations and illness. Four of ’em have passed on since then.”
    “What about the other four?” She’d come this far, and she wasn’t going to leave a stone unturned just because Mr. Patrick felt confident there was nothing to find along that path. “They’re still alive? Working?”
    “Fergus Cagle took my place as supervisor. The other three, Mike Kennamer, Jerry Bullock, and Waylon Gifford, are still reading those meters. All upstanding men with children and grandchildren of their own.” He shook his head. “You won’t find the devil you’re looking for among ’em, Chief Harris.”
    That was the problem with the devil: most folks didn’t recognize him until it was too late. Sometimes not even then.
    Half an hour later Jess thanked Mr. Patrick and followed Lori to her snazzy red Mustang. “Before we moveon to the