B00CCYP714 EBOK Read Online Free Page A

almost hear Wiley rubbing his chin, a habit when he was thinking. The pause he left between her suggestion and his reply told her it wasn’t going to be good.
    “Well, Rainey, I believe that’s the sticking point. Maybelline’s youngest daughter, the baby’s mother, is missing. Been gone almost four months now. She disappeared from over near State College last September where she was taking some night classes.”
    “She’s one of those missing girls?” Rainey asked, knowing, in this case, missing probably meant dead.
    “Not exactly. She had a rap sheet, some minor juvenile stuff, and a pick up for prostitution when she was eighteen, but it was dropped. When cases were being flagged for the task force, Jacqueline’s file—that’s her name—was dismissed as not fitting the criteria. I guess they missed that part about her being a student at the college. Maybelline is mad as hell that her daughter was not on the list of possible victims that got published last Friday.”
    “Whose bright idea was that, anyway?” Rainey asked, but didn’t wait for an answer. “Publishing a list of ‘possible serial killer’ victims, without having found a single body or crime scene, was poor judgment on somebody’s part. The only things we know for sure are women are missing, and the victim profile shifted from prostitutes and street people to affluent women back in the fall of 2011. Nobody suggested missing women outside that criteria not be flagged. At least those words never came out of my mouth. I can’t speak for the task force. I’m just a consultant.”
    “I told her that,” Wiley drawled, “but that didn’t make Maybelline feel any better.”
    “So, is that what she wants—someone to look into her daughter’s disappearance?”
    Wiley chuckled. “No, not someone. You. She wants you to investigate, and she wants to look you in the eye and hear you say you will.”
    “Do you think she’d shoot Mackie or harm those kids if you let the SWAT boys go in there?”
    Wiley’s voice deepened. Rainey could almost see him lowering his eyes on her. “You know damn well that woman is desperate. You knew that when you bailed her out, which doesn’t seem like the best course of action to have taken, lookin’ back.”
    “She’s always come in before,” Rainey answered, only half-heartedly believing her own defense.
    Maybelline Upshaw was an old client, one of the first for Billy Bell’s Bail and Bait. Since moving from Jordan Lake, Rainey and Mackie dropped “Bait” from the name, but kept many of the same clients.
    Billy bonded out a juvenile Maybelline the first time she was locked up for stealing food from a grocery store. She was a pot-dealing grandmother now, having been in and out of jail and sometimes prison her whole life. Rainey had a soft spot for the old woman, who in reality was a mere ten years older. That was why she bonded her out this time, knowing Maybelline might not comply with the order to appear.
    Rainey ignored her instincts and Mackie’s warning when she got the call to go to the courthouse from one of Maybelline’s daughters. Momma was in trouble again. She also dismissed the warning bells when she discovered the charges against the old girl. Maybelline had too many strikes against her and was facing a lengthy sentence. She distinctly remembered Maybelline vowing never to go back to prison after her last stretch and had hoped it was a declaration that she was giving up her criminal lifestyle. The other implication was the fugitive status Maybelline was willing to acquire in order to spend not another day behind bars. Rainey recalled thinking about that at the bail hearing, but posted the one hundred thousand dollar surety bond anyway.
    It probably had something to do with what Maybelline said, standing before the judge. “How else am I gonna feed my grandkids? Ain’t nobody hirin’ an ex-con. The only bi’ness makin’ money is dealin’ dope. And I ain’t messin’ with no hard stuff.