Expert Witness Read Online Free Page A

Sittin’ with him on the beach ‘till the wee hours, talking just to keep him out of trouble.  That kid’s like her own pet project, and she doesn’t call you every time she’s giving him some attention.” Liz waited a beat. “Well, does she?”
    “No.”
    Drained, Archer slumped in the chair. The last few hours had been a bear. He hadn’t slept. He’d headed out to the police station at six only to turn around and jog back when he remembered Hannah. He wrote three notes and taped them around the house so she would know that he hadn’t forgotten her; that he, at least, would be back.
    “And Josie has two kids to worry about now.  She wouldn’t have hung all night with Billy without telling the girl who lives with her,” Archer muttered.
    “I didn’t know she’d made it permanent with that girl,” Liz mused. “Kind of weird, Josie getting all maternal like that. What’s her name? The kid, I mean.”
    “Hannah Sheraton.  She’s waiting at Josie’s place in case she comes home.”
    “Maybe it’s meltdown time. Josie might have needed a break. It’s hard for someone as independent as her to change her stripes, if you know what I mean.”
    Liz hopped down from her perch and went to her own chair behind a desk littered with papers. There were nineteen thousand people in Hermosa Beach, thirty-seven cops on the force, five of them detectives.  Liz crossed her arms and rested them on top of the papers. He had her attention because one of Hermosa’s own was the topic, and Archer was the one she was talking to.
    “So Josie’s just been gone since yesterday morning, far as you know,” Liz said.
    “Yes. Nothing disturbed. She went to work like any other day.”
    “No plans for the evening?”
    “None that I know of, and she didn’t mention anything to Hannah.”
    “You’re sure the girl is clean? As I recall, she was charged with assault with intent to kill, murder, and arson. Not nice stuff. Maybe she flipped and did something to Josie.”
    “No way,” Archer shook his head. “Hannah was willing to take a murder rap for her mother. If she were that loyal to someone who treated her like trash, she would be doubly loyal to Josie who picked her off the heap. If she had done something, she wouldn’t have come to me.”
    “But you’re such a teddy bear,” Liz drawled.
    “And she’s scared,” Archer snapped.
     Liz’s hands went palm up. “Okay, just trying a little levity here.  Did you check with Billy Zuni?”
    Archer shook his head, “I saw him hanging at the pier. He was alone.”
    “Did you walk up and actually ask him if he’d seen Josie?”
    Archer was impatient with Liz’s long and winding road.  “Josie wouldn’t have taken the car to go see Billy. She would have jogged, or she would have walked. Her car would be in the garage or parked on the street.”
    “Okay, cool your jets.”
    Liz sank back in her chair. She crossed her legs, foot over knee. Instead of girl- clothes, she wore biker boots, generic jeans and a too-big jacket.  The pencil flipping lazily between two fingers suddenly took flight and landed in the middle of her desk. That’s when Archer knew it was a no-go on any official help. If she were engaged, that pencil would be filling out paperwork now.
    “I’ll ask around and see if anybody’s seen her, but you know as well as I do nobody is going to do a damn thing about this.”
    “But this is Josie we’re talking about,” Archer objected.
    “What? Like she’s the only upstanding citizen who’s ever taken a powder? Any force in the country is going to look the other way ‘cause ninety-nine percent of the time when an adult disappears they’re just off doing adult things. Unless you can tell me there’s been an overt threat, that someone’s been stalking her, or she’s bordering on suicidal my hands are tied. Can you imagine me going to Captain Hagarty and wanting an investigation because that girl is worried? He’d have me washing squad cars