R. E. Bradshaw - Rainey Nights Read Online Free Page A

of.”
    “Well, like I said, she was heavily into the youth group. I was at church the Sunday before she went missing. She stood up during the service and told everyone about the youth revival scheduled for… I think it would have been tomorrow. I don’t know if they’re still having it. Anyway, she was very sweet and enthusiastic. I remember thinking she looked like a kid going places, you know. Self-confident and very pretty, she just seemed to have it all together.”
    Rainey added what she knew. “She had a job cleaning the church on Saturday nights. That’s where her parents found her car when she didn’t come home.”
    Gillian nodded in agreement. “Yes, I was the one who answered the call. I went to the church and checked out the car. I didn’t touch anything, but I did look in the windows. The car was locked. Nothing indicated she was taken by force.”
    Rainey already knew that. She wanted to know more about Crystal. She needed to know why a girl like Crystal would get in a car with this guy. “What did you see in the car?”
    Rainey watched as Gillian closed her eyes, trying to recall the scene. This cop has good instincts, Rainey thought to herself. Officer Knox probably would make a good agent, in time.
    Gillian began to speak. “I saw Chapstick in the tray on the console, with some change, and a few colored hair ties. One of them was yellow. There was a box, like a Kinko’s box you get copies in, on the passenger seat. A sheet of paper was stuck on the top of the box. I know now the box contained abstinence pledge forms the kids were going to fill out at the lockdown.”
    Rainey was intrigued. “Do you have one of those copies here?”
    “Yes, there’s a copy of one in the squad room.” Gillian started to stand.
    Rainey stopped her. “Wait, we’ll get that in a minute. What else did you see?”
    Gillian refocused on her memory of the car. “I remember thinking how clean the car was. She took really good care of it.” The deputy paused to think. “Oh, and there was a dress hung up in the backseat… and a pair of black pumps on the floor. She attended the athletic banquet before she went to work. Her mother said Crystal changed clothes at the high school. The church doors were locked and her keys were missing. I had the preacher open the church and we searched it thoroughly. No sign of her anywhere. It looked like she just evaporated.”
    The religious angle of the UNSUB’s signature and the fact that all the victims were extremely active in their churches made Rainey’s skin crawl. When she got that feeling, she knew she had to keep digging. The answer was near, if she could just put the pieces together.
    Rainey continued her inquiry. “What do you know about this abstinence pledge and the lock down?”
    “I attended a few lockdowns in high school. It’s just what it sounds like. They locked us in the church overnight with a few adults. No one could leave or come in after the doors were closed. We played games and ate food. Some religious stuff went on, but not much. It was basically something we could do to be away from our parents overnight with their approval.”
    “And the abstinence pledge?” Rainey asked.
    Gillian laughed. “I had to read up on that one. Certainly didn’t take that pledge myself.”
    Rainey laughed with her, putting the younger woman more at ease.
    Gillian visibly relaxed back against the chair. She went on, “That last time in church, Crystal said she visited a youth council where she’d taken the pledge. After that, she arranged for a representative of the group to come here for the lockdown. She was so excited about signing up more kids in the congregation.”
    Rainey could see the sadness begin to creep across the deputy’s face and decided it was time to wrap it up. Although she didn’t know her very well, Crystal’s death had shaken Gillian. Rainey knew the facts would begin to blur when the emotion entered an interview like this, and that’s what it