The Body on Ortega Highway Read Online Free

thinks things through.”
    “ You’re doing the right
things so far,” the profiler says.
    “ Thank you so much for all of
your help,” Lieutenant Harris replies.
    “ Here’s my card,” Jane says.
“Let me know if you have any questions. I want to help you catch
this sick bastard.”
     
     

Chapter Five
     
     
    Clarissa spends the rest of
morning looking through the evidence. She decides that she’s going
to try to talk to Desiree’s mother after
lunch. Desiree’s father died five years ago and she lived alone
with her mother. Clarissa calls Mrs. Beauchamp and asks if she
could come by the house and look at Desiree’s bedroom. They plan to
meet at 1:30. Clarissa walks back to her house and grabs a quick
bite before she sets off in her car.
    Mrs. Beauchamp lives in Old Town Tustin, Clarissa’s old
neighborhood. The victim’s mother owns a Craftsman Bungalow that
has a plaque out front stating it is an historical property. The
flowerbed in front of the porch is beautiful with lots of tulips
and daffodils blooming.
    Mrs. Beauchamp has been
looking out her front window and sees Clarissa when she drives up.
She greets her at the door. Clarissa
expresses her sympathy and asks to see Desiree’s bedroom. Her
mother directs her upstairs to a large room that looks like a
private suite. It has paneled pine walls and Adirondack-themed
lamps and knick-knacks. When Detective Vente had visited earlier,
he took Desiree’s computer’s hard drive, so it’s back at the police
station in the evidence box. This afternoon, Clarissa is searching
for anything he might have missed. She turns over pictures on the
wall to see if anything is taped on the back. She rummages through
the pockets of the girl’s wardrobe and reaches into the toes of
Desiree’s shoes. She pulls out her dresser drawers and feels the
undersides of the bureau. She looks through boxes and PeeChees full
of school reports. In one of the PeeChees, she finds a poem
entitled, “The Ballad of a Hooker.” Desiree wrote it for her
English class and received an A+ from her teacher. Clarissa is
shocked by the language and subject matter:
     
    Ballad: Life of a Hooker
     
    Under a street lamp clothed in
slitted skirt,
    Waits a hooker, prepared for her
night’s work.
    Clutching her apartment key,
    Anticipating her work’s fee,
    She’s the best known hustler this
side of the Mississippi.
     
    Looking for a kick,
    Waiting to turn a trick.
    Prostitution,
    The only solution,
    Her body is saturated with filth
and pollution.
     
    Pimp’s arranged a $100 job,
    With a married john from
Frisco, probably some slob.
    That awful pimp,
    A puny wimp,
    Who drains her dry to buy his
hemp.
     
    No fringe benefits, working
conditions rough,
    Perverted male minds, it’s murder
coping with such stuff.
    Pocketbooks untighten,
    Income heightens,
    But when business slacks, her
sanity slightens.
     
    What other trade is she
prepared,
    When seized by old age, wrinkled
and gray-haired.
    This harlot’s beauty will be
drained,
    But for no other job will she be
trained.
    She’ll be forced to surrender the
title she once reigned.
     
    Thrust into the street, no
alternative but to marry,
    She will no longer be available to
every Tom, Dick, or Harry.
    She will live life slow,
    On her husband’s steady income
flow.
    Recalling the insecure days of long
ago.
     
    Clarissa thinks that this is
very shocking subject matter and wonders if Desiree’s mother has any idea that her 16-year-old daughter
had written it. She thinks, ‘If I were a teacher and read this, I
would have told the guidance counselor in school to have a little
talk with the girl.’ Clarissa walks downstairs to show the mother
what she’s found.
    Her mother reads it and is just as
shocked as Clarissa was. Clarissa asks her, “Do you think that
Desiree may have been a prostitute?”
    “I can’t imagine such a thing.
She’s just a girl.”
    “Well, she has some very
experienced and sophisticated ways of looking at sex for