Truth & Lies: A Queen City Justice Novel Read Online Free

arrived. “What came of the Chinese girl?”
    “She’s staying with her parents locally, but will be flying home with them in a couple of weeks. She refused fingerprinting yesterday, but I’m going to try to get them to come back in today.”
    “Do you think we’re looking at a human-trafficking ring?”
    Deck leaned his crutch against the desk, and dropped into his seat. Excitement and purpose rushed through him for the first time in months. “I suspect so. I’m going to see if I can track down the salon or the guy she thought might be the boss. Finding the salon or where she was kept will make the investigation a lot easier, but all that she knew was that the front of the building faced a parking lot and trees and that it’s approximately thirty minutes by highway from the Rookwood Commons shopping area. Not a name. Not a logo. Neither her apron nor her nametag had any sort of insignia, and she spoke almost no English.”
    “You’re right. That’s not much to go on. Let me know if you need anything, and keep me up-to-date. We’ll want to inform the FBI as soon as we corroborate her story.”
    Deck agreed and sat down at his desk. He pulled the number for the hotel where Lee Jing and her family were staying. It rang a number of times before an operator picked up. He introduced himself and asked to be connected to their room. “I’m sorry, Detective. I checked the Lees out yesterday afternoon.”
    Deck sighed. “Did they leave a forwarding address?”
    “I’m afraid not.”
    “Do you know if they intended to return to China right away?”
    “They didn’t say.”
    He signed off and put in a request for passenger lists for flights leaving the United States and a call into the Chinese Consulates in Chicago and New York and the Chinese Embassy in Washington DC. Lee Jing would need to replace her passport before she could would be permitted to fly home.
    Without a complaining witness, this case just became a lot more difficult.
    Deck fired up Yelp to see if he could start narrowing down nail salons.  His initial search turned up more than 750 options. “ Oof .”
    “Hey Deck. I heard you were back.”
    He turned to see Vivian Baroni, one of the Major Case detectives. Before his Reserve Marine Unit had been called up and he’d shipped out to Afghanistan, they’d had an on-again-off-again, will-they-or-won’t-theyflirtation, which had extended for several months without either of them ever acting on it. Vivian was pretty, but Deck wouldn’t let himself show any interest now. It wouldn’t take more than watching him limp across the room for the attraction he saw in her eyes to fizzle into pity or misplaced sympathy, and he refused set himself up to watch it. But his ego liked her appreciative gaze nonetheless.
    She had one hand propped on her hip, and he couldn’t help but notice her nails. They weren’t long, just barely past the ends of her fingertips, with the main part of her nail the palest of pinks, and the nail tips bright white.
    “Say, Viv. I’ve got a question for you.”
    She leaned down so they were nearly face-to-face and braced herself with one hand on the desk. “Name it.” 
    He caught a light whiff of her perfume or shampoo. Something feminine, but not overpowering. He recognized the hopeful glint in her expression. 
    She was about to be disappointed.
    “Do you do your own nails?”
    She looked taken aback. “Excuse me?”
    “Do you go to a salon or do you do your own nails?”
    “Salon. Why?”
    “How did you decide what salon to use?”
    “Needing a manicure, there, Murphy?” He noticed she switched from using his first name to his last. Good. Keep work at work.
    And pity at home.
    He straightened out his fingers in front of himself.  His hands had taken the brunt of the abuse of his battle with a drywall project. So far, the drywall was winning. He had Band-Aids wrapped around two knuckles and a scrape over the back of his hand. His physical therapist thought his home