Hazard and Somerset Off Duty by Gregory Ashe

Author:Gregory Ashe [Ashe, Gregory]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hodgkin and Blount
Published: 2019-10-26T04:00:00+00:00

XI

MARCH 17

SATURDAY

6:27 PM

NOBODY WAS HAPPY with how it turned out. Well, nobody except Somers, who was strutting around, fanning his feathers and being generally unbearable.

“Why the hell didn’t you call this in when it all got started?” the local chief of police asked.

“No service,” Hazard said, shaking his phone for emphasis.

“No car,” Somers said, jerking a thumb at the slashed tires.

“And either Norwood Grant or the kidnapper disabled the phone in the bed-and-breakfast.”

It wasn’t just the local chief of police who was angry.

“Why the hell can’t you two just go on vacation?” Chief Cravens asked, the speakerphone crackling with static as Hazard and Somers spoke with her over a borrowed line that did have service. “Why can’t you go anywhere without causing trouble?”

“We rescued a kidnapped child,” Hazard said.

“We had a pretty good vacation too,” Somers said.

“I’m going to be smoothing out the ruffles for a month. A month at the least.” She was quiet for a moment, and when she came back on the line, she said, “The baby’s name is John Joseph Wrigley, and he disappeared from Walnut Grove two days ago. There was an AMBER alert, and someone thought they saw the kid in Osage Beach. The cops tried to pull over the driver, but he got away and disappeared. Seemed like he was too lucky to believe. That turned out to be the truth: it wasn’t luck at all. He had the whole thing worked out with Grant from what you told me.”

“Grant didn’t sound very happy with him,” Somers said.

“He wasn’t supposed to draw so much attention,” Hazard said, “and he certainly wasn’t supposed to get stuck here in a bed-and-breakfast with two cops.”

“Two gay cops,” Somers added.

“He had too much money, Chief,” Hazard said. “The whole thing was a front. I bet the more the local guys look into it, the more they’ll find Grant was letting all sorts of people hide out on the property. The bed-and-breakfast was just an easy way for him to launder the money they paid him.”

“And the school,” Somers said.

Hazard cocked an eyebrow at him.

“What about a school?” Cravens asked grudgingly.

“This place has a reputation. Violence. Disappearing kids. Murders. Grant tried to play on that, had a whole ghost story cooked up, a connection to the civil war. If guests saw or heard anything strange, it was easy to play it off as part of the place’s character.”

Cravens clucked. “You could have just gone on vacation like everyone else.”

“Hazard got bored.”

“I did not.”

“Didn’t you at least think to call and let the local boys know something was strange?”

“No service,” Hazard said.

“No car,” Somers said.

“Well you damn well had service and a car at some point,” Cravens snapped and disconnected.

Barbara Keminsky was loading Richard into their minivan. The pink scooter, now dinged and dusty, hung from the back. When she had finished belting her husband, Barbara came back to them, her pink-tipped hair bouncing with every excited step that she took.

“Richard’s simply beside himself with excitement.”

“Thanks again for letting me borrow the scooter.

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