The Moores Are Missing by James Patterson

Author:James Patterson
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Published: 2017-07-25T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

Maggie sat in the back of an ambulance with a thermal blanket wrapped around her. An EMT had made a dressing for the injury to her temple. She still had a terrible headache, and they told her she would need to go to the hospital for X-rays and tests. That was fine for now.

The house swarmed with people. She saw Mike Cooper on the lawn.

She blinked and Karl was there. “What are you doing here? Aren’t you on desk duty, pending investigation of your accident at the crime scene?”

He shooed the EMT away and hugged her. “I could never sit at a desk knowing you were in danger,” he said. “I don’t care what the repercussions are for me. I was so scared and I am so glad you’re safe.”

“I’ll always be fine,” Maggie said. “I’m the chief.” She smiled faintly, but doing it made her hurt. She wanted sleep, but first they had to find out if she had a concussion. Sleep with a concussion might never end. “Got to watch my people work.”

“You know, I’m not even going to argue,” Karl replied. “As long as you’re okay.”

Maggie looked at him. She searched his face seeking something she wasn’t sure about herself. She wanted to ask him questions, and she wanted to see his reactions. Guiltily she realized she wanted to see him on the other side of an interrogation table, and herself opposite him. What did he know? When did he know it? What was Bryant Gibbs trying to tell her?

Instead, she said, “You’re still a good shot.”

“Tops in the unit.”

“Don’t brag.”

Karl’s expression turned serious again. “You talk to your mother?”

“Yeah, they loaned me a phone. The girls are fine. She’s fine. I told her to have someone come by today and change the locks. Gibbs isn’t coming back, but that doesn’t mean no one else will.”

He glanced away. She thought she saw something then, but it was hidden when he turned back to her. “No one’s coming, because Gibbs is the one. I don’t know what he wanted with you, but it’s pretty clear he did his wife, then Carole and Philip.”

“She was definitely working for him. One of his better earners, he said.”

“I don’t doubt it. He had a key to their house and he knew the alarm code. He’d been in there plenty of times before. If he got around the way you said he did, it’s likely he was in the sack with Carole on a regular basis.”

“He had a key to our house, too,” Maggie said. “Was I sleeping with him?”

The question was delivered with no emotion, no accusation. Maggie put it to him directly, the way she would with a suspect in interrogation. In such a situation, empathy was essential. If the subject thought they were being grilled by someone already convinced of their guilt, they’d shut down. The accusations came later, when trust was built.

She watched him closely without appearing to do so. The narrowing of his eyes, and the way his lips pressed together.

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