What She Saw by Mary Burton

Author:Mary Burton [Burton, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Montlake
Published: 2025-11-02T00:00:00+00:00

Taggart arrived at the festival entrance a half hour later. The muddied hillside had been stripped of ground cover, and the small trees were bent and broken. The field at the base of the hill was a sea of mud. It was disfigured with deep tire ruts, scattered trash, flattened tents, and overflowing trash cans. The stages and trucks were gone, and the vendor who’d brought the porta potties was loading the last of the ten units onto his flatbed.

As he shut off the engine, Brenda came in over the radio. “Dispatch to Sheriff?”

He took the microphone and pressed the side button. “Ten-four.”

“Another woman called the station. She says her niece was at the festival, and she’s not checked in. It’s too soon to file a missing person report.”

“What’s her name?”

“Laurie Carr. She’s nineteen, blond, and petite. She was hoping to sing at the festival.”

“I might have met her. I think she worked the burger tent with Patty.”

“Laurie was supposed to call in this morning.”

He checked his watch. Eight o’clock. “She’s overdue.”

“Her aunt is convinced she’s in trouble.”

Many missing person cases resolved themselves. The person in question was either drunk, on vacation, or staying at a friend’s house. There were dozens of reasonable explanations. “If she calls back, take her statement.”

“Will do.”

Taggart walked over to the site where the burger tent had been located. Buddy had cleared out all the equipment and broken down the tables. Waste, embedded in the mud, encircled large green, bulging trash bags.

He moved to where Patty had stood and looked out toward the entrance to the festival. When he’d last seen her, she’d been hustling to work the grill and the register. During the height of the event, Patty wouldn’t have seen beyond the crowds encircling her.

His gaze scanned the field. Patty had been working the event with a blonde. Was it Laurie?

The beep of the flatbed drew his attention to the porta potties that had rested near the edge of the woods.

The truck driver lowered a forklift that slid under the porta potty. “Sheriff, you seen Rafe Colton?”

He didn’t know the driver. “Not since yesterday.”

A frown deepened the man’s grizzled face. “He was supposed to meet me here with a check.”

“You are?”

“Pete Manchester. I rented him the porta potties.”

“Is that like Colton, to be late?”

“I’ve heard rumors about unpaid bills. But he offered me good money to do the job. He’s a hard man to say no to.”

Taggart wasn’t surprised to hear Colton wasn’t here with a check. This festival was proving to be one huge con. “I’ll keep an eye out.”

“Right.”

“All your units were lined up here?”

“Yeah, there were ten of them. They’re filled with trash and shit I don’t want to know about. It’s going to be a hell of a cleanup to get these back into service. I told him he needed more units.”

Colton wasn’t worried about destruction. His kind created chaos and then moved on, leaving the mess to others.

Taggart walked past the muddy square imprints where the units had rested.

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