Carolyn Ridder Aspenson - 04 Ghost From the Grave by Carolyn Ridder Aspenson

Author:Carolyn Ridder Aspenson [Aspenson, Carolyn Ridder]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Severn River Publishing
Published: 2020-08-31T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 6

Tim kept his word. He and two other dads got Bill to leave without incident. I hung back while Austin helped Jack clean up.

Austin loved Jack, and I wished things had turned out differently between us. Scott lived in Birmingham, and although Austin saw him once a month, he was still young and needed a strong male presence in his life. Jack had been that. I prayed ending our relationship wouldn’t take its toll on theirs.

Austin dropped his bag next to me. “I’m starving. Can I go to McDonald’s with the Merritts?”

I sighed. I’d taken the time to prepare a white chicken chili and it was warming in the Crock-Pot at home. “I made dinner.”

“Please, Mom.”

“Come straight home after, okay?”

“Yes, ma’am.” He yanked his bag from the ground, hollered, “I can go,” and jogged to Kyle Merritt.

I sent Kyle’s mom a text. “Keep an eye on my boy, please.”

She sent back a thumbs-up emoji.

Jack bumped my shoulder with his. “Chatsworth giving you a hard time?”

“He’s just being his usual jerk self.”

“I’ll have a talk with him.” He walked to the storage room and unlocked the door with his key.

I leaned against the door frame. “Do you think he could have hurt Turner?”

“Are you asking Coach Jack or Detective Levitt?”

I smiled. “Whichever one gives me the most informed answer.”

“It’s possible. Chatsworth likes to yell and throw his weight around, but I don’t think he’d hurt another kid.”

“That’s what I thought at first, but John Bennett said something that made me think.”

He put the bag of balls in a storage bin. “What’s that?”

“‘Desperate people do desperate things’ or something to that effect.”

“He’s right.”

“And it got me thinking. Remember that woman in Texas? The one who killed a girl on a cheerleading team because she made the team and her daughter didn’t? If a mother could do it, Chatsworth could too.”

“The mother didn’t kill anyone. She tried to hire a hitman to kill the mother of the child who got the spot on the team. Thankfully, the hitman ended up being an undercover cop.”

“Why aren’t you handling the investigation now? You’ve been cleared. I don’t see any reason why you can’t.”

He wiped the sweat on his forehead with a towel. “If I get involved and someone is arrested, a defense attorney would tear the case apart. It doesn’t matter if I’m cleared or not, I have to stay on the sidelines for this. Hansen’s green, but like I said before, the chief’s on it. They’ll find Turner, or they’ll figure out who took him.”

“I don’t like the way you phrased that.”

“Neither do I, but we have to face the facts. It’s been a few days. No calls for ransom. A few sightings, but nothing credible. Either he’s run away, which I highly doubt, or he went with someone he knew. And if that’s the case, it doesn’t look good.”

His hip brushed against mine as he walked past. He held the door open with his back. “After you, ma’am.”

He locked the door and pulled on it to make sure it was secure.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.