Rescuing Melissa by Ellie Masters

Author:Ellie Masters
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: JEM Publishing

Thirty-Two

Diner

CJ

CJ met Mac and Jenny at a diner after he checked out of his hotel room.

Mac ran a finger around the water ring left by his glass. In the five years, they’d worked together, CJ couldn’t remember Mac drinking anything other than water. Perhaps he should ask why someday.

Jenny ordered a complex concoction of coffee, milk, sugar, and cream. She clutched the warm brew and held it below her nose, sniffing it like a lover. Their waitress deserved a double tip for being a good sport about Jenny’s insane order.

He tapped his foot against the bench seat, nervous about leaving Melissa alone. But Mac and Jenny requested a sit-down session to strategize on the kidnapping case. Hotel security had eyes on Melissa’s room.

She was safe.

“It makes little sense with Henrietta Jones.” Mac updated him on what little they’d discovered.

CJ looked across the table at the design Mac created from the water ring, an elephant, or a rhino. It was hard to be sure.

“What doesn’t make sense?”

Mac stopped his water doodling. “I don’t see someone snatching her off the street in between shopping runs in this town.”

“She could’ve been targeted,” Jenny said.

CJ shook his head. “As a kidnapping victim, she doesn’t have much to offer. Not much money, and no real family to pay a ransom.”

Jenny blew on her coffee. She had yet to sip the foamy mess but seemed content to inhale its aroma. “We were thinking about a sex crime, but you’re right. She falls out of the usual age range for that. Not that it doesn’t happen, but…I’m grasping at straws here.”

CJ leaned back and stared out the window of the small diner. “Something new must have happened. We need to trace every detail in the days leading to her disappearance. I want every second accounted for. Who she spoke to. What she was doing. Where she shopped. What she wore. Everything.”

Mac looked up from his newest creation, a stick figure of a Jedi Knight. He frowned. “That will be hard. Most of her days were spent with her girls. And from what everyone says, not only wouldn’t she let anyone near her daughters, but the woman didn’t date.”

CJ shook his head. “That may be. But don’t you think little Miss Perfect might have gotten lonely over the years? Maybe someone talked to her? It doesn’t have to be a date or a lover. We’ve solved cases with much less to go on than this. Talk to the girls.”

Jenny and Mac exchanged glances.

“They won’t speak to me.” Mac used air quotes. “I’m scary.”

Jenny rolled her eyes. “I hate kids, and little girls are obnoxious. They were kind of skittish with me too. I don’t think they’ve ever talked to a Black woman.”

“They’re kids.” CJ had never met a woman less in touch with her feminine side than Jenny. “They’ll talk to you.”

Her eyes narrowed. “You think because I’m a woman, I’ll relate to them?” Her shoulders twitched. “Kids annoy me.”

CJ took a long pull from his coffee, needing a moment to compose his next few words.

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