Scared Off by Barbara Ross

Author:Barbara Ross [Ross, Barbara]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington Books
Published: 2021-05-21T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Our ugly, modern town-hall-fire-station-police-headquarters was on my route home from Gleason’s. The parking lot out front was full. Several sullen teens, accompanied by a glowering parent or two, were entering or exiting. I couldn’t imagine Lieutenant Binder and Sergeant Flynn were having a good day.

I decided to stop in and tell them what I’d learned, which admittedly wasn’t much. Still, I thought every little bit might help. While some of the teens might turn out to be good witnesses, it was hard to believe one of the students at Busman’s Harbor High had killed Mrs. Zelisko. What possible reason could they have? Unless the town was nurturing a budding serial killer.

As I’d guessed, Binder and Flynn were more than happy to squeeze me into their busy schedule. The civilian receptionist nodded that I should enter the multi-purpose room the detectives used as an office when they were in town. It was a cavernous space intended for large meetings and assemblies. The pair sat together at a plastic folding table on the far side of the room, Binder pecking at his laptop, Flynn bent over his notebook.

“Tough day so far?” I asked.

Binder wiped a hand from his chin up over his ski-slope nose and onto his bald head. “Brutal. The kids are mostly useless. They were drunk, or making out, or otherwise distracted. And the parents are so mad. About the party, about the drinking, and about having to take time out during their Saturday to come down here and sit through this.”

“Have you interviewed all the kids who were at the party?”

He shook his head. “We still don’t know who most of them are.”

“People are terrible at estimating crowd size, and kids are notoriously worse,” Flynn said. “The texts have been flying around all day, and now it’s like Woodstock. Every kid in town was there or is saying they were there. We’re going to be looking for these kids and taking statements for days.”

“We ask each kid who else was there. But they’re with their parents. They don’t want to get their friends in trouble.” Binder leaned back in the folding chair. “So while ‘everyone’ was there, we have the names of precious few.”

“And we can’t quit until we’ve found everyone.”

“Because one of them might be the killer,” I said.

“Yes, that, and we need some reliable witnesses.”

“I’ve been talking to some people around town,” I started. “Trying to find out what I can about Mrs. Zelisko’s personal life.”

Flynn sat forward. “And did you?”

“Absolutely not,” I said. “She was active in the Star of the Sea Catholic church, as you’ve already heard. It seems she found most of her clients there. I’ve talked to a few at small businesses on Main Street. They all speak very well of her but know nothing about her next of kin, her husband’s name, or even her first name.”

“Ah.” Binder picked up an envelope from his desk. “Apparently, it’s Helene. If the billing department at her cell phone provider is to be believed. But that’s as far as we’ve gotten.

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