The Night Monster_ A Novel of Suspense - James Swain [20]
“You’ve got a lot of nerve,” he replied.
It was rare for me to be speechless. This was one of those times.
“You’re an ex-detective,” Long went on. “You carry a gun. You were right there in the parking lot when it happened. Why didn’t you stop that son-of-a-bitch from taking my daughter? What the hell is wrong with you, man?”
I wanted to ask Long where he’d gotten his information, since the victim’s families were often the last to know the details. Instead, I tried to calm him down.
“I didn’t want to risk shooting Sara,” I said. “Then I got knocked out. I would have saved her if I could have. You have to believe that.”
“You should have done more.”
“I spent the night in the hospital.”
“I don’t want to hear your excuses.”
“I’m sorry, Karl. I truly am.”
“Don’t take that personal tone with me.”
Long gave me a murderous look. Behind the icy demeanor was real pain. He had everything money could buy, and now someone had taken from him the one thing his money couldn’t buy back. His baby.
“I want to help,” I said.
“How do you propose doing that?”
“I’m an expert at finding missing kids. It’s how I make my living.”
“I’ve hired the best detective agency in town to find Sara. They’re wired into the police and also the criminal underground. They’re professionals, which is more than I can say about you.”
Private detective agencies were good at staking out motel rooms and digging up dirt, and little else. Long had probably paid the agency a big retainer, and in return, gotten a lot of promises. The agency had also probably told him some unpleasant things about me. I was the bad guy in all this, just like I’d been the bad guy for saving Bobby Monroe’s life.
But none of that fazed me. I guess you could say I was used to it. Taking out my wallet, I removed my business card. Long acted astonished when I gave it to him.
“You’ve got to be joking,” he said.
“Take it,” I said.
“Why should I?”
“Because you’re going to need all the help you can get.”
“You think so?”
“Yes, I do. These guys are pros.”
Long tore my business card in two and let the pieces flutter from his hands.
“Get lost,” he said.
I walked down the bleachers toward the arena. The Lady Seminoles had taken a break, and I spotted Jessie standing by the sidelines, waving to me. There was a pleading look in her eyes that told me she had something important to tell me.
I put Karl Long out of my mind and hurried toward her.
CHAPTER 12
essie was breathing hard as I approached. “How’s practice going?” I asked.
“Horrible. I can’t stop thinking about Sara, and neither can anyone else.”
“You need to focus on the game tonight.”
“I’m trying, Daddy.”
Jessie glanced over her shoulder at her coach, who was standing nearby, then dropped her voice. “A couple of the girls on the team want to talk to you.”
“About Sara?”
My daughter wiped the sweat from her face with a towel. “Yeah.”
“Why the secrecy?”
“Some of the girls broke curfew the other night, and Sara was with them,” Jessie explained. “I don’t think they want coach to hear what they have to say.”
“Have they told the police about this?”
“No. I overheard them talking in the locker room earlier. I cornered them, and told them they should tell you, and that you wouldn’t rat them out. You won’t, will you?”
Keeping secrets from the police during a criminal investigation wasn’t just wrong, it was against the law. If I spoke to Jessie’s teammates and didn’t tell the police, I’d be committing a crime myself. I vehemently shook my head.
“But Daddy—”
“If it’s important, then I’ll have to tell the police.”
“Can’t you leave their names out of it?”
I wasn’t going to make promises I couldn’t keep. “Tell your friends to meet me in the lobby near the concession stands after practice. If they tell me something that will help the police find Sara, then they’ll have to come forward and give a statement to the police. Otherwise, I won’t use their names. Deal?”
My daughter was squirming. It reminded me of how young she still was. The same went for the rest of the girls on the team. The coach’s whistle cut through