Mother's Day Murder. Leslie Meier
Чтение книги онлайн.
Читать онлайн книгу Mother's Day Murder - Leslie Meier страница 7
Название: Mother's Day Murder
Автор: Leslie Meier
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Ужасы и Мистика
Серия: A Lucy Stone Mystery
isbn: 9780758260123
isbn:
The story hit a nerve; it was all people in the region talked about for months. Many volunteered for search parties and spent long, hot hours trudging through the buggy woods; others put up posters on trees and utility poles. The Shiloh selectmen debated discontinuing the recreation program, fearful it was putting the town’s children in jeopardy. In the end, a police officer was assigned to patrol the park while the program was in session. The summer ended without further incident. No further abductions were attempted, and Corinne remained missing. Some people even speculated that perhaps the Appletons weren’t as nice as everybody thought, and perhaps Corinne had run away because of problems at home.
“Now,” wrote Lucy, “ten months after her disappearance last July, the longstanding mystery of Corinne Appleton’s fate appears to have been solved.” She typed slowly, weighing her words, trying to chart a course between a cold, factual account and a maudlin appeal to readers’ emotions. When she finally finished, she was exhausted.
“I think I’ll take a little walk before I tackle the listings,” she told Phyllis, but she hadn’t got out the door before Ted returned.
“What did they say?” demanded Phyllis. “Is it really Corinne?”
Ted nodded, taking off his jacket and hanging it on the coatrack. “Her mother identified the bra. It was pink with flowers. She said she’d washed it many times.”
Lucy thought of the many times she’d handled her own girls’ clothing, taking the clean bras and underpants and shirts and jeans out of the dryer and folding them, making neat piles topped with their rolled-up socks, which she placed on their beds for them to put away in their dresser drawers.
“There wasn’t actually much of her body left,” said Ted. “Just a few bones. They think the body might actually be elsewhere, maybe even buried, and animals dispersed the bones, but there’s enough that they can do DNA testing.”
“What’s that mean? That animals dispersed the bones? Did they eat her?” asked Phyllis, never one to mince words.
Ted sighed, reluctant to answer. “There are tooth marks on the bones.”
“Is there anything that indicates how she died?” asked Lucy.
“Not so far,” said Ted, “but forensic teams are going to comb the area where the bones were found. They’re confident that they’ll find more evidence.”
He left it there; he didn’t say the obvious. It now seemed clear that Corinne had not voluntarily run away; someone had abducted her and killed her. And the evil predator who had done it was still at large.
That night, Lucy and Bill sat down with Sara and Zoe for a little talk about safety.
“We don’t want you to end up like poor Corinne,” said Lucy. “You can’t ever get in a car with a stranger.”
“Or even somebody you know, unless you have our permission,” added Bill.
“That’s crazy,” complained Sara. “Do I have to call every time one of my friends offers me a ride?”
“No. You know what I mean. People we know but don’t really know. Like bag men from the supermarket…”
“Are the bag men kidnappers?” asked Zoe.
“Probably not. We don’t know. That’s the point,” said Bill. “Just because you recognize somebody doesn’t mean you really know them.”
“Like the fathers, or even mothers, of your classmates,” said Lucy. “If Dad and I don’t know them, you need to be cautious and check with us.”
“But if you don’t know them, how will you know if they’re bad?” Zoe asked.
“That’s not the issue,” said Bill. “We’re not making judgments about people. We just want to know where you are and who you’re with.”
Sara didn’t like this at all. “So I have to tell you everything I do, everywhere I go?” she protested angrily. “That’s crazy. I won’t have any privacy at all.”
“We’re not trying to control your life, or keep you from your friends. We just want you to be safe,” said Lucy, frustrated that this was turning out to be so difficult. “Poor Corinne is nothing but a pile of bones now. I couldn’t stand and your dad couldn’t stand, for that to happen to you, to either of you.”
Sara’s face was set in denial. “That couldn’t happen to me. Corinne was dumb. It said in the paper that she was playing around in Internet chat rooms and that she probably made a date to meet someone.”
“That was never proved,” said Lucy. “As far as I know, she was just waiting for the rec program to start. She had a job. I don’t think she’d make a date for a morning she was supposed to work.” She paused. “But since you brought it up, I know you’re no stranger to the Internet yourself.”
Bill’s eyebrows shot up. “What?”
“So I have a page on MySpace. So what?” Sara demanded defensively. “Everybody does it. Everybody has one.”
“That’s enough of that,” said Bill, his jaw set. “We’re going to look at this page right now. Let’s go.” He marched over to the computer in a corner of the family room. “Show me.”
Zoe was fidgeting nervously with her armful of friendship bracelets. “What do you think happened to her, Mom?”
Lucy had done plenty of research; she knew how these things happened. “I think some very bad person tricked her with a fake story, like her mom was sick or had an accident, or there was an injured dog that needed to get to a vet fast, something like that. He told her to get in the car, that would be the fastest way, and she fell for it, thinking she was needed, that she was helping.”
“And then he killed her?” asked Zoe.
“Probably a lot more than that,” said Sara, earning a warning look from her mother.
“We want to believe everyone in the world is good, but that’s just not the case,” said Lucy.
“Like Osama bin Laden,” said Zoe.
“Exactly,” said Bill, who was leaning over Sara’s shoulder, staring at the monitor. “Only some bad guys don’t go around in funny clothes, like Osama, and we haven’t seen their photos on TV. So if somebody seems to be acting oddly to you, or asks you to do something you’re not sure you should, you should say no and get someplace safe as fast as you can.”
Seeing that Zoe’s fidgeting was becoming frantic and she looked as if she was going to cry, Lucy put an arm around her shoulder and hugged her. “You don’t need to be afraid. Chances are this will never happen to you. But we want you to know what to do if it does, okay?”
Zoe nodded bravely. “Okay.”
“Well, this MySpace thing looks okay,” said Bill, speaking slowly and straightening up. “But both of you girls know that you must never, ever under any circumstances agree to meet somebody who has contacted you on the Internet, right?”
Both girls nodded.
“And СКАЧАТЬ