Cut & Run Read Free Page B

Rick wanted to find his daughter just as badly as she did and would be willing to help.
    She was close to finding Mallory. She could just feel it.

CHAPTER 3
    O nce Rachel was back in Miami, she involved herself in finding out more about Scotty Jensen and the Amsel couple, hoping it would bring fresh leads to finding Mallory. At the same time, she was fielding calls on other cases. Her second morning back, Red Cooper called her from Baton Rouge.
    “We’ve got a pretty interesting case going on out here,” Red said. “Think you could fly in and help us out? We could use you on this one, Rach.”
    Rachel smiled at the sound of his voice and leaned back in her chair. She remembered first meeting Red when he was a detective with the Miami police department. He’d been assigned to Mallory’s case and worked tirelessly to find her. During that time, Rachel had become close to him and treated him like a second father. When Red had told her he was getting ready to retire from the force and go into practice as a private investigator, Rachel had offered him a position at Florida Omni Search and he’d taken her up on the offer. This turned out to be a win-win arrangement for both parties. Rachel gave Red free office space in exchange for his expertise on some of her bigger cases. Lately, he had been working more of her missing-persons cases than his own jobs, but he nevercomplained. Rachel benefited from the situation because it meant she got to work with a pro every day, one who also brought plenty of smarts to her daughter’s ongoing case. That Red still had ties to the police department and was able to use them to help with Rachel’s other cases was just the icing on the cake.
    “This is the missing family you told me about?” Rachel asked, juggling her cell phone and a manila file folder. As much as she tried to absorb the details of other ongoing cases, they remained vague in her mind; that was always the case when she was focused on chasing down leads about Mallory.
    “Yeah. We got an interesting twist in the case, though. Saturday night, we got a call on our tip line. The husband was found at a truck stop in Baton Rouge.”
    Janine hadn’t mentioned anything to Rachel about that this morning when Rachel had come in. Janine managed the office, including all the staff and the volunteers who ran their toll-free hotline. They got lots of calls because the number was publicized by the media so anonymous tips could be reported about missing people.
    “Just the husband?”
    “The wife and kids are still missing,” Red confirmed.
    Rachel put down the file she’d been staring at for the last hour and rubbed her eyes. “Okay. Bring me up to speed.”
    “Our crew had put up flyers in the usual truck stops and convenience stores within a three-hundred-mile radius of New Orleans. We got a call last night from someone who spotted one of our flyers at a truck stop in Jackson, Mississippi. The trucker, ah, his name is…”
    Rachel could hear paper rustling on the other end.
    “Keith Brunswick. He told us he bought Matt O’Malley dinner two nights ago in Baton Rouge. I guess Matt approached him in the truck stop parking lot and asked him for money. Keith, who seems like a friendly, honest type, invited Matt inside to eat dinner. Keith said Matt didn’t seem homeless, but that something about him was a little off.”
    “What was off?”
    “Matt looked…‘down on his luck’ is how he put it. Described him as dressed in a wrinkled T-shirt and track pants. Other than that, he was clean, but didn’t talk much.”
    Rachel grabbed her pen and started taking notes. “Did he tell Keith where his wife and kids were?”
    “He didn’t mention a wife or kids to Keith.”
    “Where is Matt now?”
    “Still in Baton Rouge. The police found him sleeping behind a Dumpster near the truck stop.”
    “Have you talked to him?” Rachel asked.
    “Not yet. The police are questioning him. From what I’ve gathered, Matt’s not saying