The Last Good Girl Read Free

way of tipping the scales—asking her to work with him because that was where they’d always bonded. As teammates, joined together to fight crime and keep communities safe. He knew the task force was exactly the sort of job she’d love.
    â€œI appreciate you thinking of me,” she said. “But I have to say no. It would be too messy for us to work on the task force together.”
    â€œI agree,” he said. “I’m not asking you to join the task force.”
    â€œOh.”
    â€œI just need your help brainstorming. Have you seen the video of the missing girl from Tower U?”
    â€œYeah, on the news. Her poor parents.”
    â€œI need to figure out a way we can investigate.”
    â€œMm, that’s tough,” Anna said. “Kidnapping, assault, homicide—it’s all local crime. The DA’s office has jurisdiction.”
    â€œI know. That’s what makes it so frustrating. The boy in the video—his father, Robert Highsmith, is Michigan’s lieutenant governor. Before that, Robert served as a DA himself. He has all kinds of ties to state law enforcement. A lot of people around here owe him favors. I’m not confident the locals will conduct a fair investigation.”
    â€œI see.” Anna looked into the living room, at the baby sleeping in Jody’s arms. One day, Leigh would grow up and, with any luck, go to college. Anna thought of Olivia, whom she loved like a daughter, and who would head to college in about ten years. Both girls would face all the wonderful and terrible things that could happen to young women on their own for the first time. “Did the kid call her any names?”
    â€œHe called her a bitch. It’s clear on the video.”
    â€œWe could investigate it as a federal hate crime.”
    â€œI like your aggressiveness,” Jack said, “but you know what a high bar that is. Assaulting a woman isn’t enough to make it federal. It has to have been because of her gender.”
    â€œâ€‰â€˜Bitch’ is based on her gender.”
    â€œIf that was the test, half the DV assaults in America would be hate crimes.”
    â€œLook,” Anna said, “it’s enough to open a grand jury and see if there’s any further evidence of gender-based animus. The grand jury’s powers are wide and broad. It gets us in. Now, today. When it’s crucial. You know how important the first forty-eight hours are. Maybe this girl wandered, drunk, into a ditch and is freezing in the cold. Or maybe she was abducted. The best chance to find her alive is now —and getting smaller every minute.”
    â€œTrue. Okay. Is there a federal prosecutor around here you’d recommend? Someone who knows Michigan but doesn’t have ties to the Highsmith family? Someone we can trust.”
    â€œJack. I see what you’re doing.”
    â€œOf course you do.”
    â€œI’m in.”
    â€œThank you.” He sounded genuinely relieved. “You’ll run the investigation into her disappearance with a couple good FBI agents. You’ll report to me and coordinate with the task force.”
    â€œGot it.” Anna transitioned into full work mode. “Is there any criminal history on either the boy or the girl?”
    â€œNothing as adults. But they’re both young—she’s eighteen and he’s twenty-one. Anything they did as juveniles, any campus disciplinary charges, wouldn’t show up in NCIC.”
    â€œHas a grand jury been convened?”
    â€œHere in Detroit. I introduced the case to them, and we have full subpoena power.”
    â€œTo investigate a federal hate crime?”
    He paused just a second before saying, “Yes.”
    Right. Jack didn’t need her to advise him on the federal hook. Anna didn’t care. If she could help this girl, she had to.
    â€œWhat’s the case number?” she asked.
    She found a notebook and jotted down the information.