The Truant Officer Read Free Page A

Arizona. It is the fourth one this month, in what’s believed to be an act of gang violence.”
    This grabbed Darren’s interest. The gang abductions had been a huge story back home.
    The anchor continued, “GNZ has gained access to the security video at the Mobil station in Chandler, where the latest abduction took place.”
    Darren watched a dark figure roll from underneath the SUV and attack a woman with a knife. He then threw her into the backseat and drove off.
    Darren felt like he just gained another ten years. His stomach gripped tight.
    The woman in the video was Lilly.

Chapter 4
     
    Not even the relentless desert heat could put a blemish on the perfectly made up face of Jessi Stafford. She applied the finishing touches—a dab of gloss on her shiny red lips, and a flip of her thick mane of blonde hair—then dug her six-inch heels into the pavement as if preparing to stand her ground against a charging army. It was just another battle in the war to regain her relevance, and now victory was in sight.
    She looked into the camera and unveiled the look of a serious journalist; one she’d perfected on stops in Orlando, New York, and now Arizona.
    “I am reporting from the gas station at the corner of Elliott and Alma School Road in Chandler, where a woman was abducted, just hours ago.”
    After a dramatic pause, she continued, “My sources have confirmed that this is another in the series of gang-related attacks that have stricken the Valley with fear.”
    When Jessi signed off her report, sending the coverage back to the no-talent anchors in the studio, she let out the smile she was holding back like a sneeze.
    “What’s so funny, Blondie? Kidnapping humor, or have the gasoline fumes finally gotten to you?” remarked her just-out-of-college cameraman, Byung Park, sporting the usual smirk that Jessi so wanted to wipe off his face. But she let it pass, knowing she’d soon be paroled from this rinky-dink station in the desert, her penance complete.
    “This abduction story is my ticket back to New York—and nothing makes me smile more than the thought of getting out of here.”
    “I heard all the murderers back there are lonely without you—looking forward to your conjugal visit...err...triumphant return.”
    She had made the ascent from a college dropout to anchoring the top rated newscast in New York City by age twenty-six, proudly using all of her ample assets to get there. But the fall was sharp and unforgiving.
    The “Jane Callahan Missing” story that became the “Jane Callahan Murder” story had made Jessi a local star. She was the one to receive the tip on the whereabouts of the body, along with landing the much sought after interview with Jane’s husband, and the lead suspect in her murder, Wall Street icon Steve Callahan.
    Before Jessi’s star could enter orbit, the pictures appeared of a bikini-clad woman gallivanting with Steve Callahan by the pool of his Mt. Kisco mansion, including a particularly damaging one that featured Jessi delicately applying sun tan lotion to the murder suspect. The headline in the tabloid paper was Killer Sex , and things began to spiral downward from there. Jessi was sent packing, eventually landing at this nothing station in the desert. But she didn’t feel sorry for herself. In fact, she immediately began plotting her rise back to the top, figuring what better place to rise from the ashes than Phoenix. Now it looked like she might get her chance.
    She had no time for Byung and his smart-ass remarks—the other reporters would cover the story, but Jessi planned to uncover it. She moved into the mini mart to once again follow up with the night manager, Jorge DeRosa. He was a tough nut to crack, but as the only witness to the abduction, he held the key to the answers she needed.
    He saw her coming. “I told you, I have nothing to say to any reporters.”
    She had tried the soft approach earlier, twice, without any luck, so now it was time to play hardball.