Free Mortal Crimes: 7 Novels of Suspense by Brett Battles, Robert Gregory Browne, Melissa F. Miller, J. Carson Black, Michael Wallace, M A Comley, Carol Davis Luce Page B

and handed it Nina Brashear.
    They stood on the step, the silence going on a little too long. Laura said, “See you then,” and headed for the car.
    As she pulled out onto Via Tapadero, she looked back at the house in the rearview mirror, thinking about the big adjustment the Brashear family had had to make. That even conspicuous wealth couldn't keep every trouble at bay.
    Laura spent the next hour at the University of Arizona Library, going through back issues of the Arizona Daily Star . She requested the newspapers for the last two weeks of October 1996 and sat down at a long table in the Special Collections annex, enjoying the view through the plate glass windows: green lawns, students and faculty walking and biking, trees wearing their full summer green. Nice to look at—when you were inside and the heat was outside.
    Laura found an ad for a small carnival running from October 21 to October 28, 1996, sponsored by a Veterans of Foreign Wars post.
    A VFW post, not a shopping center.
    Laura took a note of the address and looked up the listings for the three big grocery stores in town. There was a Fry's a couple of numbers down from the VFW post. That could be the strip mall Micaela told her about.
    She went outside and called the VFW post from her cell, got a woman who had been working for the Veterans of Foreign Wars post for sixteen years. Finally, luck going her way. Laura asked her if she remembered the carnival.
    “Oh, sure I do. That's G&H Kiddieland and Shows. Carl Goodrich runs it. We've been working with them for years and years. It's a great thing for the kids.”
    Laura asked for Goodrich's contact information. G&H Shows had an address in Sierra Vista, Arizona.
    “G&H's based there. They call themselves 'forty milers' because their home base is usually only a day's drive away from the places they set up. They go to all the towns around here, keeps the family pretty busy.”
    “It's a family operation.”
    “Yup. Carl, his wife Trudy, and one of their oldest—he's their accountant and runs the Ferris wheel. Carl is a veteran himself, Vietnam.”
    Next, Laura called G&H Kiddieland and Shows. She got an answering machine giving upcoming dates. G&H was currently set up at the high school in St. David, Arizona, approximately fifty miles east of Tucson.
    According to the tape, the company was now hiring. They were looking for a CDL driver and a “hanky pank.” A CDL driver, Laura knew, was a driver with a commercial license. But she had no idea what a hanky pank was.
    Laura would have driven down there anyway, but now she was intrigued. She called Jaime.
    “Molina,” he said, his voice cheerful.
    “How are you doing over there?”
    “ Nada . We're about to pack it in. If the guy did have any other victims, he didn't bury them here.”
    She heard someone talking to him. “That right?” He spoke into the phone. “The FA's going to do the autopsy tomorrow. Nine a.m. at the ME's office.”
    Laura told him about G & H Kiddieland and Shows. “I'm driving out there now. You want to come?”
    “Sure. I love cotton candy. Anything else exciting I should know about?”
    Laura almost mentioned her interview with Micaela, decided it wasn't important. “Not really. Meet me out front at DPS. I'll drive.”

 

CHAPTER EIGHT
    Fly By Night
    St. David was a rural Mormon community characterized by lush farmland, tall trees, and man-made lakes—an oasis of quiet and order. Not a Burger King or Payday Cash Loan in sight.
    St. David High School was up ahead on the left, a Ferris wheel dominating the parking lot. Despite the heat, the place was jumping, the spokes of the Ferris wheel twinkling in the wavering air, the red-and-buff-striped carousel top swallowing light into itself as the horses whizzed around underneath, children's screams both piercing and inviting. Something tiny and hopeful sprang up in Laura's heart; she recognized it as the anticipation she'd felt as a child, whenever her mother or her friends'