Free The One That Got Away by Simon Wood Page A

situation. I asked the guy—a real asshole—if he really wanted to go to court and testify that a chick half his size put him on his butt. That cooled his jets and I took her in on disturbing the peace.”
    “I see there’ve been a few field incident cards with no charges.”
    Martinez shifted in his seat. “Yeah, I’ve been trying to keep the girl out of trouble. She got put through the wringer and survived, but no one was there to help her handle what came next. She’s got a hair trigger. I just try to talk her down from the ledge when she hits a red zone and assist her with assholes that aren’t worth going to jail for.”
    “Where’s her family in all this?”
    “I reached out to her parents. They’re good people, and they did their best to be supportive. They even got her younger brother to act as emissary, but she cut herself off from them. Embarrassment and the shame factor are at play there. That’s when I got her some outside help. There’s a women’s victims-of-violence charity that funds therapy. I hooked her up with them, and they got her a shrink.”
    Greening picked up his notebook and flipped it to a fresh page. “Got a name?”
    “Yeah, Dr. David Jarocki.” Martinez brought out his cell phone and thumbed through it. “He’s got an office on Spear, but this is his number.”
    Greening took the phone, jotted the details down, and handed it back.
    “Therapy working?”
    “I don’t know, but she’s certainly more stable than when I first met her. She went through something horrific. That shit don’t fade overnight.”
    Greening smiled. “Are you a knight in shining armor for lots of damsels in distress?”
    Martinez colored. “I do my best for everyone I encounter, but Zoë’s different. With a little help, she can get her life back on the right track. Did you know she was halfway through her PhD when this happened? She wanted to work for the EPA and clean up the planet.”
    “She’s a mall cop right now.”
    “Yeah, I know. She’s turned her back on life, love, friends, career, dreams—everything. It’s a real shame.”
    Martinez had confirmed what Greening had established for himself. All signs pointed to Zoë’s life taking a complete left turn after the abduction. But that was underplaying the situation. Zoë’s life hadn’t changed—she’d changed. Effectively, she had died when Holli Buckner had, and someone else had been resurrected.
    “What do you think happened to her in the desert?” Greening asked.
    “She and Holli ran into one of life’s brick walls.”
    “So you think they ran into a tall, dark stranger?”
    Martinez’s expression tensed, and he sat a little stiffer in his seat. Greening had touched a nerve and Martinez was tightening up on him. He was used to seeing that with suspects and witnesses, but it was strange to see it from a cop. “What are you getting at?”
    Martinez might be a brother officer, but in these situations you had to push to get the truth, even if that meant hurting a few feelings. Playing to his own healthy sense of cop skepticism, Greening picked up all the FI cards on Zoë. “Zoë Sutton has a history of violence. Could she have harmed Holli Buckner and invented this abduction?”
    Martinez was already on his feet. “Like I said before, Zoë Sutton needs our help. She’s the victim here.”
    Greening watched Martinez stride out of the investigation unit and thought, nice going. He might have burned a bridge there. He’d upset one fellow officer. Now it was time to see if he could upset another. He went through his messages and dug out the note from Deputy Greg Solis. Solis was the investigating officer in Zoë’s abduction case from Mono County. Following up on Greening’s request to the duty officer the night before, Solis had faxed over his complete report with a call back number.
    He picked up his desk phone and punched in Solis’s number.
    “Deputy Greg Solis, Mono.”
    “Hi, this is Inspector Ryan Greening, San