Free Thaw (Detective Ellie MacIntosh) by Kate Watterson Page A

vulnerability that in Ellie’s experience a judge rarely showed, and then it was gone, vanished like a puff of smoke on a breezy day. Judge Nelson said succinctly, “Because my niece has disappeared and it looks very much like the same perpetrator. I’ve read the case file.”
    Just about everyone in the country had heard about the case when the killer had gotten out of control and the abductions escalated. It had been splattered all over the news on a local and national level.
    It couldn’t be him. Ellie had been there when they caught him. She’d shot him.
    Killed him.
    No regrets, not ever, but…she was a detective and another disappearance was interesting, and, after all, this was a federal judge.
    “It wasn’t him, but she disappeared from where? If you want details about the Northwoods Killer, I can tell you. I lived that case for eighteen months, but you have my assurance he’s dead.”
    The judge sat back, unzipped a briefcase, and took out a file that she set between them. “It happened yesterday afternoon. No sign of a struggle. Nothing at the scene, and she’s just gone. Car left behind and they have nothing . She isn’t a runaway. Introduce me to the seventeen-year-old who would walk away from that car. I bought it for her.”
    That seemed a somewhat flimsy presumption, but then again the judge dealt with juveniles often, and if she’d bought her a very nice car, obviously knew her niece well and was close enough to give such an expensive gift.
    Nelson went on. “None of her friends know where she is. No one at her high school. She hasn’t called anyone and her book bag and purse are in the car. She has simply vanished. Does that sound familiar? She has her phone, or at least it hasn’t been found, but no calls.”
    “Your Honor, with all due respect—”
    “I want you on this case.” The judge’s smile was thin-lipped and uncompromising. “If you are sure it isn’t him, prove it to me by tracking down who it is, and where she is. I very much need you to find Rose, Detective MacIntosh, do you understand? This is not another case to me. This is my brother’s child and the closest to a daughter I will ever have. I think of her that way. Where did she go? Or worse, who took her?”
    Ellie glanced at the paperwork tossed on the table. Altamont, Wisconsin. She’d never heard of it and it was a good ninety miles away by the name of the county, not to mention the sudden demand was more than a little unexpected. “This isn’t my jurisdiction.”
    “Everything is in place. The department there is cooperative and expecting you. When she was still missing this morning I made the arrangements.” Judge Nelson stood. “If it wasn’t him, it is someone just like him, and you are the most likely person I know to figure out how to find him. Go to Altamont, find Rose, and call me the minute that son of a bitch is in custody. I’ll return the favor in spades, and don’t doubt it.”
    “I have some open cases. Is Sheriff Pearson—”
    “He’s agreed,” Judge Nelson interrupted. “That I can promise you. It’ll take you about an hour and half to get there.” She turned toward the door but then stopped and swung back around. “Just in case you are sitting there thinking I’m strong-arming you by using my influence, I don’t care if I am. Just in case you are also thinking you aren’t a miracle worker, well, let me put it this way, a miracle is exactly what I expect.”
    Ellie had also gotten to her feet and she stood there for a moment after the other woman left, trying to decide if she was intimidated by the expectation or anxious to be on the hunt.
    The challenge of the hunt won out.
    “Tell me about practice yesterday.”
    Susan Reichert suppressed the surge of nausea and briefly closed her eyes. A missing student was a nightmare and it had happened on her watch.
    There was no question that she should never have left practice before the last student was out of the parking lot, but the day