Free Final Cut by T.S. Worthington Page A

the Crestwood Falls department that have steered us this way and got us thinking that we might have missed something,” Bill said.
    “Are you a cop?”
    Bill paused. He considered lying. “No, I am not a cop. I’m a liaison. I occasionally work with law enforcement on a strictly volunteer basis just to help them out since being a small force they are limited in manpower sometimes. It seems as soon as they get a few new recruits the big city boys start calling their names and they leave us high and dry. Can’t blame them of course; all the money and the action is in the big city.”
    Bill was not sure if he was exactly breaking the law by saying any of this, but it was what he was working with and he hoped that he could be convincing enough to ease the huge wall that Cara had put up in front of her. It was easy to see the girl had severe trust issues, but Bill did not think any of that should apply to him if he played it cool and just let her know that he wanted to help. That was the only reason he was there.
    “Ok, well I don’t know what questions you have, but I’ll do my best to answer them.”
    “Thank you,” Bill said. “From the information we have it says that you stated that you saw Daisy with another woman on the night she disappeared when you left her at the bar. Is that right?”
    “Yes.”
    “Have you ever seen that woman before or since?”
    “No, I have not.”
    “Can you describe her to me?” Bill asked.
    “Sure. She was pretty, a few years older than us—like three or four maybe—and she had dark hair that looked like a cross between auburn and red. I think she probably dyed her hair and it might have been naturally red. She just looked nice and normal. I figured that she and Daisy knew each other as Daisy said they did and that they were going to spend the night catching up. I had to work early and open the diner; Daisy was supposed to come in at eleven.”
    “And then of course she never came in and you didn’t hear from her after that again,” Bill said quietly. He sipped the hot coffee and wished he had paid attention to what kind of coffee it was. It tasted nice and strong and he would have loved to keep it on hand. College kids had the best damn drugs and the best damn coffee; it was true.
    “Right. I got worried when she didn’t show for work and then she didn’t respond to any of my texts. We are best friends and have been since sophomore year of high school. We talk and text every single day. So I drove by her place after I got off work and she was not home. We had walked to the bar since it was just a few blocks over and it is like the only bar on this side of town.”
    Bill remembered reading that both girls were part time students at State Community College in the nearby town of Hocking. Hocking was a typical college town because it had State Community and it also had Hocking Tech college as well. But it was about twenty five miles away and for two girls who did not live in the dorms getting blitzed in the local watering hole was probably a more typical type of thing.
    “Did you happen to talk to the bartender when Daisy didn’t come home? Maybe they saw something or might have seen her leaving with that woman?”
    “No. I called in and spoke to the same bartender that was on duty—Pat her name is—and she said she did not notice anything. It had been a pretty busy night and it was tough to keep track of people.”
    “I understand that. That was pretty much the same story she gave us when we talked to her,” Bill said trying to sound convincing like the cops on television always did. It was more difficult trying to act natural than he thought it was going to be. He wondered how the cops always managed to pull off such a good job.
    “And Daisy did not mention the other woman’s name to you when you were there? Did she introduce you to her?”
    “She did but we bumped into her as we were leaving and I did not register hearing that woman’s name. I just kind of