Free Everywhere That Tommy Goes by Howard K. Pollack

girl and left me covered in blood. You can’t believe how many times he stabbed her. But I have no proof he did it. And I’m sure the cops will find my DNA all over the place. No one will believe my story. Don’t you see? I’m dead.”
    “I believe you.”
    “Thanks, Aurora, but I don’t think the cops will.”
    “Then you have to lay low until we can figure this out.”
    I roll my eyes, smirk, and nod sarcastically. “Duh, that’s why I came down here in the first place. But they found me anyway, so what do you suggest?”
    “Obviously we have to leave town.”
    “We? I don’t think it’s such a great idea for you to get any more involved than you already are.”
    “I don’t think you have a choice. You can’t go back to your car or your room, so how do you expect to leave town? I have a car and you can stay with me at my place tonight. We can leave tomorrow morning and no one will ever find you.”
    “I already went back to my room, but its okay, I figured out that they were tracking me from my cell, so I took out the battery. I don’t think they know where I am right now.”
    “Still, Tommy, I’m sure they’ll find your car, so you can’t use it to get away. Just stay with me tonight and don’t take any more chances. Tomorrow we’ll take off in my car.”
    “You really wanna do this for me?”
    “Sure, Tommy. I never forgot my first kiss.”

PART TWO
    CHAPTER 13
    Detective Theresa Stone paced in front of her desk. Her partner, Jake Watts, followed her with his eyes.
    “You’ve got to relax, Stone,” Watts said, as he gestured for her to sit down. “Take a load off. The results won’t be in for a while.”
    “I know. It’s just that everything takes too long around here. I know in my gut that Sullivan is our guy, but, as usual, procedure prevents me from acting on it. While we wait, he might disappear. Even worse, he could kill someone else.”
    “It’s not that I doubt you,” Watts said, shaking his head. “But the evidence is all circumstantial.” He pulled at the two-day stubble on his chin. “I mean, come on—a pizza box in a garbage dumpster?”
    Stone slapped the desk. “That pizza box was nearly fifteen miles from the restaurant. Sullivan does the deliveries; he fits the general description; he leaves the jurisdiction right after Houston disappears—oh, and he came off pretty damn suspicious when I approached him in Cape May.”
    “Whoa—calm down. I’m not the enemy, but until the DNA comes back, we have nothing—absolutely nothing. So we better expand our investigation; otherwise, if this ever gets to trial, some smart-ass attorney will argue that we focused too soon and failed to consider any other theories or any other suspects.”
    “Screw the lawyers. I’m telling you the DNA will confirm it; I feel it in my bones. Then we’ll have enough to get a search warrant and rip his place apart.”
    “Yeah, but I’d feel much better if we had a body,” Watts said, then, a moment later, wished that his mouth had come equipped with a backspace key. “Uh, let me rephrase that—if we knew what happened to the girl.”
    “Right—let’s not jump the gun. We have to hold out some hope that she’s still alive somewhere.”
    “Of course,” Watts said, loosening his too-small necktie. “Although the blood at the scene suggests otherwise.” Watts grimaced. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to this. No matter how many violent crimes we investigate, I can never wrap my head around the senselessness of it all.”
    “Wake up, Watts. The world is filled with sickos, psychos, and nut jobs, and trying to make sense of it is a waste of time. You’ve been doing this a lot longer than I have, and you know it’s our job to catch them and get them off the street . . . and make sure they stay off the street. Analyzing why they do it is for the shrinks.”
    “Precisely why we have to handle this one carefully. Without a body, and with little evidence, we have to be sure.