Free Lie or Die: A Shelby Nichols Adventure by Colleen Helme Page A

I caught a glimpse of Dimples and decided to stop by and ask how his date on Friday went. With his back to me, I was hoping to ‘hear’ something about me so I could surprise him again, but he was thinking of a time-line in an urgent case he was helping with.
    I hated to interrupt, but I also felt funny leaving without saying something. I mean, what if he saw me? Wouldn’t he expect me to say hello if I was there? I took a few steps in his direction. Right then, the police chief stepped out of his office, and headed straight for Dimples’ desk. He was thinking of asking Dimples how the case was coming, and hoping he was making progress since the story was big news, and the press kept calling for updates. They needed to find some answers quick. Maybe this was the type of thing Shelby Nichols could help with.
    Me? He was thinking about me? I stood there, not knowing what to do, feeling like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar. It was one thing to play a joke on Dimples, but quite another to do it to the police chief. That’s when I caught the ‘missing child’ part, and knew I couldn’t hesitate.
    “Hey,” I said. They both turned to me, and I gave a little wave. The police chief’s jaw dropped open before he gathered his wits and snapped it shut. “What’s up?” I asked.
    “Hey Shelby,” Dimples answered, more used to me showing up unexpectedly.
    “I don’t mean to interrupt, but is there something I can help you with?” I asked.
    “Yes,” they both answered. They glanced at each other, then the police chief motioned me over.
    “We’ve got a little girl missing,” he explained. “Last anyone saw her was about an hour ago. She was at a friend’s house and left to go home, but she never made it. Her mother called it in about…” he checked his watch, “twenty minutes ago.”
    That meant that she’d been gone for almost an hour and a half, and I had a bad feeling, but it didn’t stop me. “I need to talk to everyone involved.”
    “Let’s go.” Dimples didn’t hesitate, and the police chief nodded his thanks.
    We hurried to Dimples’ car, and pulled out into traffic with the siren loudly blazing. “Tell me about the case.” I yelled over the noise.
    “She lives in an apartment complex over by Lincoln Park. Right now we’ve got about twenty men knocking doors.”
    “Does the friend live in the complex too?” I asked.
    “Yes.” He was thinking the odds were pretty high that someone in the complex grabbed her as she walked by, or lured her into their apartment. He just hoped she wasn’t already dead.
    My stomach clenched. I did not want that to happen. If there was anything I could do, I had to do it. Dimples pushed on the gas, and I was grateful when all the cars pulled over to let us pass. It was sliding through the red lights that gave my heart a workout. By the time we pulled up to the complex, it took me a minute to peel my hand off the handle above the door.
    My legs shook when I stood, but I managed to keep up with Dimples. “We need to start at the friend’s place, and take the route the girl would have walked,” I said.
    He nodded, and found an officer to take us there. He introduced me to Officer Wilcox, mentioning that I was there at the Chief’s request. There were uniforms everywhere, and Wilcox was thinking they had already covered that ground twice, and knocked on all the doors between, but he was willing to do it again to find her.
    “What’s her name?” I asked him.
    “Shayla,” Wilcox said.
    “Did her friend say anything to you? Did she know if Shayla went straight home?”
    “No, she was afraid to talk to us, but her mother told us they often played at one house or the other. It’s just a few minutes’ walk between apartments, and they do it all the time.”
    That ruled out the friend’s house, and I didn’t want to waste time questioning them when she was probably somewhere else. “Is there someone you suspect right now that you’ve already