Detective Ava Locke 0.5-Vanished by Clara Lewis (reader novel txt) 📗

much as a look toward her, Chief ended the call and scribbled something on a piece of paper.

“You can leave now,” he said, dismissing Ava.

Chapter 3

Ava blinked.

Being kicked off the case was not where she thought this conversation would go. Was it her attitude? No, of course not. Chief had grown accustomed to her determination. Sure, there were times she went overboard, but it was never really a problem before.

“I’m off the case?” she repeated, not sure if she heard correctly.

“Consider yourself lucky. Turns out one of the girls kidnapped is the daughter of some big-shot judge. He called in a favor and now the FBI are involved. Besides, I heard you took Murphy’s case? Why not focus on that instead?”

Well, that was awfully convenient.

“When are they getting here?” Ava asked.

Chief looked at the piece of paper on his desk.

“They’re on their way now. I reckon they’ll get here in two days. Also, Ava, I need you to compile those files you’ve got and have them on my desk, ready for the agents.”

Ava bit her lip, confused mostly at herself. She should be happy. She finally had the time to focus on the case she had intended working on first. However, who knows what could happen to those girls in a few days time?

She walked out of the office, closing the door behind her softly. Ava made her way to her desk and sat down dejectedly.

“Waiting a day or two is too long,” she mumbled to herself.

There was no way she would leave those girls alone like that. What if the kidnapper decided to take more? What then?

That wouldn’t do. This case was time sensitive. Ava knew was she had to do. She had to go ahead with her plan.

The next morning, Ava stood outside in the chilly air and hoped that, maybe, Cassius would walk by. She waited for at least an hour before rubbing her arms and stepping inside the station.

Sighing deeply, she walked over to her desk. She got to work immediately drafting the plan that would incarcerate the person responsible for kidnapping the girls.

That was the one thing that didn’t quite compute in Ava’s mind. The case had only become an issue when the runaway daughter of a judge turned up missing. The disappearance of Kate Murray made the news the next day.

Dave Murray was an important man. Of course, he had the means to involve the FBI.

Detectives were immediately assigned to the case and eventually they uncovered the name of another girl, Lena Delgado. A simple missing-persons case had turned into something much more sinister.

Two may not seem like much, but to Ava, that was two girls unaccounted for. The possibility of the man kidnapping more always hung in the air. No one else wanted to mention it, but it was a constant thought in the back of everyone’s minds.

Ava pulled up the files of the victims. At first glance, they looked like girls who had nowhere else to go. However, upon closer inspection, Ava began to recognize some of their names. Just to make sure, she searched their names and found them tied to successful businessmen.

This was how he managed to stay under the radar. Lena’s father was comfortably rich, but he wasn’t wealthy enough to make it into the papers or on the news. The kidnapper did his homework. Valenworth had its fair share of success stories and there were plenty of businesses around the city that did well.

However, the kidnapper targeted one that had a daughter who was considered “problematic.” It wasn’t new for her to run away and then come back a few days later. Ava looked into her file and found out that she was a frequent visitor to the station for various small crimes. Her father had eventually refused to bail her out, and that led to her boyfriends doing it for her.

That was that. Lena didn’t have anyone else to be concerned for her. The report only reached the police because she didn’t show up to her part-time job. Her disappearance was simply chalked up to her running out of town.

“But how did he know which families to target?” Ava wondered out loud. Family business wasn’t usually aired out in public.

The sound of someone’s heavy footsteps broke her concentration. Ava pushed her cup of coffee away from her, just in case. She didn’t want to get startled and waste another good pair of pants.

As Murphy rounded the corner, he froze, his eyes raking over the mountain of work Ava had put herself under.

“They’re not paying you enough for this, Locke,” he complained.

Ava waved him away as if he were an annoying mosquito.

“You’re disrupting me. Technically, it’s not even my case anymore,” she said bitterly.

He didn’t move away. Instead, he walked behind her and leaned over her shoulder. He poked the screen that Ava had glared at for a few hours. She pushed his hand away.

“This the urgent matter from this morning?”

Ava nodded. He flipped through the file.

“We all thought that you got in trouble with Chief again,” said Murphy.

“It was half that,” Ava replied with a chuckle, “then he gave us a case with no evidence to it, just a claim.”

Murphy stood up straight and clicked his tongue.

“What—what do they have?”

Ava shrugged but said nothing else. After a few seconds, she sighed and then laughed at the absurdity of it all.

“The claim of a drunk man who couldn’t even walk straight. Now leave me alone; I can’t think if you keep asking questions.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Murphy replied as he saluted and walked off.

Ava’s eyes followed him back to his desk where he promptly sat down, folded his arms on the table and laid his head on them. Within seconds, he was asleep, soft snores echoing in the