Key West Gone into the Night Elizabeth Hilleren (if you give a mouse a cookie read aloud txt) 📖

“No. Ah…it…ah…is more.”

Connor looked at the young man. “Just take your time and tell me what it has to do with.”

“Both personal ads were asking about the disappearance of a couple of kids.”

Connor stopped. “Don’t say another word until we get to the office.”

O’Brian’s face drained of color.

“Keep walking. How old are you?” Connor asked.

“Twenty-two.”

“How long have you had this job?”

“Month and a week. I’m trying to be careful.”

“You did the right thing,” Connor said.

“Thank you, Sir.”

“Just Connor, not sir. I’ll hold the door. You take that into Barney. Tell him Connor will solve your problem. Nothing else. Then come back to Mckenzie’s office.”

“Okay.” He headed for Barney’s office and saw Barney look up and smile.

“Thanks. Okay, that’s a good lad.” Barney looked in the bag and smiled. O’Brian smiled, turned and left.

O’Brian entered Mckenzie’s office and was told to sit down.

“Have a doughnut. And coffee.”

“Thanks.”

Mckenzie was also smiling as she took a big bite and washed it down with coffee.

“Now. What’s up?” Mckenzie asked.

“Apparently unbeknownst to us, there were a couple of kids abducted the same night that the Abbott woman went missing,” Connor said. “And O’Brian here knows this because there were two separate personal ads placed about it. One a few days ago and another this morning.”

“What?” Mckenzie’s eyes opened wide.

“I think we need to go see Detective Sharkey and see if he knows about them.”

Mckenzie smiled broadly.  “O’Brian, good work. You did the right thing. Barney’s just in a bad mood. Don’t worry about him.”

O’Brian nodded. “Okay. Thanks, Miss Jones.”

“Mckenzie is fine. We’re colleagues.”

“We’ll need you to come with us and bring any information that you have on the person who wrote the ad. Billing information would be good.”

“Okay, I’ll be right back.” O’Brian smiled and seemed to relax a bit.

“I’ll call Sharkey and tell him we need to meet with him.” Mckenzie called Sharkey and got the okay to come over.

*    *    *

Sharkey wasn’t looking forward to talking to the press. He had already told them not to bother him with questions until the case was closed. He was working himself up to be abrupt with Mckenzie.

He leaned back in his chair and waited. When the intercom buzzed, he went to greet them at the door.

“Mckenzie and Connor. And this is?”

“This,” Connor said, extending his arm toward the young man, “is Clancy O’Brian, our person in charge of the Personal Advertisement Department. You’re going to want to know him.”

“Good to meet you, Mr. O’Brian.  I’m Detective David Sharkey. Just call me Sharkey.”

“Nice to meet you,” O’Brian said.

“Now, how can I help you?”

“Oh, we’re here to help you.  O’Brian here noticed a personal ad for information on two missing children from the Sands Inn Motel. The first one was a few day ago,” Connor said. “Then another one came in during the early hours of this morning.”

Sharkey’s face didn’t change. “May I see it?”

“This is the first one with the billing information and credit card, and this is the current one,” O’Brian said, looking as serious as he could muster.

Sharkey looked at the ads and whistled softly. “You say this just came in this morning?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“And who paid for this one?

“Mrs. Williams.”

“Oh crap.”

Mckenzie looked like a snake about to eat a juicy mouse. She leaned forward. “You care to tell us what happened at the Sands Inn Motel?” she said evenly.

Sharkey leaned back against the chair back and ran his hand through his thick, sun-streaked hair.

“No, I don’t. Look, as I explained to you before, we have a very sensitive case.”

“I know what you said. And I agreed to let it go. But now it’s different. Two kids missing?” Mckenzie’s face told Sharkey that she was not about to take no for an answer.

“I’ll check it out and let you know if there is anything to it. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. I’ll handle it. We’re dealing with a very delicate situation. You do anything with the information you have and you’re putting those people in jeopardy if you go public with it. I know that you wouldn’t want that on your heads.”

Connor stood. “We did our part, now we’ll leave it in your capable hands. Mckenzie, O’Brian, let’s let the detective do his work.”

Mckenzie was about to have none of it.  “Unlike some people here, I feel bad when I lie to the people. Sins of omission are lies. The people can handle the truth. If the police won’t talk to us we should print what we know.”

Connor turned Mckenzie toward the door and smiled at Sharkey. “I think us mushrooms can hold off for a while, but I’d bet you can guess there’s a time limit on patience of sitting in the dark and being fed horseshit.”

Mckenzie turned and they left.

“You did well, O’Brian.  Now the police will handle it. Thanks.”

O’Brian looked nervously at Mckenzie and said, “Sure…ah… thanks.”

“We’ll talk about it later, Connor,” Mckenzie said, getting into the car and slamming the door.

*    *    *

Sharkey waited until the newspaper trio left and called Harris about Stephanie and the personal ad. Harris answered when he saw it was Sharkey.

“You know where Stephanie is?” Sharkey said with tension in his voice. “I just called to the hotel where I thought she was staying, and she checked out the night Carl died.”

“I know. Check the La Conch. You know her phone ain’t workin’.”

“I figured as much.”

“Did you know she put an ad in the paper like Carl did?”

“Crap,” Harris said. “She came to my house all hysterical, and then suddenly turned deadly calm. We knew that she was up to no good. But she