Glamorous - A Grace Bishop Novel - Chapter 4
© Denise Bossarte
Grace hit the autodial for
officer Billy Winiarksi as she drove them home from the graveyard. It was time
for her to get some feedback from another professional about her case.
Billy had a number of
relatives in the force: brothers, uncles, and cousins. His dad was a decorated
officer killed in the line of duty. Billy dreamed about being a cop like
everyone else in the family from the time he was able to make his hand into a
pistol and say “Put ‘em in the air!” He was earning a
promising reputation for his dedication, intelligence, and dependable calm. He
was hoping to become the youngest detective in city history soon.
Billy was also Grace’s best friend since childhood. He was the one there after her
parents died and as she learned how to be a parent to Danny. He helped her
piece her mind and body together after the accident. Billy was by her side
through all the chaos her new abilities brought with them. He was a rock.
Despite his reputation for being a no nonsense, down to earth, literal guy, he
was the one person Grace had been willing to share her and Danny’s situation
with after the accident.
“Hey, Gracie,” he said after picking up on the third ring.
Grace could make out the
noise of the busy station in the background.
“Hey Billy. Are you done with your shift?” she asked, raising
her voice to be heard above the background conversations.
“Yeah, just finished and was stopping by to see how Uncle
Gerald’s case was coming before heading home. Did you finish your case?”
“Yes, I finished my case. It looks like something else landed on
my plate.”
She walked through her conversations with DL, including all the
details she could pull from memory. She understood Billy would want to hear
everything she knew about this case to consider it from all angles.
“Are you positive you’re not trying to turn some homeless kids’
skipping town into something more to appease DL?” he asked, annoyance tingeing
his voice.
Grace realized his irritation was with her getting involved in
something that might put her at risk. He still had a tendency to want to
protect her rather than treating her as her experience and skills warranted.
Annoyed, she responded “Billy, you’ve known me too long to
believe I would be going on a wild goose chase, even for DL. I don’t think it’s
only DL’s ‘kids’ disappearing. I suspect there is something bigger happening. I
want to see if there is a connection with other missing persons, maybe
prostitutes, in the area.”
“Did you have one of your visions?” he asked with a lowered
voice, his tone taking on more focus.
“No. No visions, no flashes, no late night visits with words of
inspiration. Just good ole investigative instincts. Although, a vision is
coming on right now of my foot up your ass if you don’t take me seriously on
this one.”
“Ok, ok, Grace. I got it. What do you need from me?” he asked,
backing off from his big brother protective attitude.
“I am hoping you can get me some information about missing
prostitutes, reports about females between their early teens and late twenties
who disappeared over the last three years.”
Billy sighed. “Grace, when something happens to these girls, the
police rarely hear about it. I don’t know if I’ll be able to find out
anything.”
“I know, but I’m hoping we might get lucky. Maybe even if it’s
their rap sheets showing a hard stop on arrests. That might be an indicator.”
Grace imagined the look on Billy’s broad face at the thought of
working through three years’ worth of records, computerized or not.
Grace said placating, “Check if you can get Chris in Records to
dig into it for you. He should be able to check out anything on this age group
of females faster than you could do it on your own.”
“Grace,” Billy sighed deeper this time. “The records guys are
resources used to work on active investigations, and this is NOT a real
investigation.”
“Not yet, but I’m betting it will be,” she said. “Call it ‘a
preliminary investigation based on evidence brought forward by a reliable
witness.’”
“You want to name DL as the ‘reliable witness?’” he asked, privy
to a bit of DL’s past.
“Good point,” she admitted. “Use my name to avoid unnecessary
questions. I’m still on friendly terms with Chris. Saying it’s a request from
me should help. I’m asking you to put your eyes on this for me, to get your
thoughts on what Chris finds.”
“Ok, I trust your instincts on this one. I will try to catch up
with Chris before I head out; his shift isn’t done for a couple of more hours.
When do you need this by?”
“Yesterday,” she said, “but I will take it as soon as I can.”
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