Read For All to See (Bureau Series Book 1) for Free Online

of doing what I knew I should have. She refused to go to the hospital. Refused to get you involved. So, I took her home and nursed her for nearly three weeks.”
    “Six months ago she visited her sister in Spain.” Chief balled one hand into a fist. The enormous fingers bulged like overstuffed sausages. A yellow tint discolored his skin as though the constriction had cut all blood supply to his extremities. But his face remained neutral. “She never left the island?”
    Madelyn shook her head. A sharp pang of regret jabbed between her ribs.
    “What was that look?” Agent Brewer asked in a near whisper. Still, his voice stirred something wicked inside her.
    “I’m asking the questions,” Chief barked. “How’d you keep Jim from harassing you?”
    “That night, I found Nichole stumbling down the road almost a mile from her house. Jim didn’t know I had her, but it only took him two days to come banging on my door. I told him if he pressed her to come back…or ever hurt her again, I’d make her vanish.”
    The room iced over at that little statement. Agent Kepler stiffened beside her. Chief’s chair creaked. Agent Brewer didn’t move, but the weight of his stare doubled.
    “What did you mean?” Chief Adrian Tau asked.
    “I meant he’d never see her again. Nichole and I made a pact that first night. If he ever hurt her again, she’d leave the island. She’d move someplace he’d never find her and start over.”
    “Nichole doesn't have the means to do that. She’s a school teacher and Jim drinks through his fishing money,” Chief explained.
    “I do,” she said simply.
    He waited for her to elaborate. When she didn’t, he sat up in his seat. “You’re a school teacher too.”
    She nodded.
    “Fine,” he huffed. “Is that what’s happening here? Did you make Nichole disappear?”
    “No.” Madelyn strangled her leather purse strap. “Like I told you on the phone, we left Paradise last night about an hour after Jim’s tirade and that was the last time I saw her. She was supposed to meet me at the gym this morning, but she never showed. I held out hope until she didn’t show for work.”
    “After we spoke I checked Nichole’s house. No one was home, but everything looked normal. No signs of a struggle or that she packed in a hurry.”
    “Did you go inside?” Madelyn asked.
    “No. I looked through the windows.”
    “Was her car there?”
    “Who’s running this investigation?” Chief snapped.
    Madelyn sat back in her seat, surprised, but not deterred by the man’s frustration. Actually, his resentment fueled her own. Her friend was missing and they all sat in a circle talking about it, instead of doing something to find her. Well, she and Chief talked. The other two—most qualified to handle the task—sat like spectators at a tennis match, watching the back and forth.
    Chief cleared his throat. “Her car wasn’t there. I checked local spots and her mother’s house. I questioned Jim at work. Now, I need you to tell me what happened last night at the bar.”
    She recalled the scene just as it had unfolded. When the image of Jim dragging Nichole toward the door flashed in her mind, her conscience caught up with her. She should have insisted Nichole stay with her last night, but she hadn’t. And now everything was a mess.
    “What happened next?” Chief prodded.
    “I goaded him so he’d let Nichole go. It worked like a charm,” she said acidly.
    “Now why would you go and do a thing like that? Jim is a very strong man. He could’ve really hurt you.”
    “It probably wasn’t the smartest thing, but I had to do something to help her.”
    He shook his head. “Keep going.”
    “He let her go and came after me. Luckily, I hadn’t had any more to drink than I had and he’d had far more to drink than he should’ve. Bouncers intercepted his second attack and hauled him out the door.”
    Chief’s voice turned into a reprimand. “You mean to tell me you grappled with Jim Gallow?