With Vics You Get Eggroll (A Mad for Mod Mystery Book 3) by Diane Vallere

do anything?”
    “The cashier didn’t think anything of it until he heard barking from inside the woman’s car. When he looked inside, he saw her Chihuahua and a single gold shoe. Tex,” I said, putting my hand on his forearm, “the woman is one of my clients. Cleo Tyler. I was at her house just this morning and now she’s gone. She could be dead.”
    Tex punched his steering wheel and the grains of rice that had stuck fell off. I felt his anger at the lack of control building up. He reached out for the dash and gripped it in both hands, his knuckles turning white.
    “The news crew you saw in the parking lot broke the news. I talked to Sgt. Osmond earlier today.” My voice came out shaky. “He said the news is making them look like fools because they didn’t even know she was missing when they broke the story.”
    “Cleo Tyler. Married to Dan Tyler?” he said. He kept his voice even.
    “Yes. You know her?”
    “Him. His brother George was on the force. Died in a drunk driving accident.”
    “I know. Dan told me.”
    “We were friends, me and George. Worked a couple of cases together. I was at Jumbo’s the night of the accident. George wasn’t the only one who died—two teenage girls died too. It didn’t look good for the precinct and a lot of officers tried to distance themselves from the scandal. Not many went to his funeral. When I offered my condolences to Dan, he took a swing at me. Called me part of the problem, not part of the solution. Said someday the tables would be turned and I’d know how he felt.”
    I thought back to Dan’s anger when he’d first heard that Tex was a suspect. He hadn’t mentioned that he even knew Tex, but clearly he did. And now he goes out of town the same time his wife was abducted.
    “People deal with grief in different ways. Even though Dan knew about George’s drinking problem, it was easier for him to blame the police force than to blame his only brother. You probably represented everything about the department that he had come to hate.”
    “He was right. A cop dies in the line of duty, he’s a hero. No matter what the job does to you, you have that. But George didn’t even get that. All the good work he did, it didn’t matter. When he died, he was the bad guy. Dan Tyler was right. You know what the worst thing was about that?” He paused for a second, but I didn’t think he really wanted me to say anything. “Within the month everybody was back at Jumbo’s. It was like George’s death never even happened.”

TEN

      
    Tex dropped his hands from the steering wheel and suddenly punched it again. The horn sounded a brief blast that startled a couple of pigeons in the middle of the lot.
    I put my hand on his arm. “You can’t blame yourself for what’s happening now. You can’t sit here in this car all day and all night and hope to find this guy. It’s not going to happen that way. For starters, you’re probably all kinds of cramped from sitting in here. How long has it been since you got up? How do you—never mind.”
    “Public bathroom outside the gas station. I picked the lock. I got out of the car and stretched right as the sun was coming up. I don’t usually get to see the sun rise. Nice time of day. Nobody out here except for me and the crickets.”
    “Aren’t you worried the security camera is going to spot you?”
    “See the camera up there?” He pointed to the roof of the store. “Not hooked up to anything. After I went in to talk to the Chief, we requested the tape. The manager said the camera is a dummy. Meant to deter people from stealing shopping carts. Once people are out of their store, they don’t care much what anybody does.”
    “Even with what’s been happening here? Aren’t they concerned about the safety of their employees?”
    “Employees park in a lot in the back. Completely safe. They used to have someone collect the carts every hour but now they stop when the sun goes down and start back up in the