Adventures in Funeral Crashing by Milda Harris Page B

evidence of anything more
than drugs. Troy Matthews isn’t a lead because there weren’t any
murders,” Detective Dixon was trying to be compassionate, but it
came out patronizing.
    “What about looking into if he’s a drug
dealer or if they did drugs together or something?” I asked, just
wanting them to check up on Troy in some way. I was getting really
frustrated.
    Detective Dixon frowned, “We’ll keep an eye
on him, but there really isn’t any evidence that he’s
involved…”
    “There’s also this email from Vanessa Martin
that Liz never got from the day she died,” I said pushing a copy of
Vanessa’s Facebook email to Liz toward him.
    He glanced at it quickly and said, “This
doesn’t say anything. Looks like she just needed to talk to
her.”
    “Yeah,” I kept pushing, “And, then within
hours of that email, Liz is dead. Maybe Vanessa knows something
about that.”
    “We’ll look into it,” Detective Dixon,
nodded, but I didn’t believe him.
    Ethan was seething, but trying to hold his
temper. I didn’t even know him that well and I could see that
Detective Dixon was frustrating the hell out of him. Hell,
Detective Dixon was frustrating the hell out of me too and it
wasn’t even my sister that had died. I knew we were onto something.
The police had to listen. I mean, what were Ethan and I going to do
with this information? The law had to help us out and use it to
find the murderer and then arrest them.
    “At least check out Troy Matthews,” I
pleaded. I was suddenly afraid that we had blown our one and only
shot with the police and solving Liz’s murder. That would be a
travesty.
    Detective Dixon scrutinized us for a moment.
I got the distinct impression that he was trying not to roll his
eyes, while pretending to humor us, instead. Seriously. It was
super annoying.
    “Okay, okay, it’s time for both of you to
leave now. I have work to get done before I go home tonight,”
Detective Dixon gestured at the papers lying everywhere.
    “Thanks for nothing, Detective Dixon,” Ethan
muttered, bitterly, as he stood up.
    I didn’t even bother saying anything as Ethan
and I left the office.
     
    “Can you believe that guy?” Ethan slammed his
fist against the steering wheel of his car in frustration.
    We were sitting in the Palos Police
Department parking lot with the car off. Both of us were really
disappointed with the police’s treatment of the situation. I was
sure Detective Dixon was a good cop, but in this case, he was dead
wrong.
    “Not really,” I said, leaning back into the
passenger seat. I needed a nap. It had been a forever long day.
“What do we do now?”
    Ethan rested his head against the wheel, then
turned sideways to look at me in defeat, “I don’t know. What can we
do?”
    “I don’t know,” I replied back. I didn’t
know. I mean, weren’t the police supposed to investigate murders?
Why were they ignoring this? I mean, even if we were only one
percent on the right track, shouldn’t they at least consider it?
They were too busy looking for a heroin ring in Palos. Maybe there
was one, but I was betting that in this case the drugs were being
sold to someone in particular and that person was supplying and
killing these girls.
    We sat in the car in silence for a few more
moments, the Palos Police Department like a window decoration out
the front windshield.
    “Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I just don’t want to
believe Liz did heroin. Hell, maybe it was her first time ever
trying it and it just ended up with her ODing. Maybe we should just
leave it alone and let the police do their job like Detective Dixon
said,” Ethan looked tired again, as he leaned back against the
driver’s side seat.
    It was hard to believe that just days ago
we’d been complete strangers. Having spent an entire Saturday with
Ethan, looking into Liz’s murder had changed things. I felt braver,
much braver, “I don’t think giving up is the right thing to do. I
think Liz was murdered. Melissa