Page 17 of Justice for Aleta

“Ma’am, this is Kentucky State Police TrooperJohn Henry Fletcher, badge twelve eight-five. I wanted to talk to you about your daughter, KennedieStone. She was reported missing several weeks ago.”

“Yes, sir. Have you found her?”

“No, ma’am. I haven’t. But could you tell me why she might’ve run away?”

“I have no idea. I just know she’s got her heart set on going to college, but me and her daddy don’t see no sense to it. It’s just a piece of paper. She could get a job around here, but no. She wants to go see the world. I figure she ran off trying to find a job to make money so she could save up for college, which she won’t be able to because she’ll have to make herself a living. Kids these days?they never think about how things work. They just do them and hope for the best.”

Wow. Jack had expected her to be upset about her daughter’s disappearance. Instead, she seemed pissed off. “Ma’am, do you know a FrankieMcIntosh?”

“No. Should I?”

“I wasn’t sure if he was someone your daughter knew.”

“Not that I know of. Why?”

“I’m sorry, ma’am, but I’m not at liberty to say.”

“Oh, you can call me up and ask me all kinds of questions, but I’m not allowed to ask you any?” the woman spat back.

“Ma’am, you can ask all the questions you want, but some of them I won’t be able to answer. I’m sorry about that,” Jack replied, knowing that would probably just piss her off even more.

“Well, lah-tee-dah. When are we gettin’ our computer back?”

That made Jack sit up and take notice. “Somebody took your computer?”

“Yeah, some sheriff’s detective guy.”

“Do you happen to know his name?”

“Are you going to try to get it back for me?”

“I’ll sure ask them when they’ll be finished with it, ma’am.”

“Then yeah, I know his name. RandyGardner. He lives down the road here. Snob if ever there was one.”

“I’ll call them and put a bug in their ear about getting that computer back to you,” Jack lied. He didn’t give a damn if that cantankerous woman ever got her computer back.

“I’d appreciate that. Let me know if you find anything?”

“Yes, ma’am. We sure will. Thank you.” He hung up and sighed deeply. Wow. Some of the people he met on a daily basis shouldn’t be allowed to have kids.

So he called the PikeCounty Sheriff’s Department again. This time he asked for RandyGardner and was put on hold. When he came on, Jack told the detective who he was. After giving the man only the information that was necessary, Jack asked, “Did you find anything on the home computer?”

“Oh, yeah. Lots of things. But the most interesting one was a conversation we couldn’t figure out. I’ll shoot it to you.”

“Thanks. Anything else?”

“If you figure it out, will you call me back?” DetectiveGardner asked.

“I most certainly will. You can count on it.”

“Thanks” After reciting his email address, he hung up.

Ten minutes later, he got the emails and looked at them. He couldn’t make heads or tails out of them either, so he forwarded them to the lab. His phone rang in less than five minutes and he answered it, “Fletcher.”

“Yates. So I got your email. Try this. Everywhere it says hamburger, fries, milkshake, chicken tenders, or anything else about food, insert chemicals used in meth-making. And where it talks about a kid’s meal, that’s the finished product. It’s the new slang. It’ll change eventually but for the last few months, it’s how they’re communicating.”

“How often does it change?” Jack asked.

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