Read Murder In the Past Tense (A Giorgio Salvatori Mystery Book 2) for Free Online

it on the desk in front of Detective Birmingham.
    “Tell us about it,” Giorgio said to the detective.
    “I was a young cop back then. Pretty new to the force. I’d only been here for a couple of years. It was May of 1967. Her name was Lisa Farmer, and she lived in a duplex up in the canyon with her mother…you know, Bailey Canyon. Anyway, she was a senior at Pasadena High School and had gone to the prom with her boyfriend, a guy named Ron Martinelli. After he dropped her off at home that night, no one ever saw her again. Until now, that is,” he said, bringing his hands together in his lap.
    “How do you know the bones we found are hers?” Giorgio asked, leaning forward.
    “I saw that female reporter on TV interview the guy who found her. He mentioned the rose headband and the necklace.”
    Birmingham reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out his wallet. From an inside sleeve, he withdrew a faded, creased picture and handed it across the desk to Giorgio.
    Giorgio took it and gazed down at the head shot of a young, dark-haired beauty with a broad smile. She was wearing a flowered headband and a heart necklace.
    “Pretty girl,” Giorgio mused, handing it over to Swan.
    “Yes,” the big man agreed. “She was. And from all accounts, she was really nice, too.”
    Birmingham leaned forward, removed the top of the cardboard box and pulled out a grainy 3x5 Polaroid picture of a boy wearing a tuxedo and the same girl dressed in a dark green dress. The boy was about to pin a corsage on her shoulder and grinned stupidly at the camera.
    “Her mother took that picture just before they left for the prom that night. You can see the headband and the necklace again.”
    Giorgio studied the old photo. The colors had faded, but the flower on the headband definitely looked like what they’d found with the skeleton. The girl in the photo was wearing high heels, a dark green prom dress, and encircling her neck was a thick chain necklace with a silver heart pendant. Giorgio felt a faint rush of adrenalin at a possible identification.
    “Can I get you a cup of coffee, Detective Birmingham?” Giorgio asked.
    He shook his head. “No, thanks. I just need to relate what I know and let you do your work. I kept these records in my basement all these years and I thought you might need them. I’m not sure what you’ll find in the department after forty plus years.”
    “Please, go ahead,” Swan said, pulling up a chair opposite their guest.
    The man took a deep sigh. He crossed one leg over the other, drawing attention to his well-worn jeans. A tuft of gray chest hair poked out of the collar of his blue denim shirt.
    “As I said, I was pretty new to the force, but I was the only one here with a college degree – other than our captain. Back then, we didn’t have any detectives. We were too small. When the girl went missing, it became a big deal. Her boyfriend was the son of our most prominent citizen – Royce Martinelli. He owned a lot of property around here. Actually, all over the basin. Office buildings. Apartment complexes. You name it. The captain wanted to treat this case with all the seriousness it deserved, so he assigned me to investigate. Even gave me a new title – Detective,” he said with a smile. “Anyway, Martinelli’s son, Ron, was a star athlete at Pasadena High.”
    He paused and shook his head slightly at an undisclosed memory.
    “And let me guess, Lisa came from the other side of the tracks,” Giorgio said.
    “Right,” he said, looking up solemnly. “As I said, she lived in a small duplex with her single mom. Not such a common thing back then. Divorce was pretty rare, and those who got divorced were often looked down on. But from what the mother said, Lisa had been sexually abused by her step-father when she was in her early teens, and when her mom discovered it, she kicked the bastard out.”
    “So the mother had been married before?” Giorgio asked.
    “Yes. The first husband committed suicide.