The Missing Women (Derrick Mallow Mysteries Book 3)

Book summary

When three women vanish, Mallow and Speaks are drawn into a perplexing case filled with unexpected twists and challenges. As they search for answers, Speaks's sister, Alinda, emerges as a potential key to the mystery. This is the third installment in J.L. Melton's gripping mystery series.

Excerpt from The Missing Women (Derrick Mallow Mysteries Book 3)

THE SEARCH BEGINS

It is early morning on the 5th of July in 2025, and the alarm is buzzing on the clock/radio next to the lamp on the nightstand by Derrick Mallow’s bed. The LED screen displays “6:00 AM.”

Mallow, groggy, slowly turns and reaches for the alarm silence button on the clock/radio. He presses it, lays back down in bed, and grunts. Then, he sits straight up, startled by what he sees.

“Aaah! What the hell,” Mallow bellowed.

He takes another look, trying to catch his breath, and there, sitting on Mallow’s stomach, staring with his head tilting from side to side, is Speaks in his true alien form—a small blue man about four feet tall. His blue face, eyes, and ears are extremely large. On his head is a square cap, and his clothes and shoes are as blue as he is.

“Aaah! Aaah!” Mallow wipes his eyes with his hands and takes another long look at what’s in front of him.

“Oh, shit, it’s you, Speaks.”

“Yes, Mallow, it is me. It’s time to rise and shine—we need to get started,” Speaks said calmly, gesturing with his hands for Mallow to get out of bed.

Speaks climbs down from the bed and stands at the door with his arms on his hips, shaking his head.

“Is your memory coming back, Mallow, or are you losing more of it?”

Mallow slowly rises and sits upright on the bed with his hands clasping his face.

“I feel…bad, Speaks. I feel terrible.”

Speaks shakes his head again and starts walking out of the bedroom. He looks back reluctantly at Mallow, who is sitting on the bed, and sighs.

“Please, Derrick, get yourself together. The lives of Greta, Lucinda, and Gail depend on it,” Speaks said strongly.

Speaks starts walking toward the front door. He stops, sighs, grunts, and looks out the window. He doesn’t like what he sees.

A storm is coming—the wind is blowing briskly, and thunder can be heard in the distance. The mist is dense around the apartments and parking lot. Speaks sees a large collie dog running across the parking lot. The dog is barking and growling as if chasing an enemy. Speaks thinks, I hope the dog is not one of the little people in transformation.

Mallow gets up, walks to the dresser, and is overcome with emotion when he looks at the picture on top of the dresser. It is a picture of Greta McCall. In the photo, she is standing in front of the Decreston Law Enforcement Division building in Decreston, New York.

He closes his eyes for a moment, inhales deeply, and thinks, Is what’s happening here…real?

“Mallow, please, we have to go,” Speaks said frantically.

Speaks watches the trees swaying in the wind gusts from the storm and realizes this is only going to get worse by the minute.

“The mist is getting thicker. I can barely see the police cruiser parked outside,” Speaks informed Mallow.

Then, he quickly walks into the kitchen to look for something to eat.

“I’m getting ready, Speaks. Please take two frozen dinners from the freezer and put them in the microwave.”

“What? You want me to do that? I’ve never used one of these gadgets before,” Speaks replied.

“Just follow the instructions on the box, Speaks. It is simple. You can read, right?” Mallow said.

He sighed, cleared his throat, and opened the medicine cabinet in the bathroom, taking out his toothbrush and toothpaste.

“Yes, I can read. But I wanted to stop by Toby’s Bakery and Coffee Shop for breakfast.”

Mallow paused from brushing his teeth, wiped his mouth with the hand towel, shook his head, and said, “In your true form? We will stop by, Speaks, if they are still in a daze from yesterday. Because I want to check on the chief and the others at the police department before we begin our search for the girls.”

“But I still want you to microwave those frozen dinners, okay? Please!” Mallow insisted.

“Yes, in my true form, because I know they will still be in a daze. They always have food in the kitchen that just needs heating,” Speaks said.

“I’m ready, Speaks. I hope you have those dinners ready,” Mallow said as he walked out of the bedroom.

Mallow was dressed in a black suit, with a light blue shirt, a black tie, and black dress shoes.

When Mallow walked into the kitchen, Speaks put the TV dinners on a plate and set them on the table. Mallow exhaled and smiled, then said with a chuckle, “You’re going to be a great cook, Speaks.”

Speaks frowned, grunted, and growled while gesturing for Mallow to sit down at the table.

“Well, don’t you look all dressed up…today, Detective Derrick Mallow,” Speaks said with a chuckle.

Then he pulled out a chair from under the table and sat down across from Mallow.

“We will have a lot of work to do, Speaks. I might as well dress for it.”

“Are we going to stop by Toby’s?” Speaks asked eagerly, anticipating eating some good food for a change instead of Mallow’s frozen dinners.

“If they’re still in a daze, remember. We can’t let them see you like this if they’re not. So, please eat your dinner, and let’s get on the way. As you said, the lives of the girls depend on it,” Mallow reminded Speaks.

Then he reached for the coffee pot and poured himself a cup.

“Want a cup, Speaks?”

Speaks looked at Mallow, frowned, and said, “I can smell that liquid you call coffee, and it stinks something awful.”

“Speaks, if you tried it, you’d like it,” Mallow said.

Speaks took the cup of coffee, smelled it, put his finger in it, and licked it. Then, in a delayed reaction, he realized it burned his finger. Shouting in pain and shaking his finger, he slowly began to sip it, shook his head vigorously, and squinted his eyes. He looked at Mallow and said, “It tastes like burnt motor oil.”

“Burnt motor oil! What do you know about motor oil?” Mallow asked curiously.

“You’d be surprised at the things I know, Mallow.”

Ten minutes later, Mallow and Speaks walked outside. The mist had gotten denser, and the air was foul-smelling.

There wasn’t anyone outside in the parking lot. All the cars were parked just like they were the day before. Nothing had changed at the apartments.

The squirrels who normally played in the trees in the early morning weren’t anywhere in sight. It was as if Mallow and Speaks were the only living beings in the area.

“Speaks, get in the police cruiser…it’s time to go,” Mallow demanded.

“This seatbelt isn’t going to fit me, Mallow.”

“Don’t worry about it, Speaks. If things get rough, just turn back into the bird,” Mallow said.

Mallow smiled at Speaks, started the engine, backed out of the parking space, and headed for the exit.

The mist continued to intensify. The color was white and gray, and it caused a tremendous amount of moisture on the windshield of the police cruiser.

It was so bad that he had to turn the wipers on, but they still couldn’t see the road ahead, mainly because of the dense mist. The moisture on the windshield formed a thick film. The SUV crept forward. Mallow was afraid he might hit another vehicle or the curb on the road.

A few minutes later, they reached the stoplight located at the entrance to the town of Lake Tisdale. The stoplight immediately turned from green to red as soon as they approached. It had been several minutes now, and the light hadn’t changed to green. There weren’t any other cars at the stoplight, only the police cruiser.

“Damn, what’s taking so long,” Mallow said impatiently.

Speaks was looking out the passenger window, pointing his finger at an object approaching the cruiser from the front.

***

“Do you see it, Mallow?” Speaks asked, consistently pointing his finger at the object. At the same time, he looked at Mallow and became agitated because Mallow couldn’t see the object approaching.

“See what, Speaks? All I see is this damn dense fog that’s getting thicker by the minute,” Mallow replied.

He began moving uneasily in his seat, feeling a strange sensation overcoming him.

BAM! BAM! BAM! Suddenly, something hit the hood of the cruiser. Mallow pulled his derringer from his pocket and looked at Speaks as the little blue man unbuckled his seatbelt, which hadn’t fit well anyway, and jumped down onto the floorboard.

Just as quickly as the banging started, it stopped.

Mallow’s heart was beating intensely. The mist was so thick now that the stoplight wasn’t visible.

Speaks climbed back into the passenger seat slowly while rubbing his head, which had hit the glove box when he jumped down onto the floorboard.

“You okay, Speaks?” Mallow asked, still looking around the cruiser and holding his derringer in his hand.

“I’m okay. My damn head hurts, though. You got any aspirin?”

Mallow sighed, grinned at Speaks, and slowly tried to open the door, but it wouldn’t budge. The doors had automatically locked, and the unlock buttons wouldn’t operate. Mallow tried several times to unlock them, but nothing happened.

They were confined to the police cruiser. The stoplight was still red. Mallow decided to drive ahead anyway. He took his foot off the brake and pressed the gas pedal slowly. The cruiser didn’t move—the tires were spinning, and the rubber burned into the asphalt. It was as if something was holding the cruiser in place.

“What the hell is going on, Mallow?” Speaks asked frantically, shrieking as he tried the unlock buttons on the passenger side door.

Derrick Mallow began to feel disoriented and could barely hold his head up. He lost his grip on the derringer, and it fell to the floorboard, landing near the brake pedal. Mallow passed out, his head hitting the steering wheel. He was completely still. Speaks was terrified, breathing heavily. He placed his hand on Mallow’s head and sighed because he knew what was happening. It was the little people who were responsible for this.