Convenient Disposal

Description for CONVENIENT DISPOSAL by Steven F Havill:

Posadas County, New Mexico, undersheriff Estelle Reyes-Guzman is called to the scene of a possible domestic violence. The victim is a teenage girl, beaten into a coma and stabbed in the ear with a hatpin. Earlier, the girl was involved in a rivalry over a boy -- but the shocking brutality of the crime indicates this was something beyond feuding middle-school girls.

Suspicion falls on the girl's father, who has a history of taking his anger out on his family. But when Reyes-Guzman, looking for witnesses, goes to question neighbor Kevin Ziegler, the county manager, she discovers him missing. Having learned coincidences are usually anything but, the undersheriff, with the help of retired boss Bill Gastner, works to connect the two cases, suspecting Ziegler is either the perpetrator...or another victim. The answers lead her into troubling territory, where the secrets that make up the darker side of a small community are too often revealed in blood....

This is #13 in A Posadas County Mystery.