Stolen Child (Coastal Fury Book 13) Matt Lincoln (chrysanthemum read aloud .txt) 📖

idiot thought it was a good idea to shoot at an FBI agent in broad daylight when half the country was already looking for him.

“Well, Charlie kind of panicked after that,” Justin admitted, wincing as he said the words. “We came back to pick him up, and the next thing we knew, he was stealing a boat!”

Nina and I exchanged another look.

“What boat?” I asked.

“Oh, I don’t know, I’d reckon you’re probably right that it was that one from the shop we were at, but Rudy and me, we weren’t there when it happened,” he sighed. “One minute we were in the van, and the next Charlie was grabbing the kid and stuffing him on that damn boat, saying he had to make a run for it, and every police officer in the country would know his face on sight now. Told us to keep watch on shore and make sure nothing else happened.”

“He just left you?” Nina asked, incredulous. “Did you have any way to contact him?”

“No, he just ran for it with the kid,” Justin said, shaking his head. “Didn’t make much sense to Rudy and me, but he said he’d be back in touch somehow, so we kept watch as he asked. The alternative was going back to Durham, and that didn’t sound good to either of us. They’d kill us after what happened. Then we ran into you, and well, you know the rest. We didn’t want to shoot you, I swear, and that was all Rudy at the start. I was just defending myself. You get that, right?”

And here we were, back to square one, with Justin jumping to his own defense, throwing his dead friend—or colleague, or whatever—under the bus in the process.

“Did Charlie say anything about how or when he would contact you again?” Nina asked.

“No,” Justin said, shaking his head. “Just that he would, somehow. I don’t know if I believed him or not, but I didn’t really want to risk it. Charlie’s weird, but he can be mean, too. Not so mean as the bosses back in Durham, but pretty bad. Rudy and me, we just planned to bide our time for a few days, and if Charlie didn’t show back up again, we were gonna make a run for it and start a new life somewhere else.”

He hung his head, then, as if he actually felt some remorse for what had happened to the other goon.

“You sure he’s dead?” he asked in a low whisper, as if he was afraid to hear the answer.

“One hundred percent,” I assured him, looking down at my blood-soaked shirt.

Justin winced and looked away from me as if he had just now realized where all that blood had come from.

“Alright, then, Justin, I think that’s enough for now,” Nina said, standing up and nodding to him while motioning for me to do the same. “Others will be in shortly, I assume, to get more details about this operation in Durham.”

Justin winced.

“If I tell on them, they’ll kill me,” he said, looking up at us with pleading in his eyes. “Even in jail, they’ll find a way to kill me.”

“You just let the police worry about that,” I said, sighing again at the thought of this asshole ending up in witness protection instead of rotting in prison. “I’m sure they’ll find a way to protect you.”

18

Ethan

Nina and I huddled together when we were back out in the hall, speaking in low voices so that Justin couldn’t hear us where he still sat inside the interrogation room. Dr. Osborne and the three parents wouldn’t be able to hear either from where they probably still congregated in the lounge area at the end of the hall, which was too distant for me to see clearly from where we stood.

“So we know it wasn’t the parents now, at least,” Nina said with a low huff, shaking her head and glaring through the one-way window behind which Justin was fidgeting in his handcuffs.

In a way, I thought he looked kind of relieved to have been caught, to have everything out on the table. Still nervous, though. Who wouldn’t be?

“That’s one thing, at least,” I said, letting out a long breath. “Good news for them, not so much for Mikey.”

“We can only hope that Justin’s right that this Charlie character isn’t weird in ‘that way,’” Nina said, giving voice to my own worst fears. “That he just panicked and took him but didn’t do anything to him.”

“I guess so,” I murmured. “He could still kill him, though. What else is he going to do? He can’t haul a kid around wherever he’s going to start a new life. I assume that’s what he’s doing. He might just drop him in the middle of the ocean and sail away.”

Nina’s face darkened at this, and I was sorry to give voice to such a horrible possibility, but we had to be prepared for it if it did happen.

“I guess we just have to find him, then,” she said quietly. “We have to find him, and we have to find him fast.”

“Someone should call the Durham Police Department and update the detectives,” I said. “And the other should update the family.”

Nina gave me a pointed look, and she didn’t have to say who was going to take which role. Nina was great at her job, but she wasn’t exactly as great at the softer parts like this.

“I’ll meet you back out front when you’re done,” she said when she detected acceptance of this in my eyes. “Good luck.”

I nodded and gulped, knowing that I would need it. The parents weren’t going to be happy about this, and they weren’t exactly happy already. Not with me, not with the investigation, and not with each other.

The trek back down the hallway to the lounge area felt like it took a lifetime, each step heavier than the last.

“Is there news?” Annabelle asked the moment she saw me, her head whipping up from where it had