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

“There’s a handful of runaways, a lot of foster kids—man, do those kids go through it, I’m telling you—and some who just look homeless or like vagabonds of some kind. I don’t even know. Anyway, yeah, street kids would be an all-encompassing term for it, I guess.”

She looked sadly down at the photographs, and I thought that it must be hard to work these kinds of cases all the time. I was secretly glad that they only came up once in a blue moon for me. And I’d thought it was bad when those goons grabbed that nosy kid in Virginia and held him hostage for just a few minutes before Tessa and I managed to rescue him. This was about a million times worse than that.

“Damn,” I said, shaking my head in a combination of incredulity and horror. “And no one but a blogger thought to link all these cases together until now? How many of these kids are there? How long has it been since they were taken?”

“There’s about twelve documented cases, all in the past year,” Nina said, pursing her lips as she said this, in a skeptical way. “But who knows what the real number is? These are just the ones where someone noticed they were gone, eventually. They were taken at different places and times, but they all just vanished into thin air. Given who these kids are and where they came from, it wouldn’t surprise me if the real number were three or even four or more times that.”

“You’re probably right,” I said darkly, pursing my lips.

“I have a feeling I’m going to be working on this one for a long while,” Nina said, peering down at the file and shaking her head. “Mikey or no Mikey—at the end of the day, this whole operation is going to have to be brought down, and the FBI is going to want to oversee it themselves.”

“I can’t think of anyone better for the job,” I pointed out, and she gave me a small smile.

“I don’t know about that,” she said. “Though with Osborne, I guess we make up for each other’s weaknesses. As for you and Holm, I imagine this is a one and done thing for you once Mikey is found, or…”

Her voice trailed off as she failed to finish her sentence, though she didn’t have to. I knew what she was going to say. That Mikey might not be found, or at least not found alive. There was no reason to say it, though. It was important even—or perhaps especially—for the ones working cases like this to stay positive, not just the parents.

“I suppose so,” I sighed. “Diane will want us back in Miami to keep working on the Holland case as quickly as possible, I’m sure. Though I imagine we’re both in that boat, so to speak.”

I glanced over at her, hoping to catch anything resembling a hint about what she was working on before she came here to find Mikey. But her face was blank, though I caught the shadow of a smirk on her lips as she made herself indecipherable.

“Have you heard anything from Holm?” she asked.

“No, let me text him,” I said, sorry I hadn’t thought of this myself as I pulled out my phone to send him a quick text. A message from Diane was waiting for me there.

Heard about your scuffle with the traffickers, she wrote. Stay safe and update me when you can. I’m sure I don’t have to remind you how quickly the clock is ticking on a case like this.

I sighed as I read this. I knew already, of course, but there was something about seeing it in writing that added even more of a sense of urgency to the whole thing. That was probably why Diane sent it. That and checking to make sure I was okay without directly asking me.

I texted Holm before I messaged her back, knowing that Diane would want an update on him, too. No doubt she’d heard he’d been shot.

Are you okay? I messaged him. Need anything? Someone to pick you up? How long are you going to be there?

To my relief, he texted back quickly, and I realized he’d probably been waiting for a message from Nina or me, hoping to hear how the case was going.

Fine, they’re making me stay here overnight, though, he wrote. I tried to get out of it, but I had to have a second blood transfusion thing. I’ll be out in the morning, or I’ll leave anyway. Word on the kid?

I pursed my lips again. For Holm to agree to stay overnight, even begrudgingly, he must not be feeling very well. He lost more blood than we’d realized. Even so, he was alive and seemingly lucid, which was good enough for me given the circumstances.

Of course, Holm didn’t care about any of this. He just wanted to know about the case.

A few new leads, as well as some on other kids who’ve been taken, I shot back quickly. It turns out it’s a trafficking gang in Durham. No time to explain the rest now. Kid on the ocean with other perp in stolen boat after all. Still working on finding them. I’ll tell you when we know more.

Holm didn’t respond to this, though the message displayed as read, and I knew that he was probably sitting in his hospital bed with that sinking feeling I got when I first found out what was really going on with this case, realizing how much danger Mikey was truly in right now, if he was even still alive.

I flipped back over to Diane’s contact information to message her.

Yes, I am hoping to find him before tomorrow. Clock is running out. Talked to Holm. Doing good but being held overnight. All okay with us. Check back in soon.

I then relayed all this over to Nina, who cursed under her breath when she heard the news about Holm.

“Damn, I was really hoping we would have him if