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

joined the group. “We heard one of the perps broke out at the police station?”

“More like he was broken out,” I said darkly, noting that though the young Coast Guard men looked concerned, they also appeared a little excited by the whole thing. This was probably the most action they’d seen in their careers, at least while stationed in this sleepy little corner of the country.

The men’s eyes widened at this.

“That’s enough about that for now, though,” Nina said quickly before they could ask any more questions. “We’re running short on time, and we need to find Mikey. Do you have any more news for us?”

“Well, we were just about to take this team out to that cave and see if they can get any DNA or whatever off of those wrappers and stuff,” Andrews explained, gesturing to the forensics team.

“You have the details for our lab techs at MBLIS?” I asked them. “They’ll want to see this data.”

Yeah, Bonnie and Clyde, as we called our lab techs, would want to be all over this. With things being so slow with the Holland case lately, I knew they were itching for something more concrete to do.

“Agent Marston, I assure you that we’re more than capable…” the nearest forensics tech, a man who looked to be in his mid-forties, began to say, but I held up my hand to stop him.

“I’m sure that you are,” I said, forcing a smile. “We just like to be thorough, is all. You’ll understand.”

Bonnie and Clyde were the best in the business. No matter how capable these guys were, or any forensics team for that matter, the two of them had a knack for pulling things out of data that no one else had a chance of finding.

“Of course,” the man said, nodding to me, though he didn’t exactly look ecstatic about the whole thing.

“Alright, so where do you want us?” Nina asked Prior and Andrews, who exchanged a look.

“Well, while you were gone, we sent another team out to some of the caves on that map,” Andrews said, pulling it back out and illustrating for us. Sure enough, more of the red circles were crossed out now, indicating that they were already searched and deemed dead ends.

I felt my stomach sink as I saw that they were the caves closest to the ones where the wrappers had been found. The ones where we had most hoped we could find Charlie and Mikey. Of course, they still could’ve been there, without leaving a sign, if they already moved on down the shore by the time the Coast Guard arrived.

“Alright, then,” I said, gritting my teeth together and attempting to swallow my discomfort. “What’s next, then?”

“Well, there are two larger sets of caves left,” Prior explained. “We’ve already got our guys heading to the ones farthest away from here since it’ll take you longer to get out there. If you two can go to the remaining set, we should be able to finish them all tonight while still letting us take these guys out to the first scene.”

“Got it,” I said, nodding and exchanging a look with Nina. Somehow, it was all feeling even more real with our only two remaining options staring us right in the face.

“Are there any more?” Nina asked hopefully, though I was sure she knew as well as I did that if there were, the Coast Guard men would’ve told us by then. “Any other options after these caves?”

Prior and Andrews looked at each other again, and then to an older man in a Coast Guard uniform standing to their left.

“I’m afraid after this, our main option is to start looking on the ocean floor,” the man said, his mouth set in a grim, firm line.

I nodded, that pit in my stomach making a raging comeback for the third time that day.

“We understand,” I assured them. “And we really appreciate all of your help on this case.”

“Hey, we couldn’t have done any of this without you,” the older man said, reaching out and shaking my hand. “We’re always glad to lend a hand to MBLIS.”

Nina and I took Prior and Andrews’s boat then, waving farewell to the others as they sped off across the water in the opposite direction, toward the first set of caves where all those wrappers had been found.

It was a calm night, and we could see the stars as clear as day in the sky above us, next to a sliver of a moon.

Nina interlinked her arm with mine as the boat whirred along.

“Whatever happens, I’m glad we got to meet up again,” she told me, and I smiled down at her.

“Me too,” I murmured, pressing my lips to her temple. “Even if you are still holding out on me about Lafitte’s ship.”

She chuckled into my shoulder as if she knew that I couldn’t let that opportunity pass me by.

“Don’t worry, Marston,” she said, pulling away from me just a bit. “All in good time.”

I wanted to press her further but thought better of it, just enjoying the calm of the water after a hectic two days in which I barely found a moment to rest.

When I’d wished for a case or a bit of action amidst all the paperwork, this wasn’t exactly what I’d had in mind. But either way, I was glad to have gotten the opportunity to work with Nina again. I just hoped something would come of it for Mikey’s sake.

We chugged on like that for the better part of an hour, and then two, barely talking and just enjoying one another’s presence. We didn’t discuss the case. There was a lot to talk about, but for some reason, we just let the words rest in the air between us, sitting there as the minutes ticked by, an ever-present reminder of the race against the clock.

I thought back on everything that had happened the past few days, wondering if we could’ve done anything differently. Did we waste too much time looking into Jackson