Bone Cold by Debra Webb Read Free Book Online

would be ready for his perusal. Getting straight down to business to expedite this meeting was essential for numerous reasons, her mental wellbeing included. She hadn’t seen him in more than a year. However much she told herself she was prepared for the meeting, she really wasn’t so sure. The one certainty she understood was that she could not allow this briefing to turn into a rehashing of their family issues.
    Your family doesn’t exist anymore
.
    Sarah banished the tender thought. She had to concentrate. So far, they had determined only a few similarities that tied the children together: age, the family’s financial status, and the manner of abduction. One of the children had siblings, the rest were onlys. Yet that one victim broke the pattern, eliminating to a significant degree that distinguishing factor.
    Sarah rubbed at the throb starting in her left temple. Between Carla’s visit and the chief’s call about Tom, she’d hardly slept at all. The notion that she might not be able to help these children anymore than she had Sophie and Josh had replayed over and over in her mind during the wee hours before dawn.
    Hearing that Tom was coming had started to chink away at her confidence. He knew her far too well. He would see through her carefully constructed façade to all the shattered pieces. Panic trickled through her.
    “Sarah?”
    She looked up, startled from her troubling thoughts to find Larson looming in the conference room doorway. She steadied herself and mustered a smile. “I’m almost ready.”
    “There’s been another abduction.”
    Her heart thumped hard once then lodged in her throat. “This morning?” Jesus, whatever his ultimate goal, his timing had bumped up again.
    “Last night. We think,” Larson amended.
    “You think?”
    He nodded, stepped into the room, and then closed the door behind him. “Lawrence Cashion, a Silver Springs businessman, reported his wife and daughter missing about ten this morning. He claims they went to a neighbor’s birthday party at around six last evening and never came home. The wife’s car was found abandoned five blocks from their home near a wooded park.”
    Sarah digested the information. “What about the wife?”
    “That’s the twist,” Larson continued. “She appears to have been taken as well.”
    Sarah felt her head moving from side to side before she’d consciously disagreed with this new development. “It doesn’t fit our unsub’s MO. He only takes children.”
    Her boss smoothed a hand over his neatly trimmed hair. “This could be totally unrelated, but since the child’s age and the family tax bracket fit, we’re going to assume this one is ours for now. Captain Andrews wants you to interview Cashion and make a call on whether this one’s in or out.”
    She nodded. “What do we have so far?”
    He thrust a report at her. “This was just faxed over. I can try and postpone the briefing with Tom. He’s likely on his way already.”
    “Speaking of Tom,” Sarah decided to ask the question that had helped keep her awake most of the night, “why is he meeting with me—with us? Why not Andrews or even one of the agents on the Task Force?” She’d been avoiding his calls for months. Was he using this investigation as an excuse to check up on her?
    “I asked that question myself,” Larson admitted. “Tom said he trusted your insights. He wants to talk to
you
.”
    If he thought she was going to change her mind about the divorce, he could think again.
    Sarah scanned the details of the Cashion report. Cassandra Cashion, age four, only child, financially secure family. A frown annoyed Sarah’s brow. Why would the mother have stopped on the street at night? The car was left on the side of the road in an area where there were no houses, yet only blocks from her home. No indication of car trouble. No flat tire or empty gas tank. Why stop unless to help or to pick up someone she knew? Why hadn’t Cashion spotted the car? Surely, he’d