Chained Guilt (Hidden Guilt (Detective Series) Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

me. Not today Not tomorrow. Never. She’s mine!”
                  Miranda blushed and turned her attention to her oldest daughter. “Hi, Hilary.”
                  A mumbled greeting is all she got in return.
                  My wife turned to me and cocked an eyebrow. “She’s quiet today, huh?”
                  “Not even. She’s mad because we set up shop with the old folks instead of the teenyboppers.”
                  “Where’s Karen?”
                  “She’s down by the water with a bucket, in her own little world,” I said as I rolled over and planted a kiss on Miranda’s neck.
                  “Stop it now! I’m serious,” she laughed. “There are too many people out here for her to be that far away from us.”
                  For the first time, I noticed the distance. I turned to my older daughter. “Hilary, walk down and ask your sister to come check in with us, please.”
                  “As if I wasn’t doing something,” Hilary grumbled.
                  A few weeks earlier, Karen had been approached by a stranger—a woman—at her school. My little girl had been gone for thirty minutes before anyone even noticed she was missing. The teachers thought she was sick in the bathroom. Miranda had been on high alert ever since. She hated to think it might have been the person responsible for the recent murders, but how could she really be sure?  Someone had finally spotted the pair on the playground. The woman ran off when campus security approached. Karen described her as “special,” and that was enough for me. We were looking for a highly intelligent psychopath with years of training in the medical field. It eased our minds, but just a little.
                  “She’s fine, Mom,” Hilary reported back several minutes later. “She’s down there playing in the water.” She made a face. “If anyone took her, they’d bring her back fast. Trust me.”
                  Miranda finally caught a glimpse of Karen. “Who’s she talking to?”
                  “Where? I don’t see anyone.” I stood to get a better view.
                  “Right there, David, that blonde woman,” Miranda said, jumping to her feet and breaking into a run. “I told you she was too far away!” she shouted over her shoulder as she raced to the shoreline.
                  As Miranda screamed and pointed, I noticed the woman, now about thirty yards away. She seemed to be pulling Karen along by her wrist, though my little girl was trying to dig her heels into the sand. Who was this woman? Was she the same one from the school? I surged forward in an all-out sprint, gun in hand. I couldn’t let her get away. Kidnapping cases don’t often end happily.
                  I wove my way through the sunbathers, pushing people out of the way as I ran, fearful my efforts wouldn’t be enough, that my Karen would be gone. I tried to swallow, but my mouth was as dry as the Sahara. I heard Karen yelling for help, but everyone on the beach just sat there, stunned into inaction.
                  The woman reached the parking area. I could tell this was too planned to be random. I was dealing with someone who had done this before. It took her a second to shove Karen into the nondescript vehicle. As the car pulled away, I stopped, lifted my gun, and fired several shots at the back tires. The car swerved, and the woman lost control. I held my breath, panicked that another car would take them out, or they’d slam into a tree or something.
                  When the car finally slowed to a stop, I was about twenty yards away. The woman scrambled from the vehicle and made a mad dash into the crowd of spectators gathering nearby.
    I ran to the passenger-side door, grabbed my little girl, and pulled her from the car. She