exposed (Twisted Cedar Mysteries Book 3) Read Online Free PDF

hug. “Don’t go there, Charlotte. Chances are still good that he went out for a little adventure and lost track of time. Or maybe, given all the pressure he’s been under lately, he’s run away from home. If that’s the case, he can’t be far away. We’ll find him soon.”
    “But the dental records...” She shuddered.
    “We have to be prepared for the worst, as officers of the law. But you don’t. In fact, you should try—”
    The side door slammed and Cory ran into the room. She’d been out on the front porch, waiting for her step-mother Jamie and Dougal. Though Jamie and Kyle had only lived together as husband and wife for about a month, it had been long enough for Cory and Jamie to bond.
    In fact, if not for the court’s decided favoring of blood ties over legal, Jamie might have ended up as the twins’ guardian.
    “They’re here!” Cory announced, betraying a heart-breaking faith in the ability of those she loved to magically solve any situation.
    Given all the nine-year-old had been through, this naivety struck Wade as particularly poignant. He was afraid Chester’s disappearance might have the power to destroy, once and for all, every trace of Cory’s childhood faith in adults.
    Jamie and Dougal were on Cory’s heels. Dougal went straight to Charlotte, enveloping her in a hug that was much more intense than the one Wade had just offered her.
    Jamie planted herself in front of him, pushing back her thick hair with both hands. “Any news?”
    “We haven’t found him yet.” Wade hated to admit. “But we’ve got the entire team working on this, and I’ve called on the state police as well.”
    “Has anyone been out to the Librarian Cottage yet?” Dougal asked. “We just swung by on our way. No sign of Chester that we could find, but he knows the place. He could be hiding in the woods. A tracking dog might be a good idea.”
    Charlotte looked stricken. “I never thought of the cottage. It isn’t too far for him to reach on his bike. He could have been there before anyone even started looking for him.”
    “Good tip,” Wade said. “I’ll get a team on it right away.”
    Turning his back on the group, he called one of his top deputies, Frank Dunne. Short, muscular Frank was a bit of a plodder, but he was thorough and Wade had put him in charge of setting up a command post at the school.
    “Sheriff?”
    “We need a K-9 unit out at the Librarian Cottage. You’ll find clothing items belonging to the missing boy at the station.”
    “Is this a place Chester has been to before?” Dunne asked.
    “Yup. And it’s only five miles away. He could have cycled there in the time it took for us to find out he’d gone missing.”
    “Right. Should I call on Search and Rescue, as well? Get a full crew out there.”
    “Good idea. Anything turn up at the school so far?”
    “Afraid not. We’re going door-to-door, hoping a neighbor might have noticed something. We’ve talked to all the kids from his class already—and their parents. None of them were aware that Chester had any special after-school plans.”
    “Well, that’s too bad.” Finding Chester at a friend’s house would have been a best-case conclusion, for all concerned.
    Wade had just disconnected from the call with Dunne, when Tanya Field, his newest deputy, came through the hall with the team of I-dent men who’d been collecting evidence from Chester’s room.
    Tanya, in her late twenties already showing signs of maturity and level-headedness that gave him great hopes for her future, waved him over.
    “We found nothing helpful in the bedroom, and all we saw in the family room was a gaming station.”
    “No sign of the iPad?” Charlotte had explained that her computer was off limits to the kids and that they didn’t have phones.
    “We found the sister’s where she said it was. No sign of her brother’s.”
    Wade held up his hand for Tanya to wait, then turned back to the gathering in the kitchen. Charlotte was sitting now,