Hold on to Me Read Online Free PDF Page A

“He could merely be getting bolder.”
    “He?” Cookie brightened and straightened in his chair. He chewed harder, popping his gum. “So, we’re looking for just one guy.”
    “Don’t get excited,” Caitlin said. “It might be one person. Or it might be four deaths that are coincidentally alike. If it is one person, he probably won’t be easy to find.”
    “Coincidence, my ass, with those bruises.” Cookie crossed his arms over his chest, his gray stare measuring. “You’ll be able to help us find him, right?”
    “I’ll do my best.” She turned back to the files on the table. “But, remember, my job is to help you narrow your field of possible suspects.”
    “Right.” Tick stepped away, his jaw tense. “Given the opportunity, you’ll take over.”
    “Hey, works for me.” Cookie grinned. “Means less overtime on my part.”
    “Probably more overtime on everyone’s part,” Caitlin mused aloud, skimming the autopsy report on the first victim, the Jane Doe discovered nearly two weeks before. Strangulation, no sign of sexual assault, bruising to the arms and torso. She looked up. “We’ll need to really work your command center—lay out the photos and reports, track your evidence—so we can get a feel for who this guy is.”
    She met Tick’s hard eyes. “VICAP didn’t register anything?”
    Schaefer pulled a printout from a folder. “A list of cases with the same MO. Most of which were out of state or already solved. I’ve been checking them out anyway.”
    Sighing, she rubbed the tension knot developing at the base of her neck. “So tell me about Sharon Ingler and Amy Gillabeaux.”
    Tick leaned against the table, arms folded across his chest. “Sharon’s daddy has a produce farm out on the highway. He’s got three sons and they all went to work farming with him right out of high school. Sharon was his baby and the only girl. Smart, graduated at the top of her class, received a full scholarship to the University of Georgia. Had all A’s her first semester.”
    “Her daddy was proud, too.” Cookie drummed a pen against the table, his face pensive.
    “I’ll bet.” Caitlin studied Sharon in the photo clipped to her file. The man with her had to be her father, his arm around her shoulder, the pride Cookie mentioned glimmering in his eyes. She tapped a fingernail against the photograph. Proud daddies were not part of her personal experience, but it was obvious Ingler had adored his daughter. “What happened?”
    Jeff shrugged. “She came home for the summer. Her car was found along Highway 112. She’d broken down. Four days later, another farmer found her body in a culvert while he was clearing a ditch.”
    “Ashleigh Hardison.” She frowned over the name on the witness report, a memory niggling at the edges of her mind. “Ash Hardison?”
    “Yeah.” Tick’s terse voice had her looking up. He watched her, frowning. “Why?”
    “Unusual name. I think he went to military school with my brother Vince.”
    “Probably.” Cookie was folding his foil gum wrapper into an intricate swan. “He’s ex-army, not from around here. Moved into the area last year.”
    “Small world.” She shrugged off the coincidence. “Did Sharon know Amy Gillabeaux?”
    “Around here, everyone knows everyone.” Tick still watched her, his frown remaining. “They graduated together, had gone to the same schools since kindergarten, attended the same church. I’m sure they knew each other. Did they hang out in the same crowds? Probably not.”
    Something about his voice raised a flag in her mind. “Why not?”
    “If Sharon was the local golden girl, Amy was the town wild child.” Jeff’s expression twisted with distaste.
    Tick shook his head. “She was a little spoiled, had her daddy wrapped around her little finger. She was smart, too, wasn’t far behind Sharon in class ranking, got into UGA as well. She just wasn’t interested in studying. She flunked out her first semester and Tommy made