Skink--No Surrender Read Online Free PDF

anybody who spotted Malley Spence could have recognized her from the billboard.
    Several calls came in from people who thought they’d seen her, but the sightings were scattered from one end of Florida to the other. Investigators chased down every lead that wasn’t too flaky but came up empty-handed. One caller claimed to have witnessed my cousin arguing with a husky tattooed man at a certain movie theater in Sarasota. He said Malley was struggling with the man and trying to pull free.
    Slight problem: The movie house had been torndown six months ago to make way for a Target. The cops threw the scumbag in jail after he admitted making up the whole story just to get a cut of the reward money. Pathetic but true.
    The waiting made me feel helpless and hollow. Sometimes I’d dial Malley’s number hoping she’d turned on her cell, but it never rang once. Straight to voice mail, Malley in that weak British accent. For all we knew, her phone could be at the bottom of a canal.
    I was spending a lot of time on the Internet—too much time, honestly. I’d bookmarked the website of every major newspaper in Florida, and each morning I’d scroll through a bunch of them checking out the crime stories.
    My stomach would pitch upside down every time I saw this headline:
    UNIDENTIFIED BODY FOUND
    So far there had been three different bodies, but all of them were middle-aged men. One guy got hit by a train on the FEC tracks in Jacksonville. Another they found floating in Lake Okeechobee—probably a drowned fisherman who’d left his ID in his truck. The third was just an old pile of bones that a hunting dog dug up in the Everglades. Mom said Miami drug dealers used to bury lots of bodies out there.
    “Don’t keep reading that stuff,” she said. “You’ll get nightmares.”
    “I don’t know why she hasn’t called.”
    “Your cousin loves the drama, Richard. Always has.”
    “True.”
    “I’ll bet she shows up any day now with either a tan or a tattoo.”
    “No doubt about it,” said Trent.
    He was on the couch, eating a pasta salad. All the commotion about Malley’s disappearance had sort of put him on the sidelines, since he was somewhat new to the family. Trent actually likes the sidelines, especially during a crisis. He’s comfortable not being in a position to make decisions, and Mom seems fine with that.
    “My sister Kay ran away once,” Trent remarked, “to San Diego.”
    My mother sighed. “Malley’s fourteen. Kay was what—twenty? Which means it wasn’t technically running away. Plus she ended up marrying the guy, right?”
    “Still, we were worried sick.”
    “Trent, it’s not the same,” Mom said. “Not even close.”
    I closed my laptop and went to my room. Detective Trujillo had given me his business card, so I called him to ask if the police had turned up any new clues. A few false alarms, he said, but nothing solid. The interviews in Fort Walton Beach hadn’t led anywhere. None of Talbo Chock’s friends or family members could imagine why a stranger would be using his name. His parents were pretty upset about it, Trujillo said.
    Lots of people were checking out the Facebook page that Uncle Dan and Sandy had set up, but so far the tipswere totally random, dead-enders, just like the phone calls coming in about the billboards.
    “Don’t give up hope, Richard,” the detective said. “This case is still priority one for us.”
    “Did they find the car, at least?”
    “Nine white Camrys have been stolen this month in the state of Florida, none of them in the Orlando area. But we’re checking out every case.”
    “So, basically, we don’t know anything more than we did in the beginning.”
    “In a way, no news is good news,” said Trujillo. “Most runaway cases, the kids come home once the excitement wears off.”
    “What if she can’t come home? What if he won’t let her?”
    “You said Malley was aware ‘Talbo Chock’ isn’t this character’s real name, right?”
    “That’s