Free The Abducted Book 0 by Roger Hayden Page A

she’d become the next cold case in a long line of
them.
    He had placed a briefcase containing some of
the case files on the passenger-side floor, and Miriam began
flipping through them. She pulled out the one marked “criminal
profile.” She had her own ideas but looked through the faded manila
folder with interest nonetheless.
    The suspect was presumed to be living in the
area, or at least within South Florida. He had staked his claim,
and he would keep plundering it again and again until he was
stopped.
    For their suspect, abducting young girls was
an obsession, something he did to appease a sick urge he was unable
to suppress. But without recovering a single body, investigators
could only presume that sexual assault was central in all the
abductions. Whether he killed his victims or locked them in a
basement remained to be seen.
    She closed the first file
and opened another one, filled with police reports of abductions
from Cape Coral, Harlem Heights, Cypress Lake, and McGregor—all
cities within the same county. Now Palm Dale had two abductions on
its plate.
    “ We have to consider that these girls
mean everything to him,” O’Leary said. “He shot your partner to
keep from getting caught. So he has something to lose. A family
maybe, or a job. Those are the lengths he’ll go to. And anyone who
can pull the trigger like he did has probably killed
before.”
    “ A complete psychopath,” Miriam added.
“But he’s smart enough to know how to hide it. He’s not
greedy.”
    O ’Leary nodded. “That’s
what I was thinking. He’s got impeccable restraint. But he’s never
going to stop.” He paused and looked at Miriam. “What do you
think?”
    “ I don’t know,” she answered with a
sigh. “I’ve spent so long blocking him from my mind, it’s hard to
get back into this.” She turned to look out the window, thinking,
as miles of darkened cow fields passed by. “Maybe I jumped into
this too early.”
    “ Nonsense,” O’Leary said. “It’ll all
come back to you soon. I know you have it in you.”
    “ I appreciate the confidence, but we
don’t have the time for things to start coming back to
me . I need to get it together
fast. ” She went to the files on her lap as the police
radio crackled with updates on the child abduction case.
    “ Amber Alert issued
approximately one hour ago. Suspect is described by the victim’s
mother as a large female, at least two hundred and thirty pounds,
with a beehive hairdo and bright polka-dot dress.”
    Miriam and O’Leary looked at each other with
skepticism.
    “ Seriously?” Miriam said.
    “ Stranger things have happened,”
O’Leary said.
    They passed flatlands of never-ending rivers
and marshes—and a sign reading twenty-four miles to Palm Dale—a
town Miriam had vowed never to return to. Now they were looking for
an obese woman from the 1950s. It didn’t make any sense, but then
again it made perfect sense—in line with Miriam’s belief that their
suspect wore disguises.
    “ What better way to gain the trust of
young girls if you’re dressed up as a woman?” she said.
    O’Leary nodded. “What, like a
cross-dresser?”
    “ Whatever you want to call it. Our
suspect is a man. That’s what you need to tell your guys. He’s good
at what he does and feels empowered with each new
victim.”
    O ’Leary cleared his
throat. “Off topic, I wanted to let you know that you will be
compensated for this as an outside adviser, in case you were
wondering.”
    “ With or without pay, my intentions
are the same,” Miriam said.
    “ But you’ll take the money, though,
right?”
    “ I’m not stupid,” Miriam
said.
    O ’Leary laughed. “Of
course you’re not.”
     
    They passed fields of orange groves
leading into the town. Miriam took a deep breath as the speed limit
fell, the buildings were set closer together, and they came into
town. It looked the same as Miriam remembered it. The historic
downtown area had its shops, bars, and