Hatfield and McCoy Read Online Free

California. No matter how hard a man he appeared to be. No matter how silent. He had changed. And he was capable of being ruthless.
    But that was exactly why he had been called in on this case. A child’s life was at stake.
    Of course, it was exactly why Julie Hatfield had been called in on the case, too.
    â€œRobert!” Pettigrew leaned toward his towering blond friend. “We have nothing on this case. Nothing at all. We know that the girl disappeared from her own street, and that’s all we’ve got. That and the suspicion—” He broke off. They all knew what the suspicion was. There had been a similar case in a neighboring county not six months ago. A young woman had been abducted from her home. A ransom letter had come, and a ransom had been delivered. But the woman had not been returned.
    Julie Hatfield had been called in on that case. And she had found the young woman, barely in time, buried, but alive, in an old refrigerator upon the mountaintop.
    Six months before that, there had been another similar case. The young woman taken during that abduction had never been found.
    The kidnapper, assuming it was one and the same man—or woman—had struck again and was moving between state lines. And that was why Robert had been called in.
    â€œRobert,” Pettigrew said wearily. “We need Julie on this one. She can help. You just don’t know her.”
    McCoy ran his fingers through his hair and sank into an office chair beside Timothy Riker. Why was he so furious? Because working with this girl could take time? Yes, of course. He was also bone weary. He’d just returned from a sting in Florida, and he’d thought he’d have some time off. It was moving into late spring. The fish were jumping. His own little mountaintop was beckoning to him, and for the first time in a long time, he wanted some time off.
    And he was scared, too. He was always scared, though he never let it show. Dear Lord, it was always scary to hold someone’s life in your hands. And now, it was a child’s life, and more. The lives of her parents, her family, her friends. If she was lost forever, they would be, too. No one ever forgot the loss of a loved one. Ever.
    Ever.
    And he was mad, of course, that anyone could claim the things that the charlatan in the front office was pretending she could do.
    It could lead to nothing but false hope.
    Maybe worse.
    No one but God could see into the hearts and minds of other men. No one could see the pathetic remnants of a case gone bad except for those poor investigators sent out to retrieve the body.
    â€œIt came down to us straight from the top, Robert. They say that we must use her on this one,” Pettigrew said very softly.
    Robert McCoy rubbed his temple with his thumb and forefinger.
    â€œHow many hours now since the little girl was taken?”
    â€œThree,” Timothy Riker informed him quickly. “And we’ve had men and women out scouring the neighboring woods since the call came in.”
    â€œThree hours,” Robert mused. He glanced quickly at the chief. “And there’s no possibility that she just ran off with friends? That she saw something interesting—”
    â€œNo, none at all. Tracy Nicholson is a very conscientious little girl. She never strayed at all. She would have never worried her mother so.”
    This had to be murder for old Petty, Robert thought, and he was sorry again for his outburst of temper. This was a small town, and Petty was friends with little Tracy’s parents, and with Tracy herself.
    â€œSigns of a struggle?” Robert said. He had to ask.
    Riker nodded. “Scuffs in the dirt right off the road. She was definitely taken, sir.”
    â€œWe’ve had men combing the woods since.”
    Good and bad. If the little girl was near, she’d be found. And if not, well, valuable clues might have been trampled into oblivion.
    Riker cleared his throat again. “The