Read Online Diabolical (Shaye Archer Series Book 3) by Jana DeLeon - Free Book Online

to launch full speed into finding the girl Clancy had sold, but before he even finished pouring coffee, he and Grayson had to take a homicide call. It had turned out to be a simple one as far as police and legal work went. A man tweaking on something had broken into a woman’s house and attacked her. She managed to get a shot off in the struggle and it went straight through the perp’s heart.
    Open and shut on their end. Unfortunately, the perp was the woman’s brother, so it wasn’t over for her, maybe never would be. Still, she had a restraining order against him due to a previous attack and he was wanted for stabbing a man two nights before, so the ADA had taken one look at the facts and said he wouldn’t pursue charges.
    But even the simple ones took time. Time to process the crime scene. Time to interview witnesses. Time to put the facts together and present them to the ADA. So it was midafternoon before they grabbed some takeout Chinese food and headed back to the police station.
    For the last hour, Jackson had been reviewing files for missing children in New Orleans and calling to get updates if any were available. He tossed his pen on the conference table in disgust. Over twenty missing children, and that was the ones who got reported. How many others had slipped through the cracks in the system and taken off from a bad situation at home? Six fit the age range of the teen Clancy had sold, but two had returned home, another was found living with the noncustodial parent, and the fourth had been picked up working at a strip club.
    “Anything?” Grayson’s voice sounded behind him as he walked into the conference room.
    “Two still missing that fit the criteria, but neither feels right.”
    Grayson looked over Jackson’s shoulder at his laptop. “Why not? Looks like either one could work.”
    Jackson hesitated a moment before replying. The theory that had bounced around his mind the entire time he’d searched the database seemed sound when he was keeping it to himself, but now, when faced with saying it out loud, it sounded like a huge guess with nothing to back it up.
    “Out with it, Lamotte,” Grayson said. “I told you if something got on your radar, let me know. Leave it up to me to reel you in if I think you’re too far out in left field.”
    “Okay, well, I was thinking that the child he bought this time was the same age as Shaye when she escaped.”
    Grayson’s eyebrows went up. “I hadn’t thought about it that way, but you’re right. You think that’s significant?”
    “I don’t know, but what if he wanted to pick up where he left off?”
    “Nine years later?”
    “I know it sounds crazy, but if that was what he had in mind, then I was thinking he might want a girl not only the same age but who also looked like Shaye. One of these girls has blond hair and the other red. Both were overweight and fairly short.”
    Grayson frowned but didn’t dismiss Jackson’s theory. “So nothing at all like Shaye, physically.” He put his hands in the air. “Okay, so let’s say you’re right and it’s neither of these two. Where do we go now? Broaden the search to Baton Rouge?”
    “We can, but we know Clancy was working New Orleans at the time this girl was sold. She could have come to New Orleans from another city, but it’s more likely she’s from New Orleans or somewhere nearby.”
    “If that’s the case, then we’ve got a big hole in our data. If this girl was off-grid as far as social services is concerned and the parents are a no-show, she might never be reported.”
    “I know.” Jackson struggled to control his frustration. He tapped his desk, staring at the monitor as if a solution were going to materialize on the screen. “What about this? If the girl is local and not reported, then she’s got a crap home situation, right?”
    “That’s probably a given.”
    “Then chances are social services would have been called in, at least once.”
    Grayson shook his head. “There’s