Hart’s Ridge by Kay Bratt

Author:Kay Bratt [Bratt, Kay]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-01-09T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 18

This must be exactly what the walking dead feels like. Taylor finished the very last drops of her coffee and grabbed the leash off the hook. Her body was stiff, and every muscle ached, especially her neck which tended to hold all her tension.

When she’d rolled out of bed, her phone was lit up with a message from Penner. Your sister bailed out by Roland Ellis. Long rap sheet. Enticement of a minor, assault and battery, domestic violence in the second degree. That’s just page one. Bad dude.

His report made her morning that much worse. She didn’t understand how Lucy was such a magnet for the scumbags who found her. Taylor couldn’t deal with it today, though. The sheriff had decided to pull her off patrol and let her work with Shane on finding Joni Stott, or at least work to find out if she was even a missing person. The only thing new they had right now was that Molly’s father’s alibi was confirmed. He hadn’t left the training site in weeks.

Taylor wanted to get to the station before Shane and get some work done while Joni’s mother and sister were visiting with Molly. No doubt she’d hightail it to them as her next stop and complain that she couldn’t take her granddaughter with her that day.

Poor Wesley didn’t know what was about to hit him. She had touched base with him the night before, giving him the short version of what was going on and asking him to be present with Molly and her family instead of letting a less-experienced caseworker do it, but she hoped he woke with a lot of patience. She wanted to be there herself, but that wasn’t her call, and she didn’t want to rock the boat.

“Come on, B.” She opened the door and stepped out, immediately squinting at the bright sunlight, then struggled for the sunglasses atop her head.

She had exactly half an hour before she needed to be at the station. Switching shifts for this case had her routines and patterns all screwed up. Normally, she’d still be sleeping off the night shift at this time.

Bernard leapt to his feet and joined her on the porch, his tail pumping air at the glee of an impending walk.

“At least one of us has some energy,” she mumbled, then didn’t hook him, trusting that he wouldn’t run. She bunched the leash up in her hand, and they took off.

Her night was more restless than usual, filled with questions about Joni Stott and worries about Lucy and her dad. Once she left the station, she’d driven home on autopilot, checked to see if she had any emails from Lucy, then dropped her clothes and crawled into the bed without a shower or even so much as washing her face.

“This way, boy,” Taylor called out, then turned down a worn path behind her house.

Bernard followed, eager to explore somewhere new.

Turned out that dealing with a passive-aggressive and narcissistic woman like Sheila Stott was more exhausting than any foot chase behind all her fleeing criminals put together.

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