Missing by Debra Webb

Author:Debra Webb [Webb, Debra]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Romance, Contemporary, Fiction
ISBN: 9780373695379
Google: oSHp_w24J1EC
Goodreads: 10387050
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2010-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

10:00 p.m.

Scott parked his car alongside the dirt road and sat in the dark for several minutes.

He’d followed Harry Shepherd here just before dark. The narrow deserted road made tailing him damned hard considering there was no traffic in which to blend. Old Harry obviously had had other things on his mind. Otherwise he’d surely have noticed Scott in his rearview mirror.

Scott had stayed way, way back, mind you. But even at dusk and with his headlights off, the man should have noticed a vehicle following him. All the more reason to be suspicious.

Harry was up to no good.

Now, well after dark, Scott had returned. He would soon know what Harry had been up to.

Fumbling for his flashlight, Scott wrapped the fingers of one hand around his granddaddy’s shotgun and snatched up the flashlight with the other. His granddaddy had used the shotgun to keep the riffraff run off his place. When he’d died he’d left it to Scott. Scott had done a mental eye roll at the time. Like he would ever shoot a gun for any reason.

But he’d matured since then. He now knew that there was a time when a man had to do things he didn’t like to do. Like carry a gun. He wasn’t about to go into those woods without something to defend himself. His granddaddy’s shotgun would do just fine. Luther Stubblefield at the hardware store had suggested buckshot since Scott wasn’t an accomplished marksman. All he had to do was get close enough, and the buckshot would spread out in a wide pattern when fired, making it pretty difficult to miss a target.

The remark had offended Scott. So he’d opted for the kind of ammo that would take down an elephant. Besides, Scott had no fear of missing if anyone got in his face. In particular, he was not afraid of Harry Shepherd. Whatever he was hiding in that old dilapidated shack in the woods, Scott intended to have a look.

If it was that child, Polly, he also intended to see that Harry Shepherd paid for his evil, conniving ways. He and that harlot Carol Talbot.

Climbing out of his car, Scott couldn’t help seeing the irony in the moment. This pathetic shack was on the old Talbot place. The farm hadn’t been lived on or tended in decades. The woods had taken over the clearing where the chief’s great-great grandfather had homesteaded way back when. Nobody ever came out here. Not since the chief and his wife had abandoned the place after their daughter’s death. Why should they come anyway? There was nothing here. It was places like this that affirmed Scott’s certainty that he did not belong in Alabama. A judgeship would make his life here more tolerable, but that wasn’t likely to happen for a few years yet.

As for the missing child, Scott felt confident the chief’s men had given the place a cursory search when she first went missing. No doubt that move had been anticipated and she’d been moved here after the search.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.