Why me? #MFRWhooks

Don’t Go is a dark romantic suspense that takes place predominantly in Reno. Sam is a Washoe Sheriff detective with a background of sexual abuse. Now she works in teen chatrooms to catch sexual predators.

A serial killer is targeting blonde teen girls in chatroms and one of the girls from Sam’s chatrooms is now missing.

Devlin is a Reno cop who like undercover work and doesn’t do missing kids – except they’re short staffed and he’s assigned a missing girl. He doesn’t believe in relationships and likes one night stands. Now he’s stuck working a case with a computer smart detective who obviously doesn’t do one night stands and has no use for Reno police.

Reluctantly, they must work together to solve this case. Can they resolve their personal issues and bring down a serial killer?

 

 

 

Hot anger burned a hole in his gut as he wrote. He shouldn’t be here with this desperate woman.

“When did you see her last?” he snapped.

Startled, the woman jerked back in her chair. Tears gushed down her hollow cheeks. “Like I said, this…this morning before she left for school, but she didn’t go to school. I don’t know why. She said she was going to school. They phoned and said she wasn’t in class. I didn’t know what to think. Why didn’t she go to school? She’s a good girl. She’s never been any trouble.”

At the woman’s reaction Dev took several deep breaths. It wasn’t her fault he was sitting here getting madder. It was the captain’s—and the flu season. He took a deep breath and slowly counted to ten. “Your husband, will he be coming down?”

“John?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“I’m not sure.” Her eyes clouded over. “He’s…he’s at work today.”

“I see.” Dev shoved his folding metal chair back toward the wall, scraping the legs against the cheap tile covering the cement floor. The grating sound echoed through the room.

His fingers death-gripped the edge of the table, his lips clenched, he yanked himself to his feet. “Excuse me, Mrs. Morrison, I’ll be right back.”

He made it to the door in two strides. The door slammed behind him as he stomped into the corridor. His anger crashed through like a tidal wave. He pounded his fist against the wall, rattling the old photos of every bloody past Reno PD chief and city councilman since the twenties.

“What’re you doin’, O’Reilly? You ain’t finished with her.” Captain Drummond emerged from the room where he’d been watching the interrogation. The man stood over six feet, with a face like a bulldog, and a build to match. He didn’t need to raise his deep voice as it rumbled for several miles around.

No one messed with the captain.

“I couldn’t sit there with that pathetic woman any longer. I would have upset her more. I don’t do missing kids cases anymore, but I still know the drill, and the outcome. I know for a fact with younger kids, forty-four percent are dead within the first hour, seventy-five percent are dead within three hours.”

“So you know the stats. Good for you. Do you know how to work the case?”

“I know we’ve got about seventy-two hours max, to get her back alive. The mother didn’t even report her missing until now. We’ve already lost eight hours.”

“You’re right. So get going and make sure we don’t have another statistic.”

“Look captain, I need to be back in undercover, taking down some scumbag druggie in an alley, getting the information we need.”

“Right, using your gun in his mouth for persuasion? That’s not how we work. We have new ways of policing these days. You need to get with the program.”

“What? We put the criminal first and worrying about the perp’s rights instead of those of the victim. It bugs the hell out of me when some sewer scum bitch-slaps a ninety year old lady for her purse and walks because of a technicality.”

“I agree, so we have to make sure all those technicalities are covered. You need to take care of that attitude, lieutenant.”

Taller than the captain by an inch or two, and twenty years younger, Dev stared at the man parked in front of him.

“You need to get someone else to do this one, captain. I don’t do kids any more. After a few years, burnout gets to you. I do undercover now. Drug deals and murder are cases that actually bring down criminals and make a difference. Why are you assigning this woman to me?”