On the Hunt

by SUE FINEMAN

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  On the Hunt ~ Blurb

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  On the Edge ~ Excerpt

  Gregory Series Info

  Backlist

  About the Author

  ON THE HUNT

  by

  Sue Fineman

  On the Hunt

  Copyright © 2011 Sue Fineman

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from Sue Fineman.

  Published Amazon KDP

  Seattle, WA

  Electronic KDP Edition: August, 2011

  This book is a work of fiction and all characters exist solely in the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Any references to places, events or locales are used in a fictitious manner.

  Mia Gregory walks away from her job as a police officer in Tacoma and unknowingly steps into more danger in Clover Hills. She knows FBI Special Agent Dave Montgomery, her brother’s best friend, wouldn’t be in disguise in the little mountain town without good reason.

  Three girls are missing, and the local police refuse to get involved. One girl turns up dead and one is found alive, and the search for the third girl intensifies. But someone not only wants the FBI out of Clover Hills, they want Mia dead.

  Years ago, Mia had a huge crush on Dave and he still has the power to stir her senses. It would be so easy to fall in love with him, but she can’t allow it to happen. With a killer on the loose and lives in jeopardy, it would be foolish to go beyond friendship.

  * On the Hunt is Book Three in the Gregory Series *

  http://suefineman.blogspot.com/

  CHAPTER ONE

  “Administrative leave,” said the captain. “Avoid the press until the situation blows over and make an appointment to see the counselor.”

  “Yes, sir.” The situation wouldn’t blow over anytime soon. Not for her. Every time Mia Gregory closed her eyes, she saw the kid coming at her, blood dripping off the knife he’d just used to kill another kid. The crack of her partner’s gunshot still echoed in her head.

  Maybe a change of scenery would end her nightmares. Aside from her brother’s wedding in Texas last year, she hadn’t taken a vacation in years. She’d used all her vacation time on ballroom dance competitions and the visit to her former fiancé’s home in Boston. But that disaster was best forgotten.

  Her brother, Chance, suggested she check out the little house in Clover Hills Aunt Leona had left to Mia and her three brothers. It was a good time to go. In mid-October, the summer hikers and campers should be gone. Although an early snow wasn’t unusual in the mountains, it was too early in the season to get snowed in by a heavy snowstorm.

  Mia packed a few things, left a message with Chance’s paralegal, and headed for the cabin. Clover Hills was in the Cascade Mountains, a two-hour drive from Tacoma. The tension in her neck eased as she pulled out into traffic. She could almost smell the fresh mountain air.

  The drive into the mountains lifted her spirits. She loved this time of year, when the leaves began to change color. Tendrils of smoke rose from chimneys along the way, and Halloween decorations on porches reminded her of the upcoming holiday. She couldn’t wait to build a crackling fire in the big stone fireplace in Aunt Leona’s house and settle in the rocking chair beside it with a cup of hot cocoa and a good book.

  Mia pulled up in front of Aunt Leona’s house and stared. It looked more run-down than she remembered, but she hadn’t been here in three or four years. From the looks of the place, no one had been here since then. She glanced over at the neighbor’s house to see Mrs. Snyder peeking around her drapes.

  Ignoring the snoopy old woman next door, Mia walked up the porch steps and unlocked the front door. A stale, musty smell assaulted her nose, and she propped the door wide open to get some fresh air inside. As she walked through the house, she realized she’d have to clean out some of the dust before she could even sleep here.

  After she put the sheets and towels in the washer, Mia ran the vacuum cleaner in the living room. She looked up and saw a police officer standing just inside the front door, gun drawn and pointed at her. Momentarily stunned, she froze. What in the hell did he think she intended to do, suck him into the vacuum cleaner?

  Mia slowly reached down and turned off the vacuum. “You’d better have a damned good reason for coming into my home and threatening me.”

  He lowered the gun. “You own this place?”

  “Damn right I do. My Aunt Leona died and left it to me and my brothers.” Mia suddenly understood what happened. “Did Mrs. Snyder call you?”

  “Do you know Mrs. Snyder?”

  “Yes, and she knows me. I haven’t been here in a few years, so maybe she didn’t recognize me.”

  What was with Mrs. Snyder anyway? When Mia was a little girl, she used to watch the Gregory kids through her window. When her husband yelled at them, she cried. Mia had always felt a little sorry for her because she looked so sad.

  The cop holstered his gun and asked for her ID. She walked to the kitchen, took her license out of her wallet, and handed it to him. He examined it and handed it back. He didn’t ask if she was the cop involved in the shooting in Tacoma. With any luck, he wouldn’t make the connection.

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  From his appearance, FBI Special Agent Dave Montgomery looked like any other mountain climber. He had all the equipment and proper clothes, right down to his plaid flannel shirt and well-worn hiking boots. He’d already decided not to announce his presence in Clover Hills until after he scoped out the town and the residents, including the police officers who protected the citizens of the little town.

  He flew his private plane into the Tacoma Narrows Airport in Gig Harbor, and drove the late-model SUV his people had rented for him through Tacoma and into the Cascade Mountains.

  He checked into the only hotel in Clover Hills, the Four Leaf Clover. The building had a restaurant on the main floor, a game room in the back with an ongoing poker game that fleeced soldiers from Ft. Lewis, and a bar that provided adult entertainment. The female agent he’d sent last month didn’t get past the bouncer at the door of the game room. She’d told Dave women weren’t permitted in the back unless they worked there, and she didn’t want to blow her cover by pushing her way in. She was on another assignment now.

  The second and third floors of the building each held twelve rooms. The only elevator looked and sounded like a relic from the past. Hearing the squeak and grind and thump of the mechanism had convinced him not to use it. He walked up two flights with his backpack, the only luggage he’d brought from the plane.

  The room, like the building, had a certain appeal, if you liked the rustic look. The red and blue plaid bedspread matched the drapes, and the worn brown carpet looked like it should have been replaced a generation ago. The headboard, dresser, and nightstand were all made of natural-finished pine. A tiny pine table and two hard chairs sat under the window. Every stick of furniture in the room had cigarette burns on it, and one of the legs on the table was shorter than the others. Someone had stuck a book of matches under the short leg, a disaster waiting to happen.

  He looked around and sighed. At least it wasn’t a hole in the gr
ound.

  Why couldn’t he get the cushy assignments, with the luxury hotels, gourmet restaurants, and elegant women? Every woman he’d seen here had been the outdoor type, sturdy and solid. Granola girls. They had about as much appeal as men with boobs.

  Dave’s neck itched. He’d never liked wearing a beard, especially a scruffy, untrimmed one. His friends wouldn’t recognize him if they saw him looking like this, and his family would most likely disown him. He didn’t like the disguise himself, but it served the purpose.

  He unpacked his laptop with all the information on the missing girls and spent several minutes shaking out clothes and hanging them up. And then he went to work, sending and receiving emails, reviewing detailed maps of the town showing locations of the homes of the three missing girls, and scratching his face. Damn beard itched like crazy.

  The restaurant offered room service, but he wanted to scope out the people and find the game room and bar. It was Tuesday, and he expected the middle-of-the-week clientele to be different from those who came here on the weekends. According to the desk clerk, the hotel didn’t do much business during the week, which suited him just fine.

  After he put his laptop away, Dave locked his room and walked downstairs to the restaurant, which was one big open room with the kitchen behind a high counter. No one sat in the small non-smoking section.

  “Are you eating alone?” asked the waitress whose nametag read Peggy. “We normally put single folks at the big table in the middle, so they have someone to talk to while they eat.”

  “Sounds good to me.” What better way to get to know the citizens of Clover Hills?

  He sat with two other men, locals he assumed, and one women he recognized. The way her eyes widened when she looked at him, he knew she recognized him, so before she could speak, he said, “I’m David Daniels.”

  The men both introduced themselves. His best friend’s sister said, “I’m Mia Gregory. It’s nice to meet you, David. What brings you to Clover Hills? Are you here on vacation?”

  “In a way,” Dave said, relieved she hadn’t blown his cover. “I lost my job and thought I’d bum around until the job market picked up. What about you? Are you here on vacation?”

  “My brothers and I inherited my aunt’s house here in town, so I came up to spend a few weeks, get it cleaned up and maybe put it on the market.”

  Dave cocked his head. “You know, my brother has been looking for a second home. He’s always bragging about how he got in on Microsoft in the beginning. The way he talks, he can afford to buy the whole town.”

  “Well, then, why don’t you stop by tomorrow and take a look? See what you think.”

  Dave flashed a smile. “I’ll do that.” He produced a pen and she wrote the address on her napkin and handed it to him.

  It was the first time he’d seen Mia without her brother Greg around. She was a beauty, rather exotic looking, with a dancer’s lithe body. Her long hair hung loose and draped seductively over one shoulder. Maybe this assignment wasn’t such a dog after all. Seeing Mia opened all kinds of possibilities. She wasn’t a blonde, but she was gorgeous.

  Mia watched Dave talk with one of the men. His bright blue eyes took in everything, and she wondered why he came to Clover Hills. There must be something going on here or he wouldn’t wear that scruffy disguise. The Dave Montgomery she knew wouldn’t be caught dead in an outfit like that. His worn jeans bagged on him, and his elbows poked through the holes in his faded flannel shirt. Dave always dressed well, had his hair neatly trimmed, and usually wore Italian loafers. Although she couldn’t see his feet at that moment, she somehow knew he wasn’t wearing Italian loafers tonight. And the shaggy beard looked just awful.

  Mia stood to leave, and one of the men asked, “You aren’t walking home by yourself, are you?”

  With a smile, Mia said, “I don’t need a chaperone, if that’s what you’re asking.”

  “Haven’t you heard about them three girls that come up missing?”

  Her cop’s instincts kicked in and her smile slid away. “No. What girls?”

  “The first was Tonya Ayers. Her poor mama’s going crazy trying to find her.”

  “Ayers?” The name sounded familiar.

  “Yep, over on Rainier Street.”

  She nodded. “I know the family. Who else?”

  “Meredith Cooper and Nadine Lynderman,” said the other man. “They disappeared during the summer, Tonya a few weeks before school let out.”

  Mia had met Tonya Ayers, but not the other two girls.

  “I’ll walk you home,” said Dave. “I need some fresh air.”

  Mia nodded her thanks and said goodbye to their dinner companions. This would give her a chance to speak with Dave alone and ask about the missing girls.

  Dave ran upstairs to get his coat and she waited by the door, remembering the Christmas her youngest brother brought his college roommate home for Christmas. Dave, bright and funny and sexy as hell, had kept his distance from her back then. She didn’t know if it was because she was two years older or because he already had a girlfriend. In those days, Greg and Dave went through girlfriends like pizza, but they had a rule about dating the same women. She wondered if they also had a rule about dating each other’s siblings.

  A minute later, Dave galloped down the stairs and they walked out of the restaurant together. The sky would soon be dark, and Mia worried about him walking back to the hotel. “Maybe we should drive over, David. You’ll never find your way back in the dark.”

  A low chuckle came from deep inside him. “You mean you’re not going to invite me to stay the night?”

  “In your dreams,” she muttered, and he laughed again.

  “I brought a flashlight, and I’d prefer to walk, if that’s all right with you.”

  She shrugged. “Fine. I’d planned to walk anyway.”

  They walked the two short blocks to her aunt’s house, two blocks of small, run-down homes that must have been built nearly a century ago. Rooftops sagged under thick layers of moss and weedy lawns were covered with needles from the fir trees. Smoke curled out the stone chimneys and hung in the cool, crisp air, mingling with the hint of rain. If the temperature fell a few degrees tonight, they could wake up to snow. Living in Denver, Dave was accustomed to snow, but the city snowplows kept the roads cleared. He wondered if this tiny town even had a snow plow.

  He looked down at Mia. She was about five-four and slender. He was six-two. Without thinking, he said, “You’re smaller than I remember.”

  She looked up and smiled. “The last time I saw you, you wore lipstick.”

  “I remember.” He’d been playing a trick on Greg when Mia and her mother walked in. “As I recall, you wore some of my lipstick that night, too.” The kiss started out as fun and ended with his heart thumping wildly, although he’d never had a chance to take it to the next level with most of her family there at the time. Mia wasn’t his type anyway. He preferred leggy blondes.

  “I heard what happened in Tacoma. How long before you have to go back?”

  “I don’t think I’m going back, Dave. If my partner hadn’t shot the kid, I would’ve been stabbed, because I couldn’t pull the trigger. The boy’s family claimed the shooting was racially motivated because the officer was white and the kid he shot was black.” She kicked a stone. “I guess no one looked at the color of my skin.”

  “It’s a typical reaction, Mia. They’re looking for someone to blame.”

  “I suppose, but the only color I saw was the red blood dripping off the knife. It didn’t matter to me what color he was. He didn’t look a day over twelve, and I couldn’t shoot a kid.”

  “I hear ya. The first time I had to use my service revolver was in Philly. I worked there as a police officer for about a minute and a half. The kid was seventeen, high on I don’t remember what, and fearless. He fired at everything that moved, including an old man standing on his front porch. He refused to drop the gun, and I had to shoot him. He was Latino, but I didn’t realize that unti
l later. All I saw was the kid’s erratic behavior and that damn gun. He missed the old man’s head by a whisker.”

  “I hate it when people play the race card.”

  “So do I,” said Dave. Mia’s skin was darker than anyone else in her family, her eyes were slightly slanted, and her long, straight, black hair hung to her waist. All four of the kids in their family had been adopted. The only ones related by blood were Greg and Bo, who lived in Texas now. Chance was half Korean, and Mia a mixture of African American, Japanese, and Northern European. Greg used to tease her about being a gypsy because of her appearance and the way she loved to dance, but according to Greg, her ballroom dancing competition days were over. So was her career as a police officer. If one of Dave’s people had frozen up like that, he wouldn’t want them working for him.

  Porch lights came on as the afternoon light disappeared. Dave and Mia walked up the porch steps of a run-down little house. It might have been cute at one time, but now it looked neglected, with green-streaked brown siding and a sagging porch.

  Light spilled out of the window next door as an old woman looked around the drapes. Dave motioned with his head. “Your neighbor is watching us.”

  “Mrs. Snyder. Snoopy Snyder we used to call her. She called the police on me today. She’s always been strange, but I couldn’t believe she called the cops. I was running the vacuum cleaner, and the stupid cop pulled his gun on me.” She cocked her head. “Have you ever known an intruder to vacuum the carpets and leave the door open?”

  “Why don’t we give her something to think about?” he said in a low voice. He wrapped his hands around her tiny waist and leaned in for a kiss. As he tasted her soft, full lips, he grew hungry for more than a kiss. A little sound came from deep inside her and she parted her lips slightly, inviting more. And he took more. Pulling her tightly against his aroused body, he kissed her slowly and thoroughly, a kiss she returned with passion. For a minute, he forgot they were doing this to rattle her neighbor. He was the one rattled, and from the way Mia breathed, she was, too. “Should we try it again?” Gazing into her eyes, he whispered, “Please?”