Pretty Little Things

SUMMARY: Thirteen-year-old Lainey Emerson is the middle child in a household that police are already familiar with: her mother works too much and her step-father favors his own blood over another man's problems--namely, Lainey and her wild older sister, Liza. So when Lainey does not come home from a Friday night out with her friends, it is dismissed by the Coral Springs Police Department as just another disillusioned South Florida teen running away from suburban drama and an unhappy home life.But Special Agent Bobby Dees, who has headed up the department's di4cult Crimes Against Children (CAC) Squad in Miami for more than a decade, is not quite so sure. Nicknamed "The Shepherd" by colleagues, he has an uncanny ability to find the missing and bring them back home--dead or alive. Haunted by the still unsolved disappearance of his own daughter, Bobby recognizes the all too familiar up-swell inside him, the gut feeling that Lainey Emerson is no runaway.A search of Lainey's computer and a talk with her best friend reveal Lainey was involved in a secret Internet relationship, spawned over a chat room, and nurtured through untraceable instant messages. Bobby fears she may be the victim of an on-line predator, and he fears she may not be the only one. A terrifying new standalone psycholgical thriller from the bestselling author of 'Retribution' and 'The Cutting Room.' Dozens of teenage girls are going missing in Miami. And for Special Agent Bobby Dees of Florida's Crimes Against Children squad their families' pain is all too real. So when thirteen-year-old Lainey Emerson doesn't return from her date with 'El Capitan', a mysterious figure she met online, he vows to do whatever he can to bring her back. But as the missing reappear, gruesomely murdered with clues pointing to a collection of abductees, it becomes chillingly clear there's a serial killer on the loose. It's every parent's worst nightmare and, with the murderer always one step ahead of the police, can Dees save Lainey before it's too late? Special Agent Bobby Dees knows what grief feels like. He understands the pain of losing a child. And he'll do whatever he can to prevent it from happening again.The phone call that comes on a Sunday morning will take him away from his insular world of grief and sleepless nights – and into a far darker place. A young girl, Elaine Emerson, has gone missing and only Dees has a chance of finding her.It seems that Elaine was last seen waiting to meet her boyfriend - a mysterious figure she met secretly on the internet, who goes by the name of "El Capitan", and whose reality is as cruel and chilling as the worst thing Dees can imagine...