Seek And Find

KILLER HEADLINE

Reporter Madison Coles wants to write an exposé on the crime spree rocking Desert Valley, Arizona—but the small town’s residents and police are tight-lipped. Even when Madison herself is attacked, the only help she can get is protection from rookie K-9 officer James Harrison and his trusty bloodhound. Suspicious of the reporter’s motives, the handsome cop keeps her at arm’s length. But the more Madison’s life is threatened, the more focused she is on finding the truth—and the closer she gets to James. Can he help her find the story without them both ending up in the obituary pages?

Rookie K-9 Unit: These lawmen solve the toughest cases with the help of their brave canine partners

“Help me,” Madison managed to whisper to the figure backlit from the sun.

Dust stung her eyes, grit caking her mouth. She did not realize it was James who had entered until his face appeared in the gap under the desk.

“Madison?” He wore an expression of unadulterated surprise and relief. “Thank You, God,” he said.

“I was sitting here saying the same thing,” she replied, crawling out from under the desk. The trailer had collapsed. Someone had made it collapse. Her stomach was flip-flopping madly at the sight of him.

“Are you hurt?” he asked.

She managed a shake of her head before he clutched her to him for just a moment, held tightly against his wide chest, feeling the mad thundering of his heart.

“You’re really okay, then?” he repeated.

“I’m okay.”

But someone didn’t want her to be.

ROOKIE K-9 UNIT:

These lawmen solve the toughest cases with the help of their brave canine partners

Protect and Serve—Terri Reed, April 2016

Truth and Consequences—Lenora Worth, May 2016 Seek and Find—Dana Mentink, June 2016 Honor and Defend—Lynette Eason, July 2016 Secrets and Lies—Shirlee McCoy, August 2016 Search and Rescue—Valerie Hansen, September 2016

DANA MENTINK is an award-winning author of Christian fiction. Her novel Betrayal in the Badlands won a 2010 RT Reviewers’ Choice Best Book Award, and she was pleased to win the 2013 Carol Award for Lost Legacy. She has authored more than a dozen Love Inspired Suspense novels. Dana loves feedback from her readers. Contact her via her website at danamentink.com.

Seek and Find

Dana Mentink

Remember ye not the former things,

neither consider the things of old.

Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth;

shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

—Isaiah 43:18–19

To those faithful K-9 officers and their police handlers, thank you for your dedication and service.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

About the Author

Title Page

Bible Verse

Dedication

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

Sixteen

Seventeen

Eighteen

Nineteen

Twenty

Twenty-One

Twenty-Two

Dear Reader

Extract

Copyright

One

Murder. The word rattled through Madison’s mind along with the outrage. She was driving fast—too fast. Rocks struck the fenders with angry thunks. When the twenty-seven-year-old reporter made the dusty turn that was to take her the final five miles into the hole-in-the-wall town of Desert Valley in northwestern Arizona, her irritation contributed to her lead foot on the gas pedal.

The shooting of a K-9 trainer was just a small piece of the madness in Desert Valley. Homicide, the unsolved attempted murder of a prominent citizen, suspicious cases gone cold. She itched to investigate, but her editor was unmoved by her ambition, sticking her with a story about how the crime spree was hurting business in the area. Other seasoned reporters were working the big cases, and she got stuck with a business story.

Business? When there was a killer roaming loose, or possibly more than one? She felt the familiar hitch in her breathing. Madison knew a thing or two about killers. One might even say it was in her DNA.

Focus, Madison. The most recent slaying, of police-dog master trainer Veronica Earnshaw, had rated a few headlines. On top of that, Marian Foxcroft, wealthy Desert Valley benefactress, lay in a coma after being attacked in her home. But those big stories had been assigned to the senior reporters who’d already wrapped their pieces and left town.

She flipped on her tape recorder. “And what about the deaths on the night of the police fund-raiser dance? A cop’s wife is murdered one year, and then a few years later, rookie Mike Riverton falls down a flight of stairs. And then another rookie, Brian Miller, dies in a fire? All on the night of the dance? Someone should look into that.” She flicked the recorder off and tossed it on the seat in disgust. And that someone should be me. No one had more motivation to look into the deaths than she. After all, I am the daughter of a murderer, she thought with a shiver.

But newly hired reporters with a hundred bucks in their bank accounts and a rent check coming due couldn’t afford to lose their jobs. Besides, she was desperate to put down some roots in Tuckerville, her new home some forty-five minutes away from Desert Valley. She wanted to get used to a rural life for a change, and ideally her sister would stay for a good long while. It was the only way they could learn to love their way past the hurt.