Chapter 19

NINETEEN

Derrick combed missing persons databases again and found two teens reported missing, thought to be runaways from a town fifty miles north of Coal Mountain. There were also reports of a twenty-year-old from Dawsonville and a baby missing from Dahlonega.

But no children matching the description of the twins.

On the off chance the girls had been abducted and their parents injured or killed in the process, he also inquired about adults reported missing, and discovered one thirty-five-year-old female who'd disappeared from Canton, Georgia, but she had no children. A man thought to have abandoned his family had been found in an automobile accident, but his sons were with their mother. No missing daughters.

Derrick put out feelers across the board and promised photographs of the twins but decided to wait until Dr. Whitefeather made them more presentable.

Derrick's heart gave a pang. He'd lost his own little sister years ago to a psychopath and still had nightmares about what happened to her before she died. How terrified she must have been. How alone.

If she'd lived, what would her life look like? Would she be married? Have a family?

Guilt had eaten at him for years and always would.

Shaking off his emotions, he turned back to the case. He couldn't do anything now about his sister's death, but he could find the monster who'd left those girls out in the cold.

Next, he phoned hospitals within a thirty-mile radius of Emerald Falls for adults brought in for medical treatment.

A woman in a car accident had been admitted to Coal Mountain Hospital mid-morning, unconscious. The staff refused to release any information about her medical condition, so he decided to question her himself.