Lainey Emerson's dysfunctional family makes her the perfect target for an online predator seeking out vulnerable young teenage girls -- pretty little things. When she doesn't come home from school one Friday afternoon, no one seems too concerned. By the end of the weekend, her mother finally contacts the police. After checking out the terrible family situation, the police are quick to write it off as another runaway teen. Everyone that is except FDLE Special Agent Bobby Dees, head of the Crimes Against Children Squad in Miami for the past 10 years. His uncanny ability to locate missing children has earned him quite a reputation, even if he hasn't been able to find his own missing teenage daughter.
After confiscating Lainey's computer, Bobby uncovers a secret online relationship she had with someone calling himself El Capitan. Further investigation reveals the man to be a predator of young girls, especially after he starts sending horrific paintings of his victims to a local reporter. With the media now involved, pressure is high to find this evil killer before more girls are murdered. Bobby's expertise is put to the test, as the situation becomes even worse.
Jilliane Hoffman ratchets up the suspense in this chilling thriller with a powerful message about the dangers lurking on the Internet for the unsuspecting. In a plot ripped from the headlines, readers will not be able to put PRETTY LITTLE THINGS down until the final explosive ending.
When a young girl goes missing, only Special Agent Bobby
Dees has a chance of finding her. It seems Elaine Emerson
was last seen waiting to meet a mysterious figure she met
secretly on the Internet β a man whose reality is as cruel
and chilling as the worst thing Dees can imagine.
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 manβs problems β 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
departmentβs difficult Crimes Against Children (CAC) Squad
in Miami for more than a decade, is not quite so sure.
Nicknamed βThe Shepherdβ by colleagues, he has an uncanny
ability to find the missing and bring them back home β dead
or alive. Haunted by the still unsolved disappearance of
his own daughter, Bobby recognizes the all too familiar
upswell inside him, the gut feeling that Lainey Emerson is
no runaway.
A search of Laineyβs 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 online predator, and he fears she may
not be the only one.
The faceless monster from cyberspace, who has gone to
remarkable lengths to stay invisible, now seeks a captive
audience. And it is Bobby Dees he wants watching. Can Bobby
win this deadly game of cat-and-mouse, one involving the
most prolific killer he has ever encountered? And will he
be able to save Lainey and the others before it's too late?
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