Tagalong by George Encizo

When the ten-year-old daughter of a prominent attorney is kidnapped, Sheriff JD Pickens goes into overdrive to recover the girl only to discover that things aren’t always how they appear. For one thing, the daughter was adopted and doesn’t know it. For another, her uncle is a federal prosecutor who wants to help. Then there is the ransom note – an email message that warns the girl’s mother not to contact the authorities. Fearful for her daughter’s life, she is reluctant to talk to the sheriff, but she’s known him all her life and used to tagalong with him and her brother when they were teenagers.
Pickens needs to work the clues, and they are few to begin with. The glimpse of a white van that doesn’t belong in the neighborhood leads to the hunt for a sketch artist to draw a composite portrait. Pickens calls on a private investigator with another skill set and to get more information from the mother. The mother reveals that her daughter was adopted. Concerned the the abduction might involve the birth parents. Pickens immediately wonders if this might be a lead, a motive for someone to grab the girl. Informed that trying to open closed adoptions was ill-advised and not to go there but pursue another avenue.
When a suspect tosses out a cigarette butt, Pickens manages to collect DNA. Putting a hard rush on the DNA, and once it’s uploaded to CODIS, all hell breaks out because the FBI has warrants out for the suspect on other charges. The girl’s DNA was uploaded to another database due to healthcare issues from several years earlier. The suspect turns out to be the girl’s biological father.
By the time the genetics get sorted out and surveillance drones confirm the location where the girl is kept, the manhunt is in position with sniper and FBI agents included. But a tangled past, and a determined little girl will jeopardize the rescue.