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Now we’ve done all we can.
18/
adam
The sun was setting when we pulled up to the barn, casting long shadows across the dirt road and painting the sky with shades of orange and pink. It was a picture-perfect sight, like something you’d find on a Charlotte Oaks postcard at the truck stop nearby.
I nodded to Shep as he got out of his cruiser, and we cautiously made our way through the barn doors to clear it. Our flashlights cut through the darkness, illuminating the dust particles floating in the air. I wrinkled my nose as I looked behind old barrels and into broken stalls. The place smelled like damp wood and hay, and the faint rustle of critters made me grateful for the sturdy boots on my feet.
Other than a couple of startled mice, the barn seemed clear.
“Ocean-213,” I said into my radio, pausing until I heard Hope’s reply. “Barn’s Code 4. Movin’ out back to find the cellar.”
“10-4,” Hope replied.
I pictured Paisley sitting next to her, wondering if she was following along with this call or if she’d already moved on to the next. I’d seen her name on the call when I’d scanned through it from my portable computer inside my vehicle. Hope had been the one to air out the details about the entry points of the barn and the location of the cellar, but the notes on that? They’d beenentered by Paisley. Which meant, she’d done some digging on her own to find that info, and she’d done it knowing the more we knew the safer we’d be.
“Ready?” Shep asked when he joined me at the center of the barn.
I nodded, and we stepped back out into the fading light—this time, through the rear entrance on the North side of the structure. Cautiously, we approached the cellar doors. If the padlock was on, there was no sense busting it open to clear it. We had no right to enter since the barn was clear, and there was no sign suggesting Bell’s fiancee was anywhere near this property. The note at James Bell’s house was likely some kind of joke, but I was glad we’d checked it out, just the same.
“Not really the kinda town for a kidnap and ransom, is it?” Shep mused, looking around the field.
I raised a brow at him. “Shep, what does a kidnap-and-ransom town even look like? You think they warn ya with street signs on the way in?”
“No,” he said with a huff. “I’m just sayin’. People like—and serial killers, too—probably just steer clear of this place.”
“Why?”
He leveled me with a look and lowered his chin. “Man, can you imagine if some crook broke into ol’ Mrs. McClusky’s house? After you told me you saw her at Travis’s gym, I went by to check it out.”
“Teacher’s pet.”
“Not my fault she liked me best. Anyway, I don’t think a robbery like that would end well for the bad guy after watchin’ her throw punches.”
“You might be onto somethin’ there.”
I smiled as I pictured Mrs. M practicing the moves she’d learned at The Floating Butterfly on an unsuspecting criminal when I looked down at the cellar door. But the second my brainmade sense of what my eyes were seeing, my mouth pulled into a grim line.
Nodding at Shep, I silently pointed out the busted padlock lying on the ground, backing up as I took in the disturbances in the dirt around it.
Someone had definitely been here recently.
We backed up, and I leaned over to Shep. “What was that you were sayin’ about this town not bein’ the kinda place for this?”
He looked around, shrugging one shoulder. “Huh. Yeah, now that you mention it, is does look like every other small town you see on those murder shows, doesn’t it?”
“Ocean-213 to base,” I said into my radio, shaking my head at him.
“Base to Ocean-213, go ahead.”
“We found the cellar entrance. Padlock’s busted, and there are tracks in the dirt.”
“Copy that, 213,” Hope replied, her voice soft but steady. “Do you need another unit?”
“Negative,” I responded, glancing over at Shep.
He gave me a nod, letting me know he was ready. We stepped forward, opening the doors as quietly as we could.
