New Comment… New DM… Mentioned in a Thread…
She climbed into the car and tossed the phone onto the passenger seat like it was radioactive.
Reid watched her drive away.
He knew that look.
The world was calling, and it wasn’t asking—it was demanding a piece of her.
Burke watched the crews pack up.
“They’re going to keep pulling,” he said quietly.
“I know,” Reid replied.
Burke’s gaze drifted briefly toward the far side of the square—the edge of the crowd where a man stood watching the courthouse steps.
He wasn’t holding a phone.
He wasn’t wearing a podcast shirt.
He was a man in a worn canvas coat, watching the building like he was waiting for it to bleed.
Burke adjusted his hat, his eyes narrowing as the man turned and disappeared into the shadows of the alley.
“Make sure nothing follows her home,” Burke said quietly.
10
Lila Grant — Live from the woods
“Tonight, we’re standing where one missing woman was finally found,”Lila said softly, the cross and flowers visible behind her.“Lauren Pierce vanished three years before anyone found her. Her bones didn’t just turn up in these woods; someone brought them here and left them beside Deputy Sara Parker’s badge.”
“Tomorrow, we begin following the trail of another woman who never did.”
The camera drifted slowly across the clearing. The white ribbon. The flowers. The dark line of trees beyond.
“Caroline Simms disappeared eight years ago,”Lila continued. “Nobody. No answers. Just a car abandoned on the side of the road and a little boy left behind.”
She looked back toward the cross.
“But tonight, we pay our respects to one woman who never made it home—and who now lies in the Jackson County cemetery.”
“Because in Sylva, the mountains keep their secrets. Until they don’t.”
The branch snapped again.
Closer.
A sharp scream ripped through the trees. Not distant. Not faint. Close.
Chat detonated.
did someone just scream
this is real
call the sheriff
