Meanwhile, Miller was searching under the bed, and behind furniture, while Merek had opened up the closet door, his senses alerting him to something inside. The hinges of the folding doors squealed in protest at being pulled, but open they did, to reveal a row of dark suits and a Piel leather garment bag. Merek gave a low whistle of appreciation.
“Good taste.” He held out a suit, and held it against Miller. The owner of the suit was about the same height, but with a slimmer build.
Merek confirmed the faint trace in the suits of the men’s cologne that he had found in the bathroom, and continued assessing the contents of the closet. Next to the garment bag were two large shopping bags from a local outdoor gear retailer, with clothing items that were completely at odds with the designer suits hanging up. An empty shoe box, that once contained a brand new pair of Keens, size 12, was at the back of the closet floor.
Nothing fishy about buying a whole new wardrobe that didn’t look anything like the clothes that carried your fragrance, offering to pay for a rental property in cash, and inquiring about huge lots of land for sale…from a realtor who ended up dead after you were supposed to meet him in his office. Nope. Nothing at all.
Simon just needed to find information, like a real name, something he could trace. Maybe in the papers on top of the desk, he would get something, anything to feed into his computers.
And then Simon’s blood chilled.
Staring right back at him on the papers he just flipped over was his own image. Walking with the boys and Miller. Through the staff gate that day Col had thought he scented his abductor.
Miller muttered an expletive under his breath. Merek had come up beside him, and was less shy. There was no denying it.
There was a connection between this person looking into his properties and Col’s abduction. A strong likelihood that Blake Rickert’s death was tied into it as well. And somehow, this person got these images from the security feed.
“No way Puma’s involved.” Miller shook his head.
“Puma didn’t go through the footage.” Simon thought of that person that had volunteered to go through the video. Jordy. That was her name. She was eager—in retrospect, maybe too eager—to do so. And come to think of it, the major anomaly in Ops that Puma had come to him with was what had happened with Trish, that led to Jordy getting promoted to Trish’s spot even though she hadn’t been working there all that long. He couldn’t see how Jordy did it, or even confirm that Jordy did something to Trish, but it was awfully convenient.
He’d bet money that if he were to run the security footage through a program to detect deletions or editing, he’d find some. At least the bits that showed the guy they were looking for, coming in through the staff entrance.
Merek was already downstairs, eager to search out the remaining areas. “Yo, found something!”
Miller raced downstairs, while Simon finished looking through the rest of the papers on the desk. Nothing but more printouts, showing clear images of each of the boys. He then put everything back the way he had found it, and went to see what Merek had found.
The door that led to a basement area was open, and apparently they had found a light. Simon went through the doorway and—
The narrow, brick walls instantly began closing in on him. Oh Geez the ceiling was so low, too low, the stairs thin planks of wood. The smell of death, the feeling that all the air was being wicked away from him. The last time he had felt like this, his parents had—Oh Geez, Oh Geez Oh Geez. He could almost hear that chilling voice again.It’s time—
Miller was almost lifting him out bodily from the small stairwell into the kitchen area, where Simon leaned against the counter, tapping his pendant furiously, his heart pounding. Miller ran cold water in the sink, and led Simon over to run his wrists under the calming liquid.
Merek’s huge form emerged from the basement. Miller looked up at him from where he was holding Simon. “You got the pictures?
Merek grunted.
“We’ve seen enough, Simon. We should go as soon as you’re ready.”
Simon shut off the tap. His breathing was still ragged, but at least it was at a slower pace. “I won’t need to go downstairs. But tell me what you found.”
“Human remains.” Merek said, as Simon gulped. “The hiker that we had been searching for. And another male. And the remnants ofMagickalworkings. Miller Armstrong is correct. We must needs tell theVixarand the others of this with no delay.”
“Shouldn’t we call the cops?”
Miller shook his head. “We can phone in an anonymous tip, but I would wait a bit. Whatever happened, didn’t happen in the last few hours. We don’t want to spook the person who did this, because they might leave the area and make it ten times harder to find them. Get the information you need, and then we can hand this over.”
Simon nodded. And promised himself that he would do right by the hiker. And the other victim. As soon as he got to the bottom of this.
