AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“But officers back at your office are monitoring the security cameras, right?”
“You noticed ’em, huh?” Weeks said, seemingly amused.
“In the treetops on either side of the turnoff.”
Weeks winked at Sims and said to Calder, “We made ’em obvious so they’d serve the same purpose.”
“As what?”
“As real cameras,” Sims said. “They’re dummies.”
“Huh.” Calder looked over at Elle, who silently communicated that she shared his apprehension.
Sensing it, Weeks said, “Hey, not to worry. Y’all are safe. Nobody comes out here.”
“Why not?” Calder asked. “Are the dummy security cameras that much of a deterrent?”
“First off, the house is hard to find.”
Calder nodded. “It must be at least a mile back to the state highway.”
“Less than a half,” Sims said, reaching into his shirt pocket for a toothpick.
“Really?” Calder said. “When we drove it this morning, it seemed farther.”
“Because there’s no landmark to gauge the distance by,” Weeks said. “All pine trees look alike. Unless you’re a park ranger or something.”
“Is that road the only access to the house?”
“The only direct access. But it’s not like people are beating the door down to get into this place.”
“How’d the sheriff’s office come to own it?”
“A few years back, several regional agencies chipped in to buy it to use as a safe house for valuable witnesses like y’all, or women who escaped their abusers. You know, like that.”
“Well, it’s certainly ideal for hiding people, sitting out here all by itself,” Calder said. “No neighbors for miles.”
“Nearest is the Millers’ ranch. That’s at least five miles,” Sims said around the toothpick.
“Besides its being remote,” Weeks said, “the place has a dark history.” He bobbed his eyebrows.
Calder laughed. “Don’t tell me. It was a brothel.”
“No.”
“Speakeasy and gambling hall?”
“Wrong again.”
“It has a ghost?”
Dawn looked at Weeks with wide, frightened eyes.
Weeks grinned. “It’s not haunted, Mrs. Whitley. Not that I know of. But back in the nineties—”
“It was the eighties,” Sims said.
Weeks looked at the older deputy and cocked his head to one side. “You sure about that?”
