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“You think there could be security measures?” Haldyn asked quietly.
“I think it’s damned likely. We just need to find out.”
“I have my flashlight in my Jeep,” Zoey said. “I’ll grab it.”
Five minutes later, Jarrod stepped through the door.
54
Haldyn waited until Jarrod and Gunnar gave the all-clear. Jarrod came back to where the rest of them waited. “It’s locked. But…if Powell says we can, we are going to kick through it. I think Gunnar’s looking forward to it. He seems to be a bit pissy tonight. Not his usual doofus self.”
Powell nodded. “Go ahead. Let that Neanderthal destroy things. Today, I just don’t care. I want to know what’s in that room.”
Haldyn silently echoed Powell’s words. She hadn’t processed this part of the house after what had happened. If she had, would she have ever thought to check for a hidden passageway?
If Hope hadn’t been there tonight, they might not have found this room until the house was demolished. When things were already destroyed.
The sound of someone getting in that door echoed down the hidden hallway.
“Hell, Erickson is starting without us,” Jarrod said. Then he, Jake, and Murdoch were down in that hall.
“They are like little boys on an adventure sometimes,” Zoey said. “We’d better get down there. Someone has to be the voice of reason with those guys.”
“But where’s the fun in being reasonable?” Hope asked. “I want to see what’s down there. I wonder why the builders never put these rooms on the floor plans?”
“P-p-panic rooms?” Shelby said quietly. Haldyn knew her friend had one in her home. Shelby just never spoke about it.
“We have one of those, too—Summer uses it as a second pantry mostly. And a place to store her seeds and stuff. She really likes to garden and we can or freeze the vegetables. We stuck a freezer in there, too. It’s on the first floor. You can access it through two of the bedrooms. Summer grows lots of different stuff. She even has her own line of seeds she sells online, and cloth diapers and other green-type things. Don’t ask that girl about climate change and global warming and the environment. Unless you have a few hours to be educated. And, well, the veggies do come in handy, since feeding so many of us can get really expensive.”
“Storm shelters, maybe?” Haldyn said. She would never forget the terror she’d experienced out on scene when the F4 had hit Finley Creek. “But those would be marked.”
“I think they were just…secrets,” Powell said. “Like one of those little Easter eggs some builders leave. Like a note or an object in the wall. Or…maybe it was just a design flaw the builders capitalized on?”
“S-s-speakeasies?” Shelby said. “Or a h-h-hidden cellar to keep illegal booze?”
That made sense, too. “That’s a good possibility. Considering when these houses were all built.”
“Whatever it is, ladies, do we really want the boys to get to see it first?” Madison’s words sent them all hurrying down that hallway. The answers they had been searching for could be right down there waiting for them now.
There was no way she wanted to miss this.
55
“Well, hot damn.” Jarrod bit back a whistle. He almost didn’t believe what he was seeing. Wall-to-wall filing cabinets filled the small room. And there was a desk, plain and serviceable, not that different from the ones at the TSP, right in the middle. “A secret office. One that was missed. Surprise, surprise.”
“Don’t touch anything!” Haldyn’s voice came from the small door Gunnar had kicked in. “Guys, my people weren’t the ones who processed this floor. A team from Wichita Falls did.”
Jarrod turned. Looked at the woman who’d come from Wichita Falls. “You don’t happen to know who, do you?”
“I’m sorry. I don’t. It wasn’t my case—and I was low woman on the ladder back then. Grunt work, babe. Grunt work,” Hope said.
“I don’t know that I would have found this if I’d processed down here either. You know…if I wasn’t a victim at the time,” Madison said. “It is the most well-hidden room I’ve ever seen.”
Haldyn stepped further into the room. Blocking everyone from taking another step. “And that means…this room was never processed. No one touch anything yet. Mads and Zo and Shel definitely cannot touch anything.”
“Why?” Powell asked.
Jarrod’s eyes met Haldyn’s. “Because we never officially closed the case. As long as the shooters are out there, this is an active investigation. And that means?—"
