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“I know, but there was something about the way she said it. It sounded... recent.”
“Did she say anything else?”
“She hung up before I could ask.”
“Did you get a name? A number?”
“I have a number. I called back and it rang, but nobody picked up. Something’s not right about this. I could hear it in her voice. She seemed scared, Ash. Really scared.”
Ash grunted. “You’ve got to be kidding me. It’s probably just some kid playing a prank.”
Every instinct he had screamed otherwise. “I really don’t think so. Could you trace the call?”
There was another moment of silence, then a resigned sigh. “Yeah. I’ll see what I can do. In. The. Morning.”
“And keep me posted.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Ash said dismissively and hung up, but Cal knew he’d do it. Despite their constant bickering and Ash’s tough exterior, he was a good cop and a better man. He wouldn’t brush this off.
Knowing sleep would be impossible, he ran through a shower, changed his clothes, and headed into his office. To his surprise, Ash called back less than two hours later. Apparently, the sheriff hadn’t been able to sleep, either.
“It’s a payphone.”
He sat back in his office chair. “I didn’t realize payphones still exist.”
“Me either, but there are still two working ones in the county. One’s at the truck stop outside of town. It works, but it’s more of a novelty than anything else.”
“And the other?”
“Is at the old general store on Redwood Road.”
Cal frowned. The general store used to be the last stop for campers and hikers heading up the mountain, but it had been closed for years. “And it’s still working?”
“It matches the number you gave me,” Ash replied, his voice heavy with exhaustion. “And the bill for it is paid every month, so yeah. It’s still working. That’s where your mystery girl called from.”
“Thanks.”
“Holden, don’t go doing something stupid, or I’ll?—”
Cal ended the call before the sheriff could finish his threat. If there was a chance, however slim, that this could lead him to Hope or any information about her disappearance, he had to follow it. While his quest had started as a way to win Ellie back, sometime over the last few months, it had become personal. He wanted to find out what happened to Hope for himself. He needed to know what happened to her.
He grabbed his coat from the back of his chair and headed out into the chilly dawn.
chapter
three
The drive up Redwood Road was a familiar one. He drove on autopilot as the road went from paved and well-maintained, to gravel, to a barely there pitted path flanked by towering ancient trees. Morning fog wound around the trucks like fingers and thickened the farther up the mountain he went.
As he pulled up to the old general store, it struck him how desolate it was. The windows were grimy with a layer of dust that had accumulated over years of neglect, and the red paint was peeling off in large patches, revealing the weathered wooden slats underneath. The payphone was right where Ash had said it would be— attached to a wooden pillar by the entrance.
Cal approached the phone, his hands shoved deep into his pockets to ward off the damp cold of the fog. It looked like it hadn’t been used in years, and yet someone had called him from it just hours ago. He picked up the receiver, half expecting it to be dead. There was a dial tone. Faint and crackly but present all the same.
He hung up and took a moment to look around. Something caught his eye, something out of place in the dreary, neglected setting—a small security camera was tucked up under the eaves of the store, shiny and new.
Who the hell would put a security camera here?
He squinted, not entirely sure he wasn’t imagining things. But no, it was there, a small speck of modernity among the weathered wood. The uneasy feeling that had been nagging him since the anonymous call now bloomed into full-blown concern. He pulled out his phone, glad to see he had a signal, and dialed Ash.
