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21
Haldyn made certain to stay at a safe distance as Lila Dodson stepped into the evidence room. The room was approximately sixty by twenty. The shelving units went all the way up to the twelve-foot ceiling. Rolling ladders were required to reach the upper shelves.
It was dark, sometimes dusty, and not Haldyn’s favorite place at all. But she protected it fiercely. This room was the culmination of all of her people’s hard work since the storm. And since the bombing before that. And what remained of Finley Creek’s evidence from years gone by—the small fraction of evidence that had survived first the bombing by Bennett Russell, and then the F4 tornado.
This place was where questions came to die. There was a lot of evil in this room. She had always thought that. It was one reason she was so fierce about how it was handled. Nothing her people did would cause evidence to be tossed out, if she could help it.
Fear for A.J. had her almost shaking. Madison was next to her. Haldyn made certain to keep her body in front of the younger woman’s. “Stay behind me, Mads.”
“There should have been a guard,” Madison said, whispering as Haldyn had. Haldyn had noticed the absence of the guard herself. They’d had two guards originally, but the brass in Wichita Falls had complained that one was sufficient and two were a waste of TSP funds. They’d been cut down to one guard three days ago. Strange coincident that, wasn’t it?
“I know.” Joe should have been outside the evidence vault, at the entrance. He logged every entrance and exit. But the desk had been empty.
Fear tightened the pit of her stomach.
“Madison, get out of here. Just in case.” She wanted Madison as far away from any potential danger as possible. And wanted as many people she trusted in here, too. And that meant Major Crimes—Daniel and Jarrod.
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to stay here. Lila will need my key to get into the back.” Her people. Her place. Haldyn wasn’t going anywhere until someone forced her to. Only Daniel and Elliot Marshall could do that. She wasn’t leaving until A.J. and the guard were found.
No matter what. Something…something just didn’t feel right now.
“But how would someone have gotten in there without it?”
“The guard…has a key card. Go.”
Madison went.
Haldyn stayed where she was, pressed against one shelf. Until Lila returned, a serious look in her green eyes. “I found signs of a scuffle. By the back room on the left.”
“That’s the weapons room.”
“How many weapons are we talking about in there?” Lila asked.
“Hundreds. Where are the guard and A.J.?”
“I don’t know. But we’re not going in there alone to find out.” Lila had her phone out now.
Jarrod had his coffee and was at his desk when Madison ran in. The look on that adorable face had him setting the coffee down and standing. “Mads, what’s wrong?”
“Get downstairs. To the lab. Hurry. Something’s wrong. The guard is missing from the vault, and we can’t find A.J. Hurry. Haldyn and Dodson are in there now. Hurry.”
Her words came out almost in a rush. Madison wasn’t the kind of woman to panic. She just wasn’t.
“Get other people down there.” Jarrod still had his weapon on from the drive in. He just ran.
Haldyn was down there.
And something was damned wrong.
The doors to the lab were open—someone had propped them open. He suspected Madison had done that. Every second could count. He knew that.
Fear for Haldyn and A.J. and Lila and the guard had his heart racing.
He knew his way to the vault.
Pushed his way through the door—it had been propped open, too.
