“Steve.”Nice respectable name. Not like Burt. Them other patients called me a bird. I did nothing wrong.
15
Stella
He looked skeptical and untrusting.
“Steve. I know you’re scared. I’m scared too. My friend is missing, and that coat could help us find him.”
Stella knocked Ashton’s arm. “Give the guy some money.”
Ashton dug out his wallet and held out a twenty-dollar bill toward the homeless guy.
“What’s this for?” The man took the money and shoved it into his pocket as if worried Ashton might get second thoughts and demand the money back.
“You look hungry. When this is over, you should get yourself something to eat,” Stella said.
“I got the coat from a car parked back there in the woods.”
Ashton’s brows shot up.
“Those woods?” Ashton asked, gesturing to the ones behind him.
“Yeah, those woods. You need to be careful back there.”
She’d stepped in that direction when Ashton reached for her and stopped her from running off.
“We wait for Detective Morrison, and then we’ll go check it out.”
“But he could be hurt. You saw the blood on the coat. He could be back there dying. We don’t have time to wait. If you don’t think it’s safe, you can go. I’ll wait here with Steve. He’ll protect me, won’t you, Steve?”
“Sure,” Steve answered.
“That’s not happening,” Ashton grumbled beneath his breath. “Why don’t you show us exactly where you found it, Steve?”
Steve left his cart and headed into the trees. Ashton pulled a gun and had her walking behind him when they broke through the clearing.
They came out at an old crumbling building covered in spray paint where vines were crawling the walls.
“What is this place?” she asked.
A few people were lying down in sleeping bags outside the building. Several more were dressed in no more than rags, huddled inside, watching them through broken windows without saying a word. They were scared.
“We’re safer in numbers,” Steve said. “One. Two. Three. You can’t catch me,” Steve said, pounding his temple with his fist.
There was a toddler running around without shoes on. He was skin and bones.
“Looks like a homeless refuge,” Ashton answered and gestured toward some cardboard forts in the distance.
Stella rested her hand over her heart, trying to stop it from breaking even more. She’d lived in this town for the last seven years. How had she never even known this place was here? All these people? And weirder than that, how had Marcus known about this place?
“Show us the exact spot,” Ashton said, putting his gun away.
They moved inside the building, where it was dark and musty. Steve knew where he was going, even without using light.
Whispers followed them down the corridors until Steve stepped through a broken door hanging on a hinge. He gestured to a car parked on the other side of the building. “I got it out of there.”
“You two stay put.” Ashton pulled out his gun again and jogged over to Marcus’s car. He made his way around the car, and then he put his gun away again and reached in to pop the trunk.
