Page 47 of In Her Bed
“Here,” she called out, crouching down to examine the marks.
Morgan joined her, his flashlight beam tracing the path of the footprints.“Looks like someone was here—recently, maybe.”
“This also looks recent,” Jake added, pointing to where a stack of wooden crates had toppled over, disturbing the dust.
“She probably tried to reach that fire exit,” Jenna observed, pointing to a door with an unlit exit sign.
They moved that way carefully, weapons ready, tension building with each step.Jenna’s mind flashed to her dream – Sandra’s terror, her desperate flight through the darkness.
“Look,” one of the officers said, the beam of his flashlight illuminating a pair of women’s dress shoes, one tipped onto its side, the other standing upright a few feet away.
Jenna’s breath caught in her throat.In her dream, Sandra had mentioned taking off her shoes to run more quietly.But she couldn’t say that aloud.
“She must have been in a hurry,” she commented instead.
Morgan knelt to examine the shoes, his expression grim.“Expensive.Definitely not work boots for a place like this.”
Then Jake’s flashlight beam caught something else on the floor – a cellphone with a cracked screen, its shiny case incongruous against the grimy concrete.Beside it lay a heavy leather shoulder bag, its contents partially spilled across the floor.
Morgan crouched down and carefully opened the bag wider, using a pen to move items aside.He withdrew a wallet, flipping it open to reveal a driver’s license.
“Sandra Reeves,” he confirmed, his voice tight.He gave Jenna a hard look.
She scanned the area, noting the signs of a struggle but seeing no body.
“Where is she?”one of the officers asked quietly.
“That’s what we need to find out,” Morgan replied, standing up.He turned to Jenna, eyes narrowed with suspicion.“I’m going to ask you one more time, Sheriff.How did you know to come here?”
Jenna met his gaze steadily, despite the knot in her stomach.“Our investigation led us here.”
“That’s not an answer,” Morgan pressed.“You show up at a warehouse we didn’t even know was connected to a missing person, find evidence of foul play that nobody reported, and expect me to believe it’s just good police work?”
Jake took half a step forward.“Chief, with all due respect—”
“I’m not talking to you, Deputy,” Morgan said sharply, his eyes never leaving Jenna’s face.“I’m talking to the Sheriff, who seems to have information she’s not sharing.”
The tension in the warehouse thickened like the dust in the air, making it harder to breathe.Jenna opened her mouth, still uncertain what she could possibly say, when Morgan’s phone rang, cutting through the silence.
He glanced at the screen, his brow furrowing.“It’s Colonel Spelling.”He answered the call, turning slightly away from the group.“Morgan here.”
Jenna watched as Morgan’s expression shifted from irritation to shock.His shoulders stiffened, and he turned back toward them, his face pale in the dim light.
“When?”he asked into the phone.“Where exactly?”A pause.“We’ll be right there.”
He ended the call, his eyes finding Jenna’s immediately.
“They found another body,” he said, his voice hollow.“Bound to a radio tower right near the county line.We need to get over there right away.”
The blood drained from Jenna’s face.“Just like Marcus Derrick.”
Morgan nodded grimly.“Except this time, it’s a woman.”The lines around his mouth deepened with shock, frustration, and something darker—suspicion, aimed squarely at Jenna and Jake.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
“A woman,” Jenna repeated Chief Morgan’s words about another body bound to a radio tower.“Then it was …”
Morgan’s face hardened as he pocketed his phone.“Colonel Spelling reported that they’ve found Sandra Reeves’s body at the Ridgeline Radio Tower in Cable County.Just like you predicted, Sheriff Graves.”
