Page 7 of In Her Bed
“I’m not part of anything,” Jenna insisted, her voice urgent.She needed him to keep talking.“Tell me more.Who are you?”
The static engulfed hem.The buzzing filling her mind as the man stood his ground.He seemed to rethink his paranoia and his accusation, a sly glint in his eyes.“All I have to tell you is Charlie Tango 4 Caesar Alpha.”
“What does that mean?”Jenna’s question went unanswered as a phone rang.
She jolted awake, the shrill sound of her cellphone jarring her from the dream.She blinked, disoriented.The old-fashioned radio was replaced by the clock radio on her nightstand, looking quite ordinary now.She saw that it was 1:35 a.m.
Jenna grabbed the phone.“Sheriff Graves,” she answered, her voice steadier than she felt.
A young officer’s voice came through.“We’ve got a dead body,” he reported.“It’s a murder.Near the old radio tower on the hill.”
Jenna’s heart skipped.“Call Deputy Hawkins and the Highway Patrol,” she instructed, already swinging her legs out of bed.“I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
She hung up, her mind a whirl of urgency and speculation.As she dressed quickly, she tried to piece together the connection between the dream and the call.It was no coincidence.The victim of this new murder was none other than the man who had appeared in her dream.She could feel it in her bones.
The radio tower,she thought, putting it together.Charlie Tango 4 Caesar Alpha.
It sounded like the call sign for a ham radio operator.Had the ghost in her dream been telling her his own call signal when she’d asked for his name?
Gun and badge close at hand, Jenna laced up her boots.The urgency of the phone call and the eerie details of her dream collided in her thoughts: the enigmatic message, the chilling vision, and now a real-world murder.
CHAPTER THREE
Jenna could see red warning lights blinking lazily against the night sky as she drove toward the radio tower.The local cop on duty at the entrance to the utility road that led there waved her on by.As she drove through the dark, ignoring the washboard texture of the seldom used road beneath the tires, she kept thinking of the man who had appeared in her dream.
His face a contorted mask of paranoia, he had yelled at her about microchips and thought control.He’d only identified himself as “Charlie Tango 4 Caesar Alpha,” which led her to believe he might be a ham radio operator.Now here she was approaching a tower that could carry various kinds of radio signals—in addition to television, cellular communications, and more.
Within minutes she reached the makeshift parking area at the base of the tower.Several police vehicles were already there, lights still spinning.She saw that they had set up spotlights around the bottom of the tower.She swung her cruiser into an open spot, threw it into park, and killed the engine in a series of swift motions.
Jenna stepped out of the car and walked past the assembled officers, catching snippets of hushed conversations and a few glances from her team.She acknowledged them and headed for the area where she could see yellow tape fluttering in the artificial light.
Deputy Jake Hawkins broke away from the cluster of uniforms.His mouth was set in a grim line that did nothing to hide the warmth in his eyes when they met hers.
“Jenna,” he greeted her.“It’s an ugly scene this time.You’re not going to believe this one.”Then he added with his voice pitched low, “Unless of course …”
She realized he was wondering if she’d already dreamed about this.Aside from her friend and mentor, former Sheriff Frank Doyle, Jake was the only person who knew about her gift, and she’d only recently confided in him about it.When she just nodded in reply, Jake gave her a knowing look that spoke volumes about their shared history and the unconventional nature of some of their cases.Jenna wondered if he’d guessed how eerily accurate her dream had been this time.
“Any idea how long until Melissa gets here?”she asked, trying tried to focus on logistics such as the arrival of Melissa Stark, the Genesius County coroner, and her forensics team.
“Shouldn’t be long now.But Jenna—” His gaze held hers, anchoring her even as the whirlwind of thoughts spun faster in her mind.
She swallowed, forcing herself to meet his intensity head-on.“I know.I just—of course I need to see it.”
Jake gave a brief nod, one that said he understood more than she sometimes wanted him to.Before he could respond, approaching footsteps drew their attention.
“Sheriff, Deputy,” said Officer Mike Donovan, jogging towards them with the urgency of a rookie on his first big case.A stocky young man with a receding hairline and kind eyes, he usually radiated calm.But his expression told Jenna this was not the kind of scene any officer could approach lightly.“If you’ll follow me, I’ll take you around to the scene.”
“Fill me in, Mike,” Jenna said, falling into step beside him.
“Two teenagers, Lola Wigton and Max Riker, found the body about an hour ago,” Mike said.“They’re pretty shaken up.We’ve put them in one of our patrol cars, and Officer Delgado’s with them now.”
“Did they give a statement yet?”she asked.
“They did.”Mike’s words came out in short bursts.“Said they were climbing up the hill below the tower, just messing around in the woods, having a bit of fun.When they reached the tower, they stumbled upon it.”
Jenna’s mind flashed back to her own teenage years, to secret escapades and midnight adventures, many of them with Piper as her companion—so innocent, by comparison.
Another small cluster of officers stood near the base of the tower, their silhouettes somber against the artificial lights.Jenna’s breath caught in her throat when she spotted the body.
