Page 45 of Torment
My molars grind together. Someone took advantage of that blind spot. Close enough to touch him. Close enough to make sure.
“That’s not all.” Slater pulls up another monitor. The missing bartender. The van speeding around the corner, then disappearing.
“Remember how the van ghosted off city cameras?”
Maverick doesn’t look away from the footage. “Hard to forget.”
This time, Jeremy pulls up yet another camera view. “It didn’t ghost.”
“No fucking way,” Cole mutters. The room goes still.
“Commuter lot four,” Slater says.
Against the back fence, as far from the cameras as possible, a low hanging tree covers the roof of a van. A black van.Theblack van. The time stamp shows two nights ago, at eleven thirty.
“What’s happening here at eleven thirty at night?” I cock a brow turning toward Mav. His jaw ticks.
“Security shift change,” Jeremy answers.
Jeremy fast forwards the footage. Gone by sunrise. No one walks across the lot. No one steps out of a bus and goes to it. There one minute, gone the next.
“They brought it back,” Elias shakes his head.
“Or it’s not the same one,” Nick says. Everyone’s head turns in his direction.
“A decoy,” I add.
Nick nods. “Get you focused on the wrong vehicle. Have you chasing your tail while they sit right under your nose.”
“Making it that much harder to track down their location,” Maverick lets out a sigh.
“Do you have anyone at PD working this with you?” Nick turns to him.
“The cops around here are fucking useless. I met with the detective that was supposed to be looking into the jumper. Showed him the footage of her being taken. Last I checked, they had nothing.”
“I can answer that one for you too,” Slater announces. “Someoneelsehacked the DOT cameras. Put it on a six-minute loop. That’s how the van just fell off the radar.”
Silence settles thick for a long, tense moment.
“I’m already working on getting a couple cops in my pocket.” Nick rolls his neck. “They’re not mine yet, but they will be. I’ll make sure they stop dragging their feet.”
“The jumper and the girl,” Nick starts, rolling up his sleeves. “They’re not random.”
“They’re tied,” I grind out.
Elias nods but says nothing.
Maverick looks around the room. “Whoever’s doing this is comfortable here.”
“And patient,” Elias adds.
My phone buzzes in my pocket. I already know who it is. Ashlynn. I stand.
“Cole and I will hit the morgue tomorrow.” Cole rolls his eyes, muttering afuckbefore nodding. “Let’s lock down lot four. Let them know, we know.”
My hand presses against my pocket where her name lights up my screen. A slow smile pulls at my mouth.
“Let’s make it uncomfortable.”
