Page 154 of When Darkness Calls

“Of course.” I kiss the top of her head and she giggles, reaching forward to get her computer.

She clicks around through a PowerPoint, when an image catches my eye.

“Wait, go back.”

“This one?” She asks, lifting the laptop up toward me. I nod, taking it from her hands.

The picture shows a cloudless sky overlooking a small little pasture. It’s postcard worthy, but it’s not what catches my eye. It’s the shadow falling across the ground, taking the shape of a body. Directly beside a large oak tree.

“Hang on a second. Don’t move.”

I jump up, running to my room and grab the stack of files on my desk. My mind whirls as I think about the odds of what I’m thinking.

It’s pretty fucking crazy, but maybe…just maybe…

She’s still sitting by the couch, confusion painting her features.

“Gonna enlighten me?” Her brow lifts expectantly.

“Yeah. I mean, I might be crazy, but I think I know where this picture was taken.” I dig through the files.

“Here,” I murmur, taking out a folder with pictures poking out. “These are from cold cases around Ashwood County. Alex thought they could help us. He gave each of us a few things to kind of focus on, to search for stuff the cops might have missed. Connections to what we’re working on or whatever.”

I sort through a few crime scenes, Dani cringing at the images.

“I don’t—”

“This one.” I waved a photo, grabbing her computer and placing it side by side. “Look familiar?”

The picture I have is of a similar field, but the angle is wider, and there are people mingling around the grass wearing Coroner marked jackets, and a few cops are standing close beneath the oak tree.

Dani gasps, taking the picture and studying it closely. “Is it the same place?”

“I think so,” I sigh. “The image in the slideshow, where’s it from?”

She blinks, looking between the pictures. “It’s examples from Ethan’s portfolio. Professor Logan added them to the assignment PowerPoint to help us.”

“This guy again. What the hell is going on?” I growl.

“This picture Alex gave me was from files of a body that was found about three years ago. It was a girl; she was in a sorority, I think. It wasn’t covered by the media because her family or someone else paid everyone off to keep it covered up. I was supposed to write the article for the paper. It was assigned to me, but when I went to ask the editor about it, he told me it was all handled.”

“And Ethan just so happened to take a picture of the exact place her body was laying, and included it in a portfolio titled ‘Blindspot’?”

“Not really that creative, is it?” I pull out my phone, dialing Alex’s number and she does the same with Cade’s. We have lots to talk about.

forty-five

Dani

“Happy Halloween!”

The street is crawling with dozens of kids laughing and screaming dressed up in their costumes and running from house to house.

The school bus had come through dropping them off half an hour ago, but they’re playing, trying to scare each other, enjoying the fact it’s a Friday.

October 30th. Devil's Night.

I’m sitting on my porch, not Grayson’s, and it feels…strange being here instead of there with him. He had a job to do though, but he’s making it up by meeting me at the big Halloween party in the park. Free horror movies on a huge screen, costumes, cheap food? It sounds like a glorious time after the week we’ve all had.