Chapter 12 - THE DEAD COLONEL WAS SITTING IN JACK’S HOUSE
I stepped toward the screen.
“Let her go.”
Mercer smiled.
Older face. Same eyes.
Cold eyes.
“Still direct. I always liked that about you.”
Sarah looked terrified, but unharmed.
Behind her I recognized our living room.
“You crossed four hundred miles in less than two hours?” I asked.
“Technology is wonderful.”
The image glitched.
Recorded.
Not live.
I looked at the lower corner of the screen.
Timestamp.
10:43 p.m.
Sarah had sent me messages after that.
“You’re not there now.”
Mercer’s smile froze in the recording.
Then the video continued.
“If you’re watching this, you found the quarry faster than expected. Good. Eli said you would.”
Sarah turned her head toward someone off camera.
Mercer continued.
“You’re probably asking why. Why Ash Creek? Why the Vipers? Why Rex? Why you?”
A buzzer sounded behind us.
The freight elevator doors started closing.
“Move!” I yelled.
We ran.
Rex made it through first.
Mia and Lauren next.
Cole and I barely cleared the doors.
The shaft exploded below us.
The floor jumped.
Dust filled the building.
We hit the ground.
A second blast tore through the rear wall.
Not huge.
Controlled.
They were destroying evidence.
I grabbed Rex’s harness and pulled him toward the exit.
Outside, flames rolled from the quarry windows.
Mia coughed. “What did he want?”
“He wanted me here.”
“Why?”
I looked at the burning building.
“To erase something while I watched.”
Cole’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
His face changed.
“Say that again.”
He put it on speaker.
A dispatcher from the state police spoke quickly.
“Sheriff Cole, we received an emergency call from a Sarah Mercer approximately twenty minutes ago. She reported a home invasion and possible abduction attempt. Local units arrived. The residence was empty.”
My throat tightened.
“Empty?”
“Yes, sir. Signs of struggle. Blood in the kitchen.”
“Whose blood?”
“Unknown.”
I closed my eyes.
Then Rex pulled away from me.
He ran toward the parking area and stopped beside a black SUV abandoned behind a gravel pile.
Door open.
Inside, on the front seat, lay Sarah’s necklace.
The one I gave her on our tenth anniversary.
Under it was a plane ticket.
Denver to Ash Creek Regional.
Arrival time: 11:55 p.m.
Mia whispered, “Jack… she came here.”
From the darkness above the quarry, a woman screamed my name.
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