Chapter Six Bree #4
I climbed the stairs up to the landing and admired the photos on the wall as I went.
They painted a picture of a small, loving family with a daughter who was an obvious overachiever and seemed to share a love of soccer with her father.
I smiled when I saw the mother as she held up an award that read World’s Worst Cook; her daughter laughed next to her.
Maybe Sherry has one too. I almost laughed at the thought—until the realization that I was staring at a family that had been ripped apart by some monster hit hard.
My heart squeezed at the thought of their loss.
Their beautiful daughter taken from them at a time when she should have been living her best life.
I moved on and saw the parents’ bedroom on my right, so I headed left and peeked into what looked like a guest room, then moved down the hall and pushed open the door to a room that had obviously belonged to the young woman.
Shades of soft pink and purple with white curtains and a matching bed skirt clashed with the vanity that overflowed with brightly colored jars and stacks of small plastic boxes.
I stepped inside and did a quick scan of the room.
A couple of gray cats raised their heads from where they were entwined on a soft beanbag chair.
They both lost interest in me in seconds and curled themselves up and went back to sleep.
I studied the room and used the skills I’d honed from my past work trying to locate kids to see if anything stood out here.
I raised my camera and started to document the room my way.
A few photo strips from her senior year lined her vanity mirror.
She was a cheerleader, and I spotted her among her teammates in the base position.
The brightly colored lipsticks were stacked neatly in clear jars with lip marks showing each color on a paper next to it.
“I’m impressed. You were organized,” I whispered as I pulled on a pair of gloves and sorted through the stack of papers and notebooks on the vanity.
I pulled a photo off the mirror. It was a picture of Shelly and some friends out at dinner.
There were a few men staring at them in the background.
I snapped a photo of it so we could study it later and slipped the original into my pocket.
“Hello there.” I studied a Velvet Nightclub napkin that had a phone number scribbled on it.
If I were to guess, I’d say the handwriting was male.
Thick and scrawly. I carefully tucked it into an evidence bag.
The perks of not wearing the badge meant I didn’t have to document things, but I handled it carefully for DNA.
I moved to the drawers and felt around. Something smooth hit my fingers, and I found an iPad Mini.
Slowly, I sank onto the vanity stool as I tried to turn it on.
Nothing—it was dead. I did a quick scan of the wall and around me and found a cord that had slid in behind the vanity.
I plugged it in and waited until I saw the apple appear.
“What else you got for me, Shelly?” I left it to charge and headed over to her bed.
“Give me a direction,” I whispered as I respectfully sat on the edge of the mattress and looked around.
“What happened that made you catch this guy’s eye?
” Shelly was smart, pretty, young, athletic.
She seemed like a really good friend and girlfriend. A beep pulled my attention to the iPad.
Shockingly, there wasn’t a password on the device.
I swiped through the icons and noticed one was a simple, faded gray color.
“There you are.” One thing I had learned quickly about young adults was where they hid things.
Fake icons were often used to hide their social media platforms. “Of course, TikTok strikes again.” I had a love-hate relationship with that particular platform.
In this case, the victim’s outcome had already been decided, so I needed to look at this as a win.
“Let’s see who you’ve been interacting with. ”
My phone pinged, and I quickly pulled it free from my pocket.
Patrick: You’ve been gone from the ranch almost all week, and your chores are piling up.
I rolled my eyes but then reminded myself that I knew I needed to do damage control with my family, and part of that was following through on my word that I’d help out more.
Bree: What can I do to make it up to you?
Patrick: Give me and Max the weekend and do the trail rides with the new company coming in today.
Bree: Deal.
Patrick: And lend me your truck.
I laughed. I’d be happy to lend him the beast for the weekend. Looked like I’d be sitting on a whole different seat for a couple of days anyway.
Bree: Deal.
I got a thumbs-up, and I instantly felt better.
“Where was I?” I quickly tapped the app and stopped when I came across Shelly’s posts. I saw the newest post, then her second and the one after that. “Well, hello there.” I shut the iPad, returned it to her drawer, and pocketed my gloves.