Chapter 28
TWENTY-EIGHT
Crooked Creek
Ellie rolled her shoulders as she drove back to her bungalow. She was dog-tired and frustrated as hell. Little Iris was still missing.
If she’d been left out in the elements, surely one of the search teams would have found her by now. Unless she was too injured to cry out for help.
Or worse.
Her throat burned with the need to scream.
But she had to focus. The streetlight near her house was broken, pitching the yard and drive into an ebony abyss, something she needed to report tomorrow.
Her anxiety mounted though as she noticed her front porch light was off, too, which was odd because she always left it on.
Safety first. She’d worked enough cases to learn that the hard way.
Instincts on alert, she flipped her headlights to high beam, scanned her drive and yard and pulled her flashlight before she got out.
Her phone buzzed. Cord, so she quickly connected. “Yeah?”
“Another search team rolled in. I’m going home to clean up.”
Ellie barely heard him though as the sight of feathers caught her eye. Black feathers.
Crow’s feathers.
Her first instinct was to charge from her car and confront whoever had done this and find out if they were still at her house. If it was Minnie’s killer…
“El?” Cord’s gruff voice echoed in her ears as if he were a million miles away. “El, did you hear me?”
Ellie swallowed hard to make her voice come out. “House… crow feathers…”
“What?” His choppy breathing followed. “I’m on my way. Stay in the damn car and lock the doors. Do you hear me?”
Ellie’s hand reached for the door handle, but common sense kicked in. She needed backup. And she couldn’t find Minnie’s killer if she was dead.
“Copy,” she muttered as her eyes searched the darkness. Her heart pounded, and she phoned the station. Landrum was still on duty. “Deputy, send the sheriff and an ERT to my house. Someone’s been here.”
Deputy Landrum cursed. “On their way. Stay on the line until they arrive.”
She thought she muttered an agreement, but her voice rasped out. She checked the door locks and used her flashlight to keep eyes trained on the drive, the yard, the front of her house and the surrounding area.
Pretend you’re doing surveillance, Ellie.
Yet it felt different conducting it on her own house. Not house, her home, where she wanted to escape the violence and chaos and evil of the world.
But in her job, there was no safe world.
That thought infuriated her. No one messed with Ellie. And no one was going to make her fear entering her own sanctuary.
Shaking off Cord’s warning, she pulled her gun, eased the car door open, checked around her and headed up the drive, careful not to step on the damn feathers.