Elias #2
Not yet.
Walker wanted the body gone. Whoever had done this wanted us to look at the victim.
I wanted to know why.
The drive back down the mountain passed in complete silence. The fog was finally beginning to lift, unravelling from the pines in long white ribbons as the first pale sunlight reached the valley.
None of us spoke.
My hands stayed locked around the steering wheel until my knuckles turned white beneath the leather.
Ten women. Two other victims that were strategically placed.
Now one man whose identity had been carved out of existence.
Nothing fucking fits anymore. The pattern we'd been building for weeks had just shattered.
It felt like reading a report where someone had quietly removed every second page.
My thoughts drifted somewhere they shouldn't have.
Back to yesterday. Back to the square. Collins. Standing too close. Leaning close to her. Invading her space.
And Seraphina...Smiling. Not the polite smile she'd worn around half the town. A softer one. Or maybe I'd imagined it. Memory has a funny way of rewriting scenes you wish you'd handled differently. Then another memory forced its way in.
A white linen dress. A warm box of cookies. Eyes already filled with tears.
"I've survived things you couldn't even imagine surviving."
The words landed all over again. I'd fired back because I was angry. Because Walker had buried another lead. Because Collins had gotten under my fucking skin. Because somewhere inside my own damn head I'd decided she belonged nowhere near him. So, I took it out on her.
"Go bother Deputy Collins."
My grip tightened until the steering wheel groaned beneath my hands. Hell. I owed her an apology. I just wasn't sure she'd ever open the door long enough to hear it.
The evidence board in the secondary office had become a wall of ghosts.
Ten red pins. Ten names written in black ink on white cards.
Ten women whose lives had been reduced to photographs, dates and circles on a county map.
The red thread stretched between them in uneven lines, crisscrossing the board until it resembled veins beneath pale skin.
Derek sat on the edge of my desk, turning a paper cup of cold coffee between his hands. He hadn't taken a drink in twenty minutes. Mason stood by the window, arms folded across his chest, staring out over the station parking lot without really seeing it.
"We're missing something," Mason said.
His voice was quiet. Steady. Like he was stating the weather.
"Or someone," Derek added.
He rubbed the back of his neck before looking toward the board.
"The logistics are too clean, Elias. Vehicles don't just disappear. Bodies don't just fucking disappear. Whoever's moving them knows these mountains better than the county surveyors."
Silence settled over the room again. Nobody argued. Because nobody had a better answer. Eventually Derek pushed himself off the desk.
"We're heading to the state garage."
Mason nodded once.
"Need to compare the tread widths."
"I'll catch up."
Neither of them questioned it. They knew what I was like after a scene. The office emptied with them. The corridor outside became strangely quiet, broken only by the distant ringing of unanswered telephones and the steady hum of the ventilation system.
I stepped closer to the board. My finger followed the red thread connecting the third disappearance to the fifth turnout. Date. Distance. Time. Direction. Again. And again. And again.
Something wasn't adding up.
The ten women...
The 2 victims...
The unidentified man...
On paper they almost formed a corridor through the valley, but not quite. Every time I thought I had the pattern, one scene sat just far enough outside it to break the theory. Someone wanted us looking in the wrong direction. Or they were changing directions on fucking purpose.
Either way...
I was chasing a fucking ghost.
My eyes drifted away from the board. For reasons I couldn't explain, they landed on the road leading toward the north ridge. Toward her cottage. I rubbed a hand across my face.
Fucking focus, Reed.
She was just...
A distraction I couldn't seem to shake.
Bzzzz.
The vibration against my thigh cut through the silence. I pulled my phone from my pocket.
Unknown.
I stared at it. For a second I considered letting it ring out. It could be Walker, but why the fuck would he call on a unknown number maybe the fucking press but why? It couldn’t be the State Bureau.
Fuck maybe it was…It didn't matter. Something stopped me. Something cold. Something instinctive. I answered.
"Reed."
Silence. No voice. Just static. Somewhere in the background. My grip tightened.
"Hello?"
Nothing. Then breathing. Uneven. Shallow. A whimper followed. Someone trying not to cry. The sound dragged something deep inside my chest tight.
"Elias..."
The voice barely existed. Just enough air to shape my name. Recognition hit before thought did.
"Seraphina?"
Silence. Then the smallest sob. Not loud. Not hysterical. The kind that comes after you've already cried until there's nothing left. I closed my eyes. Every muscle in my body locked.
"Talk to me."
Nothing. Just another shaky breath.
"Seraphina..."
My voice had changed. I could hear it. Lower. Softer. Fuck. Please. No.
"Talk to me, baby."
A wet inhale. Then another. She was trying. God...She was trying.
"Please, talk to me."
The word left my mouth before I realized I'd said it. The line clicked. Dead. The silence afterward was louder than the crying had been.