We headed out of Castle Rock. I sipped my coffee but, even with the herbs, felt no more awake for it. Tiredness was a pulse that beat through me with gathering speed; I might have slept until ten, but it definitely wasn’t enough. It was probably just as well Monty was coming around tonight, as it basically stopped me from going back to Aiden’s where I’d risk worsening the sleep deprivation.
Because there was no doubt that I would. Sleep wasn’t really a priority when it came to that man.
“Are we heading onto the freeway?” Belle asked as we approached the ramp. “Or onto the overpass?”
I hesitated, briefly tightening my grip on the necklace. The silver wedding ring remained cold and inert against my palm, and the shadows and grief pulsing from the chain were fading at a faster rate. We only had a few minutes before I lost the trail. “Over.”
I guided Belle through a maze of tree-lined streets until we were on a single-lane road on the outskirts of a small town known as Hank’s Mill.
“We’re close,” I said. “You’d better slow down.”
“There’s nothing around here but farmlets—why would she be meeting someone for dinner here?”
“Maybe the friend owns one of the farmlets.”
She glanced at me. “You don’t believe that.”
The smile that twisted my lips held little in the way of amusement. “No, but mainly because Alice said she only took the necklace off when she was going somewhere fancy.”
And there was nothing fancy about any of these old places.
As we started up a long incline, a number of large farm sheds came into sight at the top. Just for an instant, the remaining shadows within the necklace pulsed strongly, a signal that suggested those buildings were our destination. Then the emotions faded, and the chain became as inert as the wedding ring.
“We need to stop at the cluster of buildings ahead.” I tucked the necklace back into the box and secured it in the backpack’s pocket.
Belle pulled off the road and into the stone driveway. There were three buildings in the immediate area; the one farthest away looked like a storage unit while the closer one had “office” emblazoned on its side. The largest was—according to the sign above the double-width doorway—a cold store.
“You know,” Belle said. “It might be wise to call the rangers. We both know this search will probably lead to a body, which means we’ll end up calling them anyway.”
I hesitated, torn between the need to do the sensible thing and the desire not to call them out until we had something more concrete than the tenuous feeling of death that had been radiating from the chain. But of all my abilities, psychometry was my strongest; if it said death was waiting, then it certainly was.
Belle stopped the car and then reached around to grab the backpack. As we both climbed out, I made a quick call, catching Maggie, the station’s receptionist and a ranger in training. “It’s Lizzie Grace, Maggie, and I’m afraid—”
“That you’ve found a body,” she finished heavily. “It’s the only reason you ever ring when you know Aiden isn’t here.”
“We haven’t actually found it yet, but all the vibes I’m getting are saying the woman I’m tracking is dead. I just thought I’d make the call early for a change. Sorry.”
“It’s hardly your fault this place seems to have become a haven for murderers of late. Where are you?” Once I’d given her the address, she added, “I’ll inform Tala straight away, but Jaz is on her way back from Readsdale, so she’ll probably be sent straight across. Ciara will take longer to get there.”
“Thanks, Maggie.”
“No worries.”
She hung up.
I shoved the phone away and then looked around. The wind stirred, caressing my skin with heat but bringing little in the way of sound beyond the nearby gentle rattle of loose roofing tin. There were no lights on in any of the buildings and the cold store’s doors were padlocked.
“The cold store looks far newer than either of the other buildings,” Belle said. “The office has definitely seen better days.”
“Maybe they’ve moved all their operations into the newer building,” I said. “You’ve got longer legs, so I’ll check the office and you can check the other one.”
She snorted softly but nevertheless walked away. I went to the front of the old office building and strode up the ramp. The wood bounced and cracked under my feet, more evidence of just how bad a state the building was in. The door was locked but a faded “hours of business” sign said the place was closed Sunday to Tuesday. The nearby window was caked with grime, but I created a clean spot and peered inside. There were multiple stacks of unmade boxes, a number of old filing cabinets, several desks that had seen better days, and some chair remnants. The thick layer of dust that lay on both the boxes and the desks suggested no one had entered the room in some time.
I walked back down the ramp and waited for Belle.
“There’s nothing more than junk in the other one,” she said.
“Same with the office.” I studied the cold store for a second. “And we’re not going to get through that chain in any sort of hurry.”