"I know. But we just got a call in, and I wanted to tell you first."
Nicky's breath caught. Maybe there was a good bone in Sheriff Corbin's body.
"Another woman went missing, pretty similar situation to the others. Young, under twenty-five, vanished without a trace from her job. Name's Lauren Klein."
Nicky's head spun. "Are you sure?"
"Yeah. Don't know if it's related yet. But with what you found earlier... I figured you should know right away."
"Thank you. Please forward the details to me."
"Will do."
Nicky hung up. Ken was looking at her, frowning. "What's that about?"
"A woman went missing from her job. The sheriff said it was 'pretty similar' to the other victims."
"Christ." Ken set his papers aside. "I don't know if I can handle another one."
Nicky swallowed. This was much worse than she realized because an awareness came over her.
All of those girls were at different stages of decay. The one on top, who Nicky had recognized from the files, was by far the most recent. In fact, she was hardly decayed at all.
Her heart began to pound. "Ken," she said, "Meghan could still be alive. But she won't be for long."
"What makes you say that?"
"The others were all in different stages of decay. But I recognized the girl. She was at the top of the pile. She was the most recent victim. If Meghan is still alive, she's probably the next one on the pile." Nicky paused. "Walker, I think that he's been exchanging his victims. Once he's done with one, he murders them and gets another."
"Jesus," Ken said. "Looks like we've got a psycho who's gone on a killing spree, he's been getting away with it, and he's not going to stop until he's caught."
"Exactly. But if we want any hope of saving Meghan Salinger, we have to find a lead, now."
"I'm trying over here," Ken said. "Did you find anything at all?"
Nicky refocused on her laptop. No, she hadn't found anything, not yet. But she'd been on to something before the call. The warehouse was pretty obscure and wouldn't be known to the average person. She'd requested a list of previous employees, but had yet to get it.
Bernard Brown's warning flickered back into Nicky's mind.
"All roads lead to home..."
Home...
She couldn't stop thinking about it, or that one word. 'Home.'
She opened up her internet browser and frowned at the screen.
Employees weren't the only ones who would know about the warehouse. There could be construction workers.
Or a real estate agent.
Someone who sells 'homes.'
At some point, somebody would have had to represent the warehouse, right? It had to have a realtor at some point in its life.
Maybe it was a shot in the dark, but Nicky's hunch had been right before--it had led them to the warehouse.
But there was one person who could dig up dirt way faster than she could, so she took out her phone and called Grace. Grace eagerly picked up.