A woman like that… a woman who killed with that kind of precision… shouldn’t be easy to approach.
If she was, then something was wrong.
If she wasn’t, then I’d have my answer.
I turned off the main road and into the quieter part of town.The streets narrowed.The buildings got older.The air felt heavier, like it carried the history of every secret ever buried there.
Then I drove onto the cul-de-sac.
Her street.
The old Volvo rattled up the quiet street, the same way it had the first time I came here, my eyes already lifting to the small house at the end.
For a second, it looked normal.
Small.Quiet.Forgettable.
But then something snagged in my vision.
Her garden.
It was crushed.
The plants were flattened like someone had stomped through them with purpose.Leaves shredded.Stems snapped.Soil torn up in patches that looked like feet had dug in and shoved off.
I pulled to the curb and killed the engine.
The silence that followed was thick.Wrong.
I got out.
The air felt different when I stepped onto her path, like the street itself knew something I didn’t want to admit yet.I moved slower, scanning the ground, the gate, the porch.
There was dirt smeared across the stones, like something had been dragged.
My pulse dropped into a colder rhythm.
I reached the door.It was ajar.
A woman like Neve didn’t leave her door ajar.Not after what happened yesterday.
I pressed the door with one finger.It gave instantly.The sound it made—low, drawn-out—felt like a warning breathed into my ear.
Inside, the house smelled like violence.
A chair was overturned.A table shoved sideways.A vase had shattered across the floor, glittering shards spread like diamonds.
There was a smear of blood along the wall.It was small, fresh.
My control cracked.Just a clean fracture down the center of something that was usually unbreakable.I stepped further in, boots crunching glass.I crouched, pressed two fingers to the smear.It was warm.
The room narrowed.The air exhaled.
Someone had been here.Someone had taken her.
I straightened slowly.There was a zip-tie on the floor.
There were scuff marks near the doorframe.