“At least by that name.” I gasped, “What if he’s changed it more than once? What if he’s associated somehow with them all?”
“Either way,” Samantha whispered, lowering the papers with a bewildered look on her face like she couldn’t quite believe it. “You just identified the link. You just cracked this whole thing wide open.”
My heart was racing in my chest, “We have to tell Tanner.” I turned to Jasper, clutching his arm. “And Rhea. Before the game!”
“You can’t,” Samantha shook her head, pulling us both back to her with wide eyes. “You don’t understand what that man is capable of.”
“I don’t understand,” I cried. “You just said we cracked it open. We figured it out! We have to tell them. Tanner is a police officer, and?—”
“And Cedar Bluff has been luckier than the other towns in more than one way.” Samantha said firmly.
“Spit it out, lady!” Jasper urged, flapping his hand out toward her paperwork. “This isn’t a trashy mid-day soap opera! We don’t need to take three days to spill the beans!”
“It wasn’t just accidents and property damage done in the other towns. There were a few who faced far worse outcomes.” She said with a face full of fear.
“What happened?” I asked, afraid to find out what could be worse than the full destruction of entire towns.
“People—” She paused, tilting her head as if she hated saying it out loud. “Went missing. Unexplained. Multiple unsolved disappearances. Even a few unexplained deaths.”
“Oh good. Love that for us.” Jasper whined, fanning his face as he started pacing around in a circle. “This just went from fun, juicy tea time to a true crime podcast. Spectacular.”
“Jasper!” I hissed, on edge and fully trying to keep myself from spiraling into a mental breakdown.
“What?” He hissed back, smacking my arm. “I didn’t sign up for this! I’m too pretty to end up in a ditch!”
I waved him off as he went back to pacing and looked back at Samantha. “So, now what?”
“Now, we call Anastasia and try not to panic before she can get here and—” The rest of her plan was cut off when a door deeper in the charred mechanical room creaked open and we all jumped, and then froze in fear. “Shh!” she whispered, and I grabbed her and Jasper’s arms, quickly running into the dark shadows behind a collapsed metal rack that held chemicals for the cooling system.
I didn’t know who was coming into the closed-off section, but if there was a murderer on the loose, I wasn’t going to be caught just standing around in a dark hallway, waiting to die.
Jasper's fingers dug into my arm as he covered his mouth to stay silent as we three settled behind the metal racks, hidden in the darkness.
My heart raced a million miles a minute, and I cursed myself when I went to grab my phone to call Tanner and found my pocket empty. I must have set it down at the bakery table and forgotten about it earlier.
I was so dumb.
“What the hell are you doing here?” An angry voice echoed through the concrete room, and every hair on my neck stood up when I recognized the deep baritone voice.
“It’s him!” I mouthed to Samantha, who stared back at me with wide eyes.
Chief Tolbert came out into the hallway, wearing athletic gear as if he’d been getting ready to put his pads on for the game, and anger radiated off his big body as he turned with his hands on his hips to whoever he was talking to.
“You wouldn’t answer your phone,” a calmer male voice said with an air of arrogance to it. “What choice did you leave us?”
As soon as the second man stepped into the hallway so we could see him, I recognized him and his voice.
Martin Lister, the man who stood outside my bakery once upon a time and told me I wouldn’t make it as a business owner, before handing me a flyer for the one he was opening right across the street.
Damn. This was bad.
Turning to Samantha again, I whispered, “Bakewell Industries.”
Her eyes bugged out of her head again, but this time she pulled her phone from her pocket and started recording them, hiding behind the racks as she did.
Damn it, I hoped she at least got their confession and sent it off to someone before they found us and killed us.
“They’re circling me!” Tolbert snapped angrily. “They know there was someone involved on the inside!”