Diden? What the hell was Diden doing at my house?
“Thanks. Appreciate it,” I told her and hung up.
I tried calling Diden’s phone again, now more confused than ever. Again, it went straight to voicemail, but before I could try calling Iris, my phone vibrated with another new call, this time from Agent Andrews.
“I’m headed to a fire, so you gotta make this quick,” I said instead of a traditional greeting.
There was a short pause before she spoke. “What did you just say?”
“Jennings called about a fire on the north side of the lake I’m headed to, so you need to make this quick.”
“Where’s Iris?” she asked me, her voice serious and grave.
“At my place. Why?”
“Shit,” she said the sound of shuffling papers in the background.
“Andrews, what’s up?” I asked, getting a little peeved at her frenzied tone.
“Ranger Diden just called me twenty minutes ago, frantic,” she said. “She was rambling on and on about Jennings working for multiple different parks over the last few years and never staying at more than one for longer than a year. Then she blabbered on about the missing women. It was honestly hard to keep up. The last thing she said before her phone died was that she washeaded to your place so you could get Iris safe because Jennings was after her.”
What the fuck? What was going on?
“I’ve spent the last twenty minutes going over everything she said in my head and checking a few databases for information,” she added quickly. “Diden believes Jennings is our serial killer, and I can’t disprove that theory.”
“Are you serious?” I asked her in disbelief.
“After Diden’s tip, I checked the dates,” she said. “The seven women who went missing in the last six years—the ones Steve mentioned in his podcast—were all in places where Jennings was working nearby. Seven different national parks, all of which were fewer than ten miles from the last known location of the women.”
Rage built inside me, but I tamped it down, letting my police training kick into gear. “That could just be a coincidence.”
“Yes, but right before she got off the phone, she mentioned she found something at his house about blaming Iris for stealing evidence and giving it to the podcaster. Her phone dropped out after that.”
My stomach dropped, and I pulled the car to the side of the road and stopped.
“I didn’t think anything of it until you just mentioned the fire,” Andrews added.
“Supposedly Diden is at my house,” I told her, remembering what Christine had told me and relaying that to Andrews.
“I’m turning around and heading back to my place. Can you call people in and send them up to the north side of the lake to meet Jennings just in case this is a legit fire?” I asked, though the likelihood of that being true was diminishing by the second. “And have someone track their cars. All our vehicles have trackers on them.”
“Got it. Go. And report back,” she said quickly and then hung up.
I spun my car around and sped as fast as my vehicle would take me in the direction of home.
I needed to get to Iris. I needed to make sure she was safe. There were too many unknowns right now.
I didn’t have a good feeling about this, which was why I called the fire department myself to report the fire. If there really was one, they needed to know about it, and they could get to it quickly.
At my call, the dispatch agent informed me they were aware of the large fire and had sent several crews.
Hearing her say that only made my panic ease slightly.
I continued to race toward my house, and as I got closer, I began to see a faint orange glow in the distance.
I grabbed my phone and dialed Andrews as I drove impossibly faster to my house.
“Hey, I’ve got a…” she started to say, but I cut her off.
