When she looked over at Jayson, she knew with no doubt hell was being unleashed. They had another body.
CHAPTER
THIRTY-TWO
Jayson stared down into the lifeless eyes of the young girl whose body had been found on the side of the road. They had discarded her like she was nothing…a nobody.
“Do we know, by chance, who she is?” Rocky asked, knocking Jayson out of the nightmare trance playing in his head.
“Alexis Stotts. She was reported missing approximately eight months ago.” Jayson sighed as he kneeled down next to the body.
“Did she go missing with another girl?” Lana placed her hand on his shoulder.
“Unknown, since no one else had been reported missing at around that time. Although she told her parents she was going to stay at a friend’s house. Unbeknownst to the parents, that said friend and her family were all sick with the flu that had kicked their asses.”
“Sounds like we need another talk with the friend. You and Sunny can tackle the parents, and Rocky and I can take the girl. She’s more likely to talk to one of us than you. Girl thing.”
Jayson couldn’t help the chuckle that bubbled up in his chest at her statement. He had to admit, if anyone could get that girl toopen up and talk about what she actually knew, it would be Lana and Rocky.
He made the notes that he needed regarding the body, what he saw, and what he wanted to look further into. So much about this case didn’t make sense to him.
Yet, when he played back the conversation with Lana about the devastation of his area and those surrounding Hellburn Falls suffered through, he saw what she meant. After Helene, or because of it, crime in their small town and county had gone through the roof.
PTSD among the officers, their dispatches, and firefighters was higher than it’s ever been. Hellburn Falls was a small town where pretty much everyone knew everyone.
Their county was a decent size, which included some larger cities compared to them. They had never dealt with the destruction or lives lost like they had to with Helene.
The most many in either department, city or county, had ever dealt with were petty crimes amongst squabbling families, loud noises, escaped cows or other livestock, speeding, drunk driving, drunk and disorderly, and things of that nature. Now and then, there were fights, street races amongst the younger kids still in high school or college that came home for the weekend, a domestic dispute, or a runaway who got mad because Mom and Dad grounded them.
Helene rocked that carefully anchored boat for all of Western North Carolina’s small towns. Families were wiped out completely.
Several of the officers even lost their own families, not able to reach them in time because they were helping another family. Towns were demolished and some towns even completely wiped off the face of the planet.
They could no longer be a town unblemished from the horrors of the outside world. While Jayson had served inAfghanistan and seen some horrors, he still struggled with what he saw in the aftermath.
He’d only been home just shy of a year when the disaster struck. He was lucky where his home and his parents were concerned. Sadly, many others that he knew weren’t so lucky.
He’d lost several friends from his high school days, Chompers included. The fact that Peter brought him up in their interrogation stung like hell and made him want to punch the bastard.
“Hey, are you good?” Lana softly whispered to him.
“Yeah. I guess I was thinking about something you’d said about Helene. The rise in crime we’ve been dealing with and wondering about why these people are choosing these girls. Some make sense and some don’t.”
“That’s the beautiful chaos of free will and temptations. Or those who are assholes. Whichever works.”
Jayson looked at Sunny in confusion. She made sense yet didn’t.
“You guys know a lot about motorcycle clubs?” Jayson found himself asking out loud.
“I wouldn’t say we are experts, but yes, we know enough to deal with them.” Rocky shrugged as she looked over at Lana and Sunny.
“What’s got the mouse spinning your wheels?” Lana smirked at him.
Jayson quirked an eyebrow at Lana’s question before shaking his head at her as he smirked slightly. “This whole thing with the MCs. So far, in the last year, since Helene happened, there have been twenty-four girls that have gone missing from the county.” Jayson sighed wearily as he stood up.
“What’s been at least one thing they all have in common?” Rocky questioned him, making him really think about his theory.
“Aside from the fact all communications are done on electronics, then erased on any and every device they may have communicated on? Or the fact a friend usually is taken with them when they are sneaking out to meet or do whatever it is they think they are doing?”
