Call me as soon as you know where it leads.
I guess whoever it is decided to try again. I’m not sure what’s going on, but I know not to click shady links. Maybe it’s a phishing scam, someone targeting families of crime victims, trying to get money somehow.
Landon rings my phone an hour later. “It’s a link to an address. I looked at the place on satellite view. It’s an abandoned church, a little west of Paducah. No information or anything. Only the address.”
“Give me the address.”
There’s some mumbled discussion in the background, then Justus gets on the phone. “It’s in the middle of nowhere. You can’t just go check it out. Especially not alone.”
The hell I can’t. Maybe it isn’t the smartest choice, but if they can’t trace anything, then I’m facing this head on. “Okay. Address,” I repeat.
After another mumbled conversation takes place, Justus returns. “Uh, no. I know you. You’ll be in your truck before I hang up the phone. Landon and I are going to go with you. We’ll be on our way within the hour.”
I’m not going to argue with some help. The wait for them is interminable while I try to imagine what we’re going to find. The best case scenario would be some kind of prank, but I don’t believe that.
I know where she is.
What if they’re telling the truth?
It’s well after dark when Justus and Landon show up. We leave Justus’s truck at my house and take mine. The drive only takes an hour or so, but Justus is right. Middle of nowhere is a good description.
The road winds and narrows the deeper we go. There are areas where standing water rises right up to the shoulder. The adrenaline pumping through me makes it difficult to take it slow, but the last thing I need is to drive into a washout. My stomach’s been in a knot since we opened that link. I have no idea what we’ll find out here, but nothing leads me to think it’ll be good.
Justus squints out at the shadows. “Are you sure this is right?”
Landon looks up from the navigator app on his phone. “Yes, we’re almost there.”
I know what happened to your wife. I know where she is.
The words batter at my head. I want to tell myself it’s a scam, someone messing with me, but if anyone knows something, I have to find out. There’s no other option.
After some discussion, it was agreed that I still shouldn’t reply to the texts. Whoever sent them doesn’t want a conversation, they want control. And they have it because here we are, following directions into an empty corner of the county.
Landon glances over at Justus. “This feels like a setup.”
“Probably is,” Justus mutters, rolling the window down a little and letting in the cool night air.
I don’t answer them. I can’t. My pulse has been a hammer in my throat all day. I need to see what waits for us out here.
Justus places a hand against the dash as we bounce through a deep rut. “Maybe it’s bigfoot because who the hell else would be out here? You guys better save me before he can take my virtue.”
Landon snorts. “Because if we stumble across a Sasquatch, of course it’ll want to fuck you.”
“Everyone does. It’s a curse.”
He’s trying to cut the tension, but it isn’t working. Not for me, anyway. I try to ignore the tightening in my chest, the way I can’t get a full breath.
The trees thin, and an old building appears, lookingsinister in the pale moonlight. My headlights strike a fading sign that readsSt. Mary’s est 1904.
There’s a parking lot that was probably paved at some point but now it’s rubble strewn grass. It does give me enough space to turn around and point my truck in the correct direction in case we have to make a fast getaway.
We’re all quiet as we emerge from the truck. Guns in hand, we start toward the sagging church. It looks like it could collapse at any minute, with its buckled steeple and half boarded-up, half missing windows.
The silence is too big, too still.
Justus adjusts his grip on his flashlight. “Alright. I’ll take left. Landon can go right. We’ll fall back a little and watch our surroundings, but we’ve got your back.”
I nod, taking the center position as we approach the forgotten church. The steps bow under my weight, and the front door is so rotted that crumbling pieces rain down from it as it swings open.
