She nodded. But the next thing she knew, Tanner was squeezing her hand and shaking her awake.
“We’re closer, freckles. I need you to give me as much detail about the location as possible.”
Bree forced herself to focus, clicking the keys to get the information they needed. The characters were blurry and she had to blink multiple times to get them clear. Finally, she read him an address. Whitaker immediately repeated it over his phone to the other cars.
“My program isn’t running anymore, so that should be the final address,” she said.
“This place makes a hell of a lot more sense than a residential neighborhood,” Whitaker responded. “Much more isolated, much easier to move a kidnap victim or body.”
Bree nodded. It was all she could do to keep her eyes open. “You guys have to be careful. At the very least he knows somebody found his secret room.”
“But he doesn’t know you figured out what computer he was using,” Tanner said.
“That’s true. He’ll probably still want to shut everything down, but maybe he thinks he has more time and won’t do anything drastic.”
Like kill the victim outright.
Bree couldn’t stand the thought that they might lose her this close to saving her life.
Five minutes later they were pulling up in front of what looked to be an abandoned warehouse. Bree tried to focus but found herself continuously closing her eyes.
“You rest now.” Tanner kissed her forehead. “You’ve done your part. Let them do theirs.”
“You’re not going in?” The thought did not make her sad at all.
“I’ll do whatever they need me to, but this is Penelope’s call.”
Penelope. The blonde. Bree’s eyes drifted closed, a scowl on her lips at the other woman’s name.
“ISSHEOUT?” Whitaker asked as he opened the door.
Tanner got out too. “Yes. Her body is done.”
They jogged over to the other car parked a few yards from them.
“SWAT wants us to wait,” Penelope said. “But they are twenty minutes out. We definitely don’t have that kind of time.”
“Bree says the guy definitely knows we’re onto him. He might not know we’re closing in on him now, but he’s going to be much more wary,” Tanner told them.
“Even more reason to move in now.” Penelope turned to the uniformed officer who had followed them from the house. “Kelly, you stay here. Keep an eye on Bree and make sure our perp doesn’t get away if he comes running out the front door.”
Young officer Kelly nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
Penelope looked over at Tanner and he gave her a nod. Knowing someone had Bree’s back freed him up to go inside.
Penelope turned to them. “Okay, people, we’re going in there blind, so be careful. Leon and I will take the front door. Whit, you and Tanner take the back.”
They didn’t waste any time. Tanner and Whitaker made their way around the back of the building, opening a rusty door as quietly as possible. As soon as they were inside, they realized there hadn’t really been any need to be quiet. Someone was screaming their head off so loudly, hearing anything was damn near impossible.
“Please! The water! Please, he turned it up!”
Tanner and Whitaker both darted in the direction of the voice. They both knew it could be a trap, but they weren’t going to leave a woman to die.
Thankfully she kept screaming, leading them deeper into the warehouse, where four walls had been set up to give the appearance of a small room. There wasn’t even a proper door.
This was where the footage had come from.
As Tanner and Whitaker stormed inside the facade, the woman let out a terrified shriek garbled by the water that was now about to cover her face. There was no sign of the killer anywhere, and nowhere he could hide.
