Page 38 of Zombie

“Hey, Z.” Badger’s voice was shaky.

Immediately I was on high alert. “What’s wrong?”

“The–there’s another envelope on my door.” My mind started racing. Someone had been sending Badger cryptic letters about her kidnapped little sister and we still hadn’t identified who it was. By the sound in her voice I could tell that something more had happened. My gut clenched and my brow began to sweat. I had a feeling it was Sarah, but I couldn’t be certain. I hated that I couldn’t tell her the truth of what was going on. Hated that I was keeping this secret from someone so close to me which meant that Badger’s sister would be held captive longer. I knew how selfish that was, however the less she knew gave me more time to figure things out. My only hope is that I was right and it was Sarah, because then I knew she would be taken care of soon.

Anger boiled inside of me. Shit. Fuck! I thought to myself. I’d thought we were past these ominous letters, but apparently not. I had even made it a priority to see if I could find Badger’s sister in the cages of the warehouse to no avail.

“I’m on my way, don’t touch anything!” I said sternly through the phone.

Quickly, I rushed upstairs and saw that Lennie was still sound asleep in my bed. I left a note on my pillow letting her know that I had an emergency but would be right back, then got changed.

Within twenty minutes, Toby and I were on the scene.

“Let me see,” I said as I walked up to Badger.

Her face was stricken with emotion, and all I wanted to do was make my friend feel better. I put on some latex gloves and opened the envelope.

My gaze met hers as I tried to keep my voice calm. “It’s probably best you don’t see this, B.”

She glared at me. “Show me!”

The envelope held a note with the same handwriting as before, accompanied by a photograph of a young girl, who I knew was Badger’s sister, tied up and gagged. Half of her young face was black and blue and swollen.

I put the photo back in the evidence bag before squeezing Badger’s shoulder.

“We will get her, B. I’ll know more in a couple days.”

When I got back home, I found Lennie on the couch watching reruns of New Girl. She looked so peaceful under one of my throw blankets that I never used. I loved seeing her feeling at home in mine. It hadn’t felt like a home since Arrow had died, and for the first time a flicker of hope surged through me.

I walked over to her and sat next to her on the couch. She gave me a sheepish smile. “Sorry I’m still here.”

My eyebrows raised in surprise. “You have nothing to apologize for. I like having you here.”

I leaned over and pressed a soft kiss to her lips; they felt so right against mine.

I settled in next to her before she leaned over and put her head on me. “Okay, show me what is so special about this TV show.”

Lennie let out a giggle and pressed play.

The show began to play. I couldn’t focus on it. All I could think about was the look on Badger’s face when she saw the contents of the letter and the picture that accompanied it. It was taking all my control not to tell Lennie what was going on. To finally confide in someone about everything in my life. To tell someone I cared about the reality of seeing hallucinations of my dead best friend, the bombshell of having a daughter that I didn’t know about, that Ricci was in fact my biological father, and most of all where Sarah had been hiding the operation.

If I was feeling this way, I could only imagine how Badger was feeling. I knew what it was like to lose family. But to be taunted like she was, I couldn’t even fathom the hurt and pain she was feeling. I needed to get the results fast so I could not only help my team, but also my dear friend.

TWENTY-EIGHT

ZOMBIE

I was sitting at my desk when my computer let out a noise signaling that it was done analyzing the partial print through the Automatic Biometric Identification System. Knots gathered in my stomach when it was confirmed that the partial print I had gathered from the letter belonged to none other than Sarah Myers.

I called Badger with the news and tried to seem hopeful when I was delivering it. Now that we had a confirmed partial print, we knew where to direct our resources. Which also meant I needed to be strategic in how I played both sides of this situation. One on hand I needed to keep Sarah none the wiser that my team was on to her even more and then on the other hand I needed to make sure my team didn’t find out about my involvement with Sarah. Word spread quickly, and Chief was working on a plan to take Sarah down once they pinpointed her location.

Guilt gnawed at my gut for not telling them where to find her. I knew I should and knew it was wrong to keep vital information away from the team. However, if I did tell them, it could mean that my very own daughter would be put into the sex trade at the age of two. It also meant that Cassie would have to be related to something that was evil. I didn’t want that for either of them.

It had been several days since I last hung out with Lennie. She’d been working overtime trying to use my findings to triangulate where Sarah was. I wanted so desperately to hold her in my arms and tell her the truth, but it couldn’t happen. She needed to figure everything out on her own. If that meant also outing me, then I would have to deal with those consequences as they came.

I was working on sorting some evidence for the county, when a text came through from Sarah. I let out a curse as I read it.

UNKNOWN: