Page 65 of The Last Straw

“Charlie?”

“Yeah?”

“Did you do this?” she asked.

“I couldn’t find the fucking door,” he said.

She looked up.

“I can’t believe you just said fucking.”

She heard the men behind her chuckling, but she couldn’t see past the look on his face.

“Now you see the danger of getting between me and something I want,” he said.

Breath caught in the back of her throat. What did he mean by that? And why did he say it just now, with a closet full of witnesses, when they were on a search?

“Whatever,” she mumbled, then picked up a blue paisley scarf from the floor of the closet and wrapped it around her hand. “Okay. If you’re going first, get moving,” she said.

Charlie frowned, then looked back at the crew behind them.

“Don’t let her fall,” he said.

“We’ve got this, Charlie,” Mills said and moved up a little closer behind Wyrick.

Satisfied, Charlie turned and went through the doorway, triggering the lights within the passage, and then Wyrick was inside with the police behind her.

“So there was a passage here, after all,” she said. “Where was I when you found me?” she asked.

Charlie pointed. “About sixty yards or so south. So I’m going to start walking. You’re the one with the Spidey-sense radar, so if you want us to stop just say so. Otherwise, I’ll keep moving.”

She nodded, but she still hadn’t moved.

“What are you feeling?” he asked.

“Him. He’s everywhere here.”

“Can you see his face?” Charlie asked.

“No. But none of them have seen his face here. They were unconscious here.”

The lack of emotion in her voice made Detective Floyd shudder. She was picking up on the helplessness of the victims, and it gave him the creeps.

“Are you ready?” Charlie asked.

Wyrick took a deep breath and then exhaled slowly, letting go of everything except the trail of his energy, and it was dark, so dark that she was afraid of what they’d find.

“Yes. Let’s go.”

And so they started walking, moving slowly along the passage, letting Wyrick set the pace. As she walked she began telling them what she was seeing.

“There are other rooms like Rachel’s. Three more, but I don’t know where they are.”

They kept moving. As they moved past the place where Sonny had dropped her she stopped and looked behind her, near where two of the officers were standing.

“Charlie, back there...is that where you found me?”

“Yes. How did you know?”

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