Page 54 of Zen's Crash

Glancing at Rigs, I have to say what’s on my mind. “Have you noticed that every single image he took is perfect?”

Rigs turns on me in a heartbeat. “Perfect? What the hell are you talking about, brother? That’s a sick, twisted thing to say.”

I roll my chair back slightly when I see his hands are balled into fists.

“Calm the fuck down, Rigs, and look at the damn picture.” Pointing to the screen, I tell him, “Look how her shirt is draped back over her shoulder to show off her breasts. See how he tied her up in a way that lifts her breasts and makes her waist look smaller. Even her shirt color-coordinates with her bra and panties. She’s tied to a tree in high heels.”

“If you’ve got a point to make, you’d best make it soon—because you’re sure as hell starting to sound like a man who appreciates this dark shit.”

I glare at my club brother who should know me better, “My point is it looks kind of staged. Like someone has arranged all the details to create the best effect. Look at how her face is illuminated. He set up a damn light in the woods so he could see her expression clearly.”

Rigs leans closer to the monitor. After a few minutes, he says, “You may be right, but for all we know that just means he was making snuff films and wanted it to look a certain way.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. I don’t know where I was going with that.”

Truthfully, I’m confused by my own train of thought.

“I’m gonna focus on finding this piece of property Terrance’s grandfather left him.”

“That’s the best chance we have of locating him at the moment,” Rigs responds, still giving me a bit of side-eye.

I slide out the CD and hand it to Rigs along with the camera. “I guess I’ll head to my office to work, so you can have your office back.”

He responds, “I’ll continue to look through all this stuff for clues.”

I grab my laptop, and we part ways awkwardly. I wish I had just kept my mouth shut about how everything looked staged. All it did was make me look like someone who found beauty in a woman’s suffering, which wasn’t remotely true.

I probably need to go check on Lexi, but I don’t because she’s probably already getting support from her friends. They seem pretty tight, so I decide to let her be.

Once in my office, I climb into my computer chair and turn on my laptop again. I find my old floppy disk reader and make quick work of checking them out. After what we found on the CDs and on his camera, I was expecting something incriminating, but it turns out it’s just his high school homework assignments. After making sure that’s all the floppy disks contain, I then do a deep dive into the information in his grandfather’s will. The will said he was to be given his grandfather’s hunting lodge just off Simon’s Creek Road.Since this fucker never went through the effort to legalize his vehicles or anything, I conduct a property search under the grandfather’s name, Harry Harris. The only property in that area associated with the last name Harris is locked in a family trust. Clever. If it’s held in trust, his name doesn’t need to be on the deed.

I make note of the property’s location and send out a text to the club officers notifying them of what I found. I get an immediate text back from Siege asking me to come to Rigs’ office. I grab my laptop and stroll back through, looking around for Lexi in the bar. I don’t see her anywhere, but that doesn’t mean anything—she often hangs out in Cindy’s room, painting each other’s nails and doing girly things.

When I walk in, our contact from the Las Salinas PD is there, bagging the evidence. I see he’s already bagged the bloody t-shirt and friendship bracelet and is working on the camera and CDs. Since I’ve already made copies of the information on both the camera and the disks, the cops taking them doesn’t affect our own investigation at all.

When he leaves, we have a sit-down.

Siege starts the conversation. “Is it my imagination, or is this case just getting stranger and stranger?”

I respond grimly, “There are so many moving parts that I’m exhausted from chasing them all.”

Tank asks, “Do you think that might have been part of the asshole’s grand plan? You know, throw a bunch of shit at us to keep us chasing our own tails until we give up?”

“To be honest, I don’t know, and I don’t care either. My plan is to keep going after this fucker until I find him—and then give him a fucking dirt nap.”

“Roger that,” Tank chimes in. “The only thing we need to figure out is if he’s a stone-cold killer or not. If he is, then we make sure he’s not in a position to kill any more innocent people. If he’s not, we mete out justice that fits the crime he did commit.”

The other club officers all sound off their approval. So that becomes our plan. It sounds simple when Tank says it, but I’m familiar enough with this case to know it’s anything but simple. Siege begins texting brothers to come with us to his hunting lodge. Turns out it’s much closer than Reno—about eight miles across the state line.

I go to the armory, which is right beside my office, and gear up. Truth be told, I’m eager to put this whole complicated, fucked-up situation to rest once and for all. As I tuck guns and ammo all over my body, I realize just how far I am from the stereotypical computer nerd. I love computers, but I also work out, have always had a healthy sex life, and have been involved in more shootouts than the average cop in this small town.

That means I’m more than prepared to do whatever I have to, to get to the bottom of this. My only real regret is asking Lexi if her father could be involved because of finding that kill bag on their property. She didn’t react well to that, but I guess I don’t blame her.

Thinking of Lexi, I decide to send her a quick text to let her know we’re heading out to the hunting lodge. I hang onto my phone for a few minutes, waiting for her to text back, while myclub brothers take turns gearing up. I’m just about to call her when Siege walks into the room.

He’s got some long, drawn-out plan on how to run this operation, and as usual, we all listen up. He’s a safety-minded guy, and it feels like we have a much higher probability of finally getting our hands on Terrance than when we went to his mother’s place. This isolated lodge is not only the perfect hideout but also the perfect location for doing dark deeds. Siege has a plan for not disturbing any potential crime scene we come upon. Thinking of all the evil shit Terrance might be doing there sends a chill up my spine. I’m glad my Lexi is gonna be safe and sound at the clubhouse.

Chapter 22

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