Page 10 of Shattered Dreams

“Anything else happen besides your truck?”

“No.”

“Sure about that?”

“Yeah.”

“You should tell Sierra to be careful. She doesn’t have the protection Zarah and Stella do, and everyone knows about her now because of that gossip rag.”

I don’t like the sound of that. Sierra’s got nothing to do with this bullshit, but that won’t stop someone from hurting her to hurt me.“Yeah. I’ll call her later and tell her to watch her back.”

Baby barks, and we follow the sharp sound that echoes across the river. She’s scratching at a door that doesn’t have a handle on the outside. Possibly an emergency exit of some kind. “Baby.”

She only needs me to say her name to step back. Should all females be so trained.

“I guess there’s something interesting in there.”

Pop grunts in agreement.

The building’s huge, and it takes us longer to walk the outside than I would have figured. Loading bays line the east side, butthis doesn’t seem like the type of warehouse that would have a lot of traffic. Maybe warehouse isn’t even the right word for what this building is. Storage facility. Distribution center. Hard to know without seeing what’s inside.

There’s a second floor, and windows glint in the sun. Offices, possibly, though I can’t picture anyone working a nine to five here.

A rusted ladder is bolted to the side of the building, just begging to be climbed, but I don’t want to leave Baby behind. Pop says, “I’ll stay,” and that leaves me free to see what’s at the top, but more importantly, if there’s a way inside. I hand him the camera and he hangs the strap around his neck.

The rungs are narrow, and the thick, snow-covered soles of my boots barely find purchase. I’m not scared of heights, but as I climb higher, I don’t voluntarily look down, either.

The second floor isn’t as wide as the first, and I have plenty of space to move around the roof and look for a way in. There isn’t police tape up here, and I’m hopeful there’s a door that hasn’t been blocked off. The wind is sharp and cold, and I tug my hat over my ears and zip my jacket all the way up to my chin. The trees on the lot are sparse, but the building isn’t high enough to give me a good view of the river.

Cupping my hands around my eyes to block out the glare, I look in the windows and see empty desks and filing cabinets that may or may not be full of paperwork. Nothing looks disturbed. Maybe the police didn’t go through the offices if their only concern was Ingrid’s body. Zane didn’t give me any information, but maybe he didn’t have any to give. Ingrid might not even have been killed here. If this was only a dumping area, there wouldn’t have been much to find.

I walk across the entire rooftop, but there isn’t a way inside. Not up here.

“Find anything?” Pop calls. The wind snatches away his words, but I can guess at what he said.

I shake my head. “Nothing.”

He gestures for me to come down, but I back away from the edge. I’m not going down the ladder I used to climb up—I’d fall and break my neck. Instead, I find a fire escape, and I wonder if I didn’t miss an entrance to the building after all, but there’s no time to worry about it now. I drop into the snow and it comes up to my knees. Most of the snow is fresh and untouched, and we’re messing it up. I can only hope the police searched out here and we’re not disturbing evidence.

Pop meets me in front of the building.

“This is shit,” I mutter.

“We can try picking the lock,” he says, jerking a thumb over his shoulder at the glass door.

“I didn’t bring mine. You?” I don’t have my lockpick kit on me.

“Yeah.”

Police tape seals off the main entrance, and curiously, Pop tears it away and pulls on the door’s handle. The door opens, hinges squealing, and we step into a small lobby containing a meagre seating area and an empty water cooler.

He hoots. “Who woulda left the door wide open?”

“Someone who wanted to get out of here as quickly as possible. Who called this in?” I ask, looking around.

“This is your job. You’re the one who talked to Zane.”

He has a point. “I didn’t have much time to research. I guess we’ll have to dig up the nine-one-one report.”

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