Page 23 of Down and Dirty

He glanced over her shoulder to find the beam of her flashlight pointing at a woman’s body. A familiar face stared up at the rock ceiling. Her gaze was unblinking and hazy. Her body lay prone and broken.

Keaton’s throat turned dry as he dropped to his knees beside the body and felt for a pulse. There wasn’t one. Like Mary, this woman looked like she’d just fallen and couldn’t get up. She was dead. Shit. He ran his hand over his face.

“Isn’t she one of your three still missing?” Faith asked.

“Erin Adams. She was a reporter. She was only reported missing a week ago.”

“The same time Mary disappeared. That can’t be a coincidence.”

“I don’t believe in coincidences.” He said.

Faith dropped to her knees on the other side of the body. “What the heck is she doing here?”

The beam left the body and slowly slid around the cavernous walls, up and down as if she were searching for something.

Rocks glinted on the ground, and she picked one up, running her finger over the smooth surface. She slowly rose and sloshed over to the wall, scanning it with her flashlight. “I have no idea what she was doing here.”

“Faith, are you all right?” Jimbo called from the opening of the waterfall. His concerned voice echoed and bounced off the walls.

Keaton took Faith’s hand and flashlight and led her back out to the opening. “There’s another body in the cave.”

Jimbo glanced down into the dark. “You can’t be serious.”

“He’s serious.”

“She’ll be easy to ID. Her name is Erin Adams. She was a reporter over in Greenbridge. She’s one of my seven.”

“What the hell is your dead reporter doing near our dead witch?”

That was one of the questions Keaton couldn’t answer. He knew the reporter’s abduction fit into his missing person case, which had now turned into serial murders, but why was the witch included? She’d gone missing without a trace just like the others. Their entire lives up and vanished, including everything they owned. He needed to figure this out and fast before Faith fell victim. Keaton had less than two weeks to save her life.

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