Page 87 of Inside Silence
“No time,” he pants, clearly out of breath as he reaches again. “They might still be in there.”
“Catch your breath before you kill yourself, buddy,” Roy cautions him as he joins us. “Let me have a look.”
I quickly hand the flashlight off to Roy, who wastes no time diving into the dark waters. I pull Nate to my side as he gulps in air and watch the eerie play of light of my Mag torch under the surface of the water.
“I’m going back in,” Nate mutters, trying to pull his arm free, but I’m holding on.
“Give him a chance,” I plead, digging my heels in before he drags me in the water with him.
Just as he rips free from my hold, the light surfaces and Roy’s head pops out of the water.
“It’s empty,” he gasps. “No one’s in there.”
“Are you sure? Did you see any of the windows open or broken? Any external damage to the car?”
I rattle off questions as fast as the thoughts hit my head.
“No broken windows, but I managed to open a door to get a better look inside,” Roy informs me.
In the background I can hear the whine of approaching sirens.
Hugo is the first to come barreling down the embankment, losing his footing several times, but that doesn’t seem to slow him down.
“Are they?—”
“It’s the car but they’re not in there,” Nate quickly shares.
The big man bends over, bracing his hands on his knees as he takes in big gulps of air.
“Windows look to be intact,” I explain. “I don’t think they were in the car when it went in the water.”
But then where the hell are they? It looks more and more like we’re dealing with foul play here. If these two were runaways, they wouldn’t be ditching their only mode of transportation in the lake. The only reason to do that willfully would be to hide a crime.
Worry about the kids’ fate just ramped up to the highest gear.
If their car is here, you would think the kids were here at some point as well. Maybe we can find evidence of that, if we haven’t already trampled all over it.
“Guys, let’s get up to the road before we destroy whatever evidence there is. We need this road closed off and get some lights set up so we can see what we’re doing.”
Hugo leads the way and is already off talking to the fire chief, by the time I swing my leg over the guardrail. Tessa and Chris’s SUV is just pulling up behind the fire truck, and I head in their direction with Nate sticking close to my side. Roy joins a small group of men on the bridge.
I quickly fill Tessa in on what we discovered.
“Not a coincidence it was dumped in the same lake we found the first victim,” she observes.
A fair conclusion, although I do wince at the mention of the dead man in the lake, and quickly glance at Nate. A muscle ticks rhythmically in his jaw as I’m sure his mind is working its way to the same conclusion we’re fearing.
“I put a call into the rest of the crime scene unit, but it’ll be at least a couple of hours before they can mobilize and get here,” Tessa continues. “In the meantime, we’ll do what we can.”
Just then Auden’s State Patrol cruiser pulls up as well and he rushes over to us.
“I picked up the call on the radio. Tell me what I can do.”
I can feel the air go heavy around us and move a little closer to Nate. I know he’s not a fan of Auden and the encounter last night didn’t really help. I hope whatever is simmering between these two guys gets resolved at some point, because both are important parts of my life, but that will have to wait.
We have much, much bigger priorities now.
Nate
