Page 74 of Salvation

The last thing I remember is that I was looking at all of my files while I waited on the report from Raven. I was supposed to get a cell tower location. I drank the coffee that Alan brought from the kitchen as we compared notes from yesterday.

The coffee was very bitter, but I assumed it was because it was old and had been sitting for a while.

But my head is fuzzy, and my mouth feels like cotton. I never feel that way, even when I’m dead on my feet, and practically falling over with exhaustion. I’m also groggy as hell and I feel as if I’m floating.

Was something in my coffee?

Where is my report?

And where the hell is Alan?

I check my watch and see it’s almost noon.

I’ve been asleep for almost eleven hours!

Reaching for the wall phone, I call down to the crime lab.

Raven is gone, but the day technician looks up the logs from early this morning. He says the report looks like it was manually removed from the system around three this morning and he can’t access any of it. It’s not there.

Jumping up, I grab the wall to stop from falling and then look around at the paperwork spread over the table to see if the report is there.

It’s not, but I do see my cell phone on the edge of the table.

That’s not where I set it last night, is it?!

I swipe it as I run past the table and race to the crime lab. I’m so disoriented, I almost fall as I slam into the wall. I also feel as if I’m going to hurl, but the adrenaline seems to be working in my favor and fighting off the effects of whatever I was drugged with.

Four people look through the computer to attempt to locate the report, while I try to hold in my rage, but it’s gone. Ms. Smith’s cell phone is also nowhere to be found. In desperation, I call down to the front desk, and after some smooth talking with the receptionist, and a white lie, I manage to get Raven’s number. Without regard for the time, or the fact that she’s only been off for a few hours after working all night, I punch in her number.

She sleepily answers on the third ring. She quickly wakes up when she realizes it’s me and asks me how she can help me with obvious flirtation in her voice. I cut her off brusquely. “Raven, this isn’t a social call. The phone I gave you last night, where is it? Did you run it and get a location for me?”

She pauses for a second before replying, “What do you mean? The phone is in evidence. I ran it like I said I would, and I sent the report to you about two this morning.”

I tell her that I was asleep, and I missed seeing it. I leave out the part about possibly being drugged and the report being missing. She says, “I talked to your partner. I called for you. He said you were tied up with something and came to the lab to get it. He also took the package to return it to the evidence room.”

Making a quick decision, I lie again. “He’s actually not at the office right now, and I want to check that tower location. You don’t happen to remember where it was, do you?”

She’s quiet for a bit. Then, she slowly says, “Yeah, I do actually… because it’s in the middle of nowhere.” She rattles off the location numbers before she yawns. She mutters, “Look, it’s all in the report, Detective. I’ll be back in tonight, but right now, I need to sleep. And since this is a work-related call, and I’m not at work, we can discuss this later.” I don’t miss the hurt in her voice. But I cannot dwell on it right now.

Thanking her for the info she gave me, I hang up and race to the computer to check the location of that tower, while calling down to the evidence room to see if the phone was logged into the system.

It wasn’t…

Fifteen minutes later, I have coordinates and a location of where Renald might have been. Pulling up land ownership, I’m able to locate four privately owned parcels of land in that area. Another simple search and I’m cussing heartily and grabbing my badge, gun, and keys before making a mad dash for the door. The cobwebs clear and I’m wide ass awake with what I just learned.

Son of a bitch!

That mother fucker!

It was him the whole time. He knew!

He KNEW!

Yesterday! It really was a wild goose chase because he already knew!

The meeting place for Renald and Gabrial was in the Basin… on a parcel of land owned by Jameson Rodgers…

Alan’s grandfather!

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