Temptation Trails - Page 151

“I’m afraid not.”

“Don’t you fucking touch her.”

“Can the heroic detective catch the killer before he claims another victim?” He was disguising his voice. It didn’t sound like Phillip, but it had to be him.

“Do. Not. Touch. Her.”

“Too late for that. But I will let you in on a secret. She’s still alive. For now.”

“Prove it. Let me talk to her.”

The call went dead.

“Fuck!”

A second later, a text came through from Harper’s phone.

I opened it to find a photo. It was dark and she wasn’t looking straight at the camera, but that was her profile.

The bastard had her.

Where was she? The surroundings could have been anywhere. A room, a closet, a basement.

A root cellar?

I flew out of the car, ran to the house, and went into the garage. The bolt cutters were exactly where I thought they’d be. I grabbed them and raced back to the car.

Pulling out onto the street, my mind raced. Tracking her cell phone would be too slow. Even in an urgent case, there was always too much back and forth getting the cell companies to comply. It wouldn’t get me to her fast enough.

Besides, all Phillip had to do was turn off her phone. The best we’d be able to do would be last known location. He was well aware of how that worked. He helped us write warrants for this kind of thing all the time.

And I didn’t know who I could trust.

Jack? Kade? The other deputies? The department itself?

In that moment, I was no longer a deputy. No longer a cop. If saving her cost me my career, so be it. I’d do anything. Phillip was not going to kill her. Or our child.

Her phone didn’t matter. I knew where she was. And I knew who I needed to call. I brought up Luke’s number and hit send.

“Hey, man, what’s up?” he answered. The connection sounded spotty.

“Don’t talk for a second, just listen. I know who killed Jasmine Joyner. And he has Harper. Remember that old barn and root cellar?”

“What the fuck? Yeah, I remember.”

“Meet me there. Now.”

“I’m on the highway heading back to town, but I’ll get there as fast as I can.”

It was all coming together. He’d abducted Jasmine and driven her out into the woods. She’d lost her bracelet when he’d pulled her out of the car. He’d dragged or carried her to the root cellar where he’d killed her, then left her body near another trail.

Phillip was an outdoorsman. A hunter. He’d be accustomed to hauling elk, deer, whatever he was hunting, out of the woods. Moving a woman’s body, even over a distance, wouldn’t have been hard for him.

He was recreating his crime. Only this time, Harper was his intended victim. The packages, the flowers. The taunts, showing her he was watching her.

As for the rest, he’d been trying to get me out of the way. Get me in trouble at work so they’d take me off the case—off his case.

I hated that I’d made Harper his target. Would he have chosen her as a victim if I hadn’t started investigating the cold case? I didn’t know, but I doubted it.