Page 17 of The Gift
“If it will help find Cheyenne, I want to,” she reassured him, also for the third time.
He considered her for a moment, uncertainty shadowing his features, then pushed the door wide. The moment she entered, a pungent odor overwhelmed her.
“Forensics hit this place hard. The chemicals and dust linger,” Coop explained.
He wasn’t kidding. It burned her nose and made her eyes water, but she moved forward, determined.
The house felt wrong now. Not haunted but missing something vital.
As she glanced around the entryway, she folded her arms loosely across her stomach. “What made you decide to bring me here?”
Coop shut the door behind them. “We found a note.”
She looked at him when he didn’t elaborate. “It might help if I knew what it said.”
“It was a threat. If their demand isn’t met, Cheyenne is next.”
She tried not to picture the girl ending up like her mother, but the image formed in her mind. “We can’t let that happen,” she whispered.
“I’m going to do everything in my power to stop it.”
She believed him. “The demand was for money, I’m assuming?”
He nodded grimly. “I was hoping you might pick up on something here that might lead us to it. Or to Cheyenne.”
“Do you have the note? Maybe if I held it—”
“It’s evidence and is currently being analyzed,” he said more curtly than usual. She suspected it contained something he didn’t want her to see, so it must be really bad.
She moved down the hall, glancing left into a formal dining room that seemed cold and was probably seldom used. To the right, what she saw halted her in her tracks.
“That’s where it happened,” she whispered, staring at the brownish-red stain covering most of the area rug and a lot of the wood floor.
“Did you get something?” Coop prompted.
She shook her head. “Only what I can assume from the condition of the room. Debra is gone. There’s nothing left to reach me.” She looked at the staircase leading to the second floor. “Hopefully, that’s not true for Cheyenne. Where’s her bedroom?”
“Second floor, last door on the right.”
He moved with her when she started up the stairs.
She turned, eye to eye with him, from the step above. “You don’t broadcast, but I should probably do this alone, to make sure nothing interferes.”
“I’ll give you some space,” he agreed, unfazed by the request.
She climbed two more steps then glanced over her shoulder. He hadn’t moved. Suddenly, she didn’t like the distance. “Maybe not too much?”
A faint smile tugged at his mouth, gone almost as soon as it appeared. “I’ll keep you in sight.”
The treads creaked beneath them. At the top of the steps, a heaviness settled over her. It grew stronger at Cheyenne’s bedroom door, but the emotion behind it was still vague.
She paused on the threshold. It looked like a typical teenage girl’s room with posters, books, and a cluttered desk. The walls were lavender, the comforter a mix of purple and cream swirls. A bright pink rug covered the center of the floor. It was cheerful, especially the stuffed rainbow unicorn in the middle of the bed. She got none of the fear, confusion, and pain she’d felt from Cheyenne over the past few days.
Maybe if she touched something the girl cherished. The unicorn, which held a revered place in her room, was first. Moving toward the bed, a loud creak made her stop. It sounded different from the stairs. She shifted her weight, and it did it again.
She crouched and pushed the rug aside, scanning the boards. One had scratches at the end seam. She crouched beside it, not touching it yet.
“Coop.”
