Page 84 of Rekindle My Heart

Pulling out her phone, she used her flashlight app to make her way down to the electrical panel. The floor creaked behind her. She whirled around.

“Hello?” Silence greeted her.

This is silly. Stop freaking yourself out.

Twenty feet down the hall, the floor creaked again. This time, she stopped. She wasn’t crazy. She heard it loud and clear. “Very funny, guys. Who’s there?”

The hairs on her arm rose. She willed her eyes to adjust to the dark. Thoughts of her air mask issue had her hastening her step.

Find the fuse and get back to work.She rounded the corner into the utility room and found the box. She opened the panel, then someone shoved her—hard.

Her head ricocheted off the wall. Her phone clattered on the floor. Dazed, she spun to fight back. Her arms came up to protect her face, but no one was there.

Her breath sawed in and out. Grabbing her phone, she scanned the area with the light. Empty.

She flipped the breaker and the lights flashed, temporarily blinding her. She blinked. Once, twice, letting her eyes adjust, then ran back to the break room.

Gripping the door frame, she swung into the room. Her computer sat on the table exactly where she left it. Relief washed over her.

She sat back down. She must have hallucinated. Maybe she had tripped. She could swear she felt hands on her back.

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and rebooted her computer.

The screen was blank. “What the fuck?”

When she left, the file was open, and now… No file. Hell, no folder. Her folder with all the incident reports and her notes was gone.

She slammed the laptop shut and spun around in her chair.

“No, no, no.” She ran through the station. Darting in and out of all the rooms. Where are you, you bastard? She knew someone had been there.

Standing in the middle of the empty bay, her chest heaved. Her heart slammed against her ribs.

She ran outside. Her pulse thundered in her ears.

She scanned left, then right. Nothing.

Fisting her hands in her hair, she screamed.After catching up on a couple other cases, Ryan circled back to Industrial Boulevard. The building had been thoroughly gone through by the techs, but the crime scene still hadn’t been released. They wouldn’t until every speck of evidence was collected, because when it was, what was left of the internal structure would be demolished.

Ryan slipped under the barricades and carefully walked through the scene.

Did Ruiz and Kealy meet up? If so, who killed them? There had to be a third party. The killer.

Questions ran through his mind. A user? Another cop? If so, were they corrupt?

He squatted down by the location of the bodies, then paced off the distance to the ignition source according to Evans’s report. With how combustible the material was, could the killer make it out the door without getting burned? Not likely.

Ryan turned in a circle. Maybe he used some sort of fuse to give himself some time. Would Evans be able to tell that? Sure, the hottest point was there. He pointed to the floor as he walked around. But what if he had a wick, so to speak?

Even with one, he couldn’t have gone out the front. Ryan would have seen him. And the back had a padlock.

The padlock? He pulled out his phone. A shiny new lock. What if the killer was the one to put the lock on? He could have come in from the back. Did Ruiz and Kealy?

Ryan shook his head. It didn’t make sense. He stared at the photo of the lock. They were sold in no less than four stores in Ashwood alone, not to mention numerous locations throughout the Twin Cities.

He locked his screen and shoved the phone back in his pocket. Time to go. He had one more stop before he picked up Erica. He could bounce the scenario off her. She might have some good thoughts.

He left his car parked in front of the wooden blockade and walked to the corner. Across the street, the “open” sign was still lit at the Metal Mart.