24. Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Twenty-Four

Z ara wiped the tears from her face with the back of her cuffed hands. Jesus was the only One holding her together right now. He was holding the panic at bay. But she had to fight. She couldn't let Brett, the panic, or ultimately Satan win in this situation. Her time here wasn't over yet, it couldn't be. The Lord was only starting to work in her life. She had to fight.

"Lord, help me." Her voice cracked. It was almost completely gone, but she pushed it. "Help." She yelled as loudly as she could. But it wasn't enough. The sound barely made it to her own ears, let alone out past the cinder block foundation of this old house.

The rain seemed to have picked up outside too. That would make it even harder for anyone to hear her. Is that why Brett waited for today to lock her down here? Did he pay attention to the weather forecast? He'd clearly planned this. The zip ties on the dash. The chain down here.

Her mind closed in on her again. She really was going to die down here, wasn't she? No, she had to think of a way out. She messed with the cuffs. They were too tight. Too tight to even break her thumb and slide out. Her wrists were too much smaller. She'd try if it came to it though, but maybe there was another possibility.

She followed the chain to the beam it was locked around.

A padlock with a keyhole secured two links of the heavy chain around the beam. She tugged. Nothing.

No, no, no, no, no. The panic blurred her mind.

"God, help me. I need You. I need help. I need a rescue. Please."

The panic subsided.

God was with her. She finally understood she would never be alone. His words were true—He would never leave nor forsake her.

An image of Will came to mind, causing her jaw to quiver. How she loved that man! Would he even come looking for her after the way she'd treated him this morning? Why had she not given him the benefit of the doubt? Did she expect too much? Was she being selfish? She was wrong to treat him so, wasn't she?

If he did find her, if she did escape this hole somehow, she would run to him and forgive him and beg for him to forgive her pettiness. She wanted to wrap her arms around him and hold him forever.

She directed her thoughts away from the fact that she was trapped and looking death in the face and to happy memories of Will.

The first memory she pulled up was the time they'd met. She'd been keeping tabs on her dad and had failed to notice the two men walking down the sidewalk in downtown Indianapolis. She and Will had literally run into one another. Romance-book-level meet-cute. She chuckled at the memory. Their eyes had met, and the rest was history.

Then she brought to mind her first day at work in Hazel Hill. She hadn't talked to Will again since he'd helped arrest her dad, but when she'd walked into the police station that he'd told her was looking for cops, his face had lit up like a police spotlight.

Their first kiss. She relished the memory of his tenderness.

She had to get out of here. She wanted more memories with Will.

All of the memories with him she did have gave her the confidence she needed. Without a doubt, she knew he loved her. He would look for her, but he'd first need to know she was missing. And how would he know where to look? "Jesus, direct him here."

In the passenger seat of Logan's squad car, Will gripped the door handle as Logan whipped into the mobile home neighborhood where Miley and Brett lived. They'd pinged Zara's phone here. Will prayed that she was inside teaching Miley more sign language and that Brett had not gone serial.

Logan wove through the neighborhood.

As they caught sight of Miley's single-wide, Will spotted Zara's car. "There she is."

Barely waiting for Logan to park next to Zara's car, Will sprang out. He ran up the steps and knocked on the door.

No answer.

He knocked again.

Still nothing.

He tried to peek in the blinds that weren't quite shut all the way. Zara's purse was sprawled on the ground.

He knocked one more time. "Her purse is on the ground. Probable cause enough?"

Doug, who was exiting his unmarked police sedan, nodded. He and Remington came up the steps behind Will.

Will drew his gun and announced himself. "Hazel Hill Police. I'm coming in."

He tried the handle. It was unlocked. He pushed the door open and entered the mobile home.

"Miley? Zara?"

Nothing. The living room and kitchen were empty. A lamp, a few books, and a pair of throw pillows were on the floor. Had there been a struggle?

He pointed for Logan to clear the back end of the trailer.

Miley had a little boy. Was he still here? Will remembered the night they'd responded to the domestic call. Corbin had been hiding in the closet. Maybe he was there again.

Will cleared the other bedroom and bathroom before entering Corbin's room. Will kept his firearm out but close to his holster.

"Corbin? Are you in here?"

A tiny sound came from the closet.

Will slid the door open. He popped his Glock into its holster and held his arms open to Corbin. "Hey, buddy. Are you okay?"

Corbin nodded and jumped up and into Will's waiting arms.

Will scooped the boy up and held him snugly. "It's okay, bud. Do you know where your mom and Officer Zara are?"

Corbin's arms tightened around Will's neck.

"Corbin, buddy, I need you to tell me if something is wrong."

The boy loosened his grip and looked Will in the face. "He's gonna kill them." He reburied his head against Will.

"Brett?"

Corbin nodded against Will's shoulder.

Will took him out to the living room and sat on the couch with him. "Did you hear him say anything about where he was going to take them?"

"Something about a house, but then I put my headphones on because he said he was going to kill them just like the others."

"Others?"

Corbin nodded.

Will took a deep breath. Brett had murdered before? Zara! Oh God, please protect her. Help her fight.

Doug indicated he caught the conversation with a nod. "I'll see what I can find out. Remington called social services. They'll be here soon."

Will comforted and distracted Corbin until the social worker arrived. Will and Logan left the home.

As Will walked down the steps, he spotted something teal on the ground. He stooped and picked it up. One of Zara's hair ties. Had she dropped it on purpose? Despite its dampness, he stuffed it in his pocket.

Doug sat in his sedan with a serious face. Will went over and Doug rolled down the window. Will leaned on the edge of the roof and looked inside.

"Find anything good?"

"Yep. I've discovered the company Brett works for, a demolition company. I called and they're sending over a list of houses that have been listed or inquired about for demolition. More than I would have expected for our little city. But it's a place to start. I also called Becca, and she and Gavin are following up on a hunch I had."

"What hunch is that?"

"Brett seems to have moved around a lot over the last ten years. His last residence wasn't too far from here but close to where that body that Becca and Gavin are investigating was found out in the woods."

"What's the connection to Brett?"

"He was the boyfriend of a missing girl out there. He moved around the time her parents reported her missing. I wouldn't be surprised if the woman in the morgue is that woman."

"Corbin made it sound like it was more than one. Worth checking all of his last known locations for missing women."

"Exactly." Doug cracked his knuckles. "There's the email. Let's start hitting this list and find Zara and Miley."

"Agreed."

Will and Logan jumped into the squad car and followed Doug and Remington in the unmarked to the closest location on the list.

The rain pounded against the ground outside the crawlspace. Zara had lost all sense of time. She didn't know if the lack of light coming through the cracks around the entrance to the crawlspace was because the sun was going down or if the storm clouds had grown darker.

But the already dark crawlspace had become nefariously dark. Downright creepy, really. She couldn't think about all the things that could be crawling around her.

A shudder coursed through her entire body. As hot as it had been outside, the crawlspace was cold and making her bones ache.

She needed to focus on something else. What else could she do to escape?

Crawling around to explore would probably help, but she couldn't bear the idea of encountering spiders and centipedes and who knows what. As independent and tough a cop as she was, she really looked forward to having someone to kill spiders for her.

She shuddered again. Nope. She'd stay where she was and pray for a rescue.

But that wasn't very independent and tough of her. She tested the length of the chain. She wasn't going anywhere anyway. It was only three feet long at most.

She needed to think about something, or she'd start panicking again. Help?

Miley.

Oh, that wasn't going to be much better. Was Miley okay? Where had Brett taken her? And what was it that Miley had signed?

She thought through the spelled word again. It didn't mean anything to her. But why not? It could be a name. Who was it? No one Zara knew of. Was it a location? She had a map of the city almost completely memorized, but she couldn't remember a road or place by a name like that. Had it been spelled correctly?

E-n-z-w-e-i-l-e-r.

Enzweiler.

Zara had nothing.

And the last sign? Zara really wasn't sure what she meant by it. Flesh was close, but it wasn't quite right. Was she doing the sign incorrectly?

Zara had no idea what she meant. What other signs were similar? Tea? That wasn't quite what she was doing. Tornado? No, that definitely wasn't it. Ghost? That was a better option than the others, but it still made no sense.

The sound of dripping water caught Zara's ears. Oh no. Was water coming into the crawlspace?

It had been so hot and dry lately that the ground probably couldn't absorb the quantity of water that was falling. Now she had yet another concern. Was she going to drown?

A rumbling sound joined the dripping. No!

Wait, that wasn't water. That was the sound of a car. Was someone outside?

She tried to yell help , but the word didn't come out.

She tried banging the chain, but it didn't make much noise. It definitely wasn't loud enough to be heard over the rain.

Lord, please send help.