CHAPTER 6

Detective McMullen’s office looked like a crime-scene, not somewhere crime was investigated. After waiting in his office for half an hour Angie decided to look around the office, only to find the detective on the floor, he was losing a lot of blood from a deep gash in his side.

John rushed out to call security and an ambulance while Angie put pressure on the wound. McMullen was unconscious and appeared to have been laying there for about an hour. Angie’s first aid training kicked in and by the time the ambulance arrived he was almost stable.

“What the fuck was that?” John turned to Angie and noticed she was covered in blood.

“He knew something… something someone didn’t want him to.” Angie replied. She was angry, angry that the only person who could help them was in an ambulance awaiting life-saving treatment. She marched out of the office in search of someone who had any link to the case.

After much convincing the couple found that the only other person on the case was in a car accident yesterday and couldn’t remember anything from the past year.

John looked to his wife and noticed she was already walking to the car.

“What are you thinking?” He asked as soon as they got into the work vehicle.

“I’m thinking the two cases are connected, as well as the two detectives accidents. I’m also thinking that the two detectives knew exactly what happened. We need to talk to Detective Shinkle about next steps, this is bigger than just Ava and Avery Gelding.”

“We’re still looking for Avery though, that is our top priority.”

“We can’t find her if we don’t know where to look. I have some people looking for her, but this person is clever.”

They drove for a while in silence until they pulled up to an abandoned warehouse. Angie heard from Elsie Peal that the girls used to go to this warehouse all the tome when they were in high school, and Angie though she and John should take a look around, just in case.

After hours of searching and finding nothing John received a call from the hospital. Detective McMullen was alive but on life support. There was no way to know if the two cases were linked and no way to know if the two detectives were hurt by the same person.

As soon as John and Angie got back to the office Angie asked to take over the other girl’s case. The girl’s name was Farrah Ophelia, she went missing around the same time as the twins, which made Angie extremely suspicious. After looking through the file, she saw what they were looking for, the body by the lake was Farrah, meaning anything could happen to Avery if the two cases were linked.

While Angie searched the file for anything of importance John received the details from the detectives still at the scene. There was a card a few metres away from where Farrah’s body was. It was an ID tag for Harrold Hamilton. It was from a mental hospital. John immediately ordered his medical records and Angie searched for where he lived. She found that owned a cabin a few kilometres from the Gelding’s cabin. This was great, finally they had a lead. John, however found that Harrold was supposed to be in a 72-hour hold at the hospital for his bipolar disorder. He had escaped and no one knew where he was.