Chapter 6

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Back to the present Monday morning. There I was at my desk, frantically collecting all the evidence I could find, trying desperately to complete the puzzle that had tortured me for this entire week. How did that hair get into the victim's mouth, and why would someone put it there? Ding ding. My phone lit up. It was an image and an address sent from an unknown number. I opened it, and my breath caught. The picture depicted a woman... the exact woman from the first crime scene. I quickly saved the image and took a screenshot of the chat log. With shaking hands, I dialed Richard. “I received an image of the victim with an address,” I told Richard through the phone, my tone desperate and breathless from the sudden, intense pounding of my heart. “Let's meet at the office in five minutes. I'm heading out now!” he replied. “Okay,” I said, slamming my car door shut at the exact same time. I practically threw myself inside the police building. Richard’s parents happened to be walking into the main office, but I completely ignored them, pacing back and forth like a caged animal while waiting for him to arrive. “What? What did you find?” Richard asked, bursting through the doors, out of breath from running up the stairs. “Look.” I handed my phone over to him. He stared at the screen for a few quiet minutes, analyzing the text message and the graphic picture. “We need to track this, asap,” Richard said. “The IP address says the phone is located at a ranch right outside the city. We need to go right now,” I told him, already reaching for my gear. “It's been fifteen minutes since the message was sent to your phone,” Richard explained, trying to keep a level head. “They had time to escape, but still, maybe we can find something else left behind at the scene.” “Yeah. Let's go grab the guns.” I told Richard, gesturing for him to follow me to the armory.