Chapter Twenty-Five
They stopped off at Happy’s Cheeseburger Joint before they parked outside of Park It Storage. Endorphins from the burger washed over her. Cayden hadn’t eaten the greasy mess since junior year of high school.
“Aren’t you going to get that?”
She shook her head at Deny’s eighth call, letting it go to voicemail.
“Whatever you guys fought over must have been epic.”
“Good attempt at digging,” she mumbled around a mouthful of food.
“Fine, don’t share.” Levi crumbled up the greasy wrapper.
“Tell me again why we’re staking out the storage facility?” she inquired, glad to change the subject.
“We’re waiting for a shift change.” Finished with the horrible junk food that would force her into the gym for a week straight, Cayden let Levi grab her garbage. “The guy who works second shift is Shawn’s brother-in-law.”
“The chief of police?”
“Yeah. He has a criminal record … the whole nine. Anyway, he called the cops on our workers the other day and I doubt it was a coincidence.”
Cayden sipped at her cherry bomb blast, regretting while enjoying every sugary sip.
“Also…” He showed her a text from Greg.
“He probably wants to talk about the administrative council,” she said, reading the screen that requested Levi’s services for a group hunting guide.
“Yep, all roads lead to Dale.”
A sketchy-looking dude slipped out of the gates of the facility. He glanced around before hoping into a car sitting by the curb. Since they were hidden in the dark, she felt safe that they wouldn’t be seen. After a minute of dicking around, he finally pulled off and they got out of the truck.
“Hold on, hot stuff.” Levi reached into the back of the cab and handed her two beat-up but empty moving boxes.
“Should I ask?”
“Nope, just go with it.” He took two of his own and led her to the gate. They waited in front of the camera.
“Good to see you, boss,” a voice came over the intercom. The fence opened as he saluted the screen.
“What makes you think the next shift won’t call Shawn?”
“Lettie used to work for the resort. I offered her a weekend stay if she let us in after hours … therefore, if we get caught, so does she.”
“Smart thinking.”
They slipped into the facility. Five separate rows of garage-style pods lined the property.
With plenty of light to guide them, she followed behind Levi. He stopped in front of the orange container in the second row.
“We’ll go through the boxes then return them.” He reached in his pocket and pulled out the key. Unlocking the garage-style door, he yanked it up. “Hopefully no one will know they were missing.” Five boxes with Shana’s name written on them were mixed in with a bike and broken-down canopy bed. The boxes in their hands matched the ones in the storage unit perfectly.
“Are we going to fill them up with anything?”
“Nah,” Levi said. He removed Shana’s stuff and replaced them with the dummies. After checking that he positioned everything correctly one last time, he shut the door. “What’s the point? By then the ruse will be up.”
****
They stayed up all night digging through a teenage girl’s short life. Levi tapped out around three. Cayden made plans to join him but never made it to bed.
Friendship bracelets and blue ribbons filled the container to the brim. It was more or less teenage junk, but Cayden kept her focus on the yearbooks. She started with junior high, where she attended St. Geneva’s Hamilton Middle School. She was given a scholarship to Chesterfield, and not that many kids signed the girl’s freshman yearbook. By the time sophomore term rolled around, Shana seemed part of the “in” crowd.
She participated in several sports and ran for student council. After eleventh grade steamed through, Shana had quit the majority of her afterschool activities.
“Yeah, Wes.”
Cayden glanced up.
With the phone to his ear, Levi entered the family room. Dawn had broken and shone through the window. “Here she is.”
She signaled “no”, that she didn’t want the call, but he tossed his cell. The urge to dodge the phone washed over her but she caught it. No one wanted to be on the hook for a new iPhone.
“Hey, Wes, what’s up?” She put the yearbook down to flip Levi off. Decked out in his hunting gear, he winked at her and headed to the kitchen.
“Deny told me what happened and I don’t blame you for being mad. I spent time with Levi and I think he’s great. So to make up for it, I talked her into forwarding your files to one of her former professors.”
“Okay,” she said, annoyed, “shoot.”
“The killers were young and inexperienced, probably still teens. He took a look at the police report and noticed vomit at the scene. There’s nothing in the autopsy indicating it’s hers. One of the boys was a follower and the other was the aggressive leader.”
Levi clanked around the kitchen with Belle close to his heels.
“That’s good to know.”
“Also, check if anyone has been killed with similar characteristics as Shana … age, hair color.”
Levi pulled two mugs down and then seemed to change his mind by putting one up. He probably wanted her to go to sleep, which didn’t surprise her.
“Is there more than one?” She didn’t want to say serial killer out loud in case Levi was listening.
“The one who actually did the deed is probably still killing her over and over.”
“This is great. Thanks, Wes.” Cayden moved the contents of Shana’s locker and short life off of her lap.
“Did that help? Hopefully you can forgive Deny.”
“It paved the way. Stop worrying about this stuff and have a good honeymoon.”
“Thanks, I’ll try,” he replied before he hung up.
Cayden gazed down at a picture of the young girl’s face and wondered what the hell happened.
“I want to walk the trail,” she said.
“Wait for me,” he told her.
Cayden knew what his answer would be. Levi always hated the shortcut that led to Chesterfield. “Compromise … give me Belle.”
“Sure, but I still want you to hold off until I get back.” He walked into the family room, sipping from his mug, purposely baiting her.
“Stop being a shit and make me some coffee!”
“No, go to bed.” Levi laughed. “I’ll grab you Starbucks when you wake up.”
“And the dog,” she bargained. The call from Wes had spooked her more than she wanted to admit.
“Fine, she hates Bud’s dog anyway and I’m afraid she’ll try to rip its head off.” He leaned over and kissed her. “Now go to sleep.” Levi ripped a whistle once and patted the couch. Belle ran and jumped on her lap. “Time for some weird bro shit.”
She rubbed the blue beauty’s head. “Just try not punch anybody.”
“No promises,” he said while he put his mug down on the kitchen table on his way out. “What did Wes want?”
Still processing the information, Cayden knew Levi would freak out if the killings were still happening. “I’ll tell you when you get back.”
“Okay.” He stopped short at the back door. “I’m holding you to it.”