Chapter 26

 

That was when I remembered that I could track Dorothy’s phone. I’d be able to tell where she was based on that. I wasn’t sure why I hadn’t thought of that sooner. Jake and his partner were talking. Did she really have to smile so much and look gorgeous? I turned on the locator and waited for it to pull up Dorothy’s location. It pulled up the address. She wasn’t in a car, or if she was, it was parked. Jake made eye contact with me and knew I was up to something. I met him halfway in the middle of the room.

“You look as if you found something,” Jake said.

“I tracked her phone and found an address,” I said.

“That doesn’t mean she’s there,” Abby said.

I didn’t appreciate her butting in like that. I wasn’t even talking with her.

“It’s certainly a place to start since we have nothing else to go on,” I said.

“I agree,” Jake said.

“Okay, so we’ll go check it out,” she said.

She acted as if she didn’t want me coming along for the ride, but there was no way I was passing this up, even if I had to drive the scooter.

I grabbed my keys and headed out the door.

“Aren’t we riding together in my car?” Jake asked.

I couldn’t help but glance over at Abby. “I’d rather drive myself.”

“This is a police investigation now,” Abby said.

I narrowed my eyes. “Since when?”

Without saying another word, I jumped on the scooter and took off. Sure, the scooter wobbled a little, but I didn’t wreck. Peeking over my shoulder for a split second, I saw that Jake and Abby had gotten into his car and were now following me. I didn’t care if they followed me. Actually, maybe it would be better if I wasn’t alone for this. If Dorothy was in trouble I wanted all the help I could get. I followed the navigation to the street that was listed as her location.

I hadn’t given Jake much of a chance to look at my phone, so they had to rely on me to take them there. I knew I was getting near. I followed the little dot until I came to the building. I wheeled into the empty parking lot. Jake whizzed in right behind me. They jumped out of the car.

“Are you sure this is the place?” Abby asked.

I showed her the phone. “Does this look like the place?”

I couldn’t hide the frustration in my voice.   

The building looked like some kind of warehouse.

“What do you think is here? Does she have any reason to be at this place?” Abby asked.

“Not that I know of. I’ve never been here before,” I said.

“You should wait out here and let us check the place out,” she said.

I snorted. Yeah, like that was going to happen. I marched over toward the door, as if I hadn’t heard a word she said. Jake stepped in front of me and eased the door open. The place was dark. We moved in right behind him. Fear flowed through my body at the thought of Dorothy being here. I had a bad feeling about this. Why would she be here? How had she gotten here?

Jake motioned at his partner that he was checking to the right. She motioned she was going to the left. They pulled out their guns. Jake gestured for me to stay put. Once they took off I pulled out my gun and decided to have a look around too. Just to my left was a closed door. Someone needed to check behind that door and it might as well be me since the other two were busy.

The door was unlocked, so I slipped into the dark room. After a couple steps inside, I bumped into something. I grunted at the pain in my leg, but managed to compose myself. As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I realized what I’d hit. The room was full of surfboards. That made my stomach drop. Roland and Kenneth had to be connected to this building. This made me even more fearful that Dorothy hadn’t come here on her own.

“Dorothy,” I whispered.

There was no answer. I maneuvered around the boards, trying not to knock any of them over. Apparently, Dorothy wasn’t in here. Where was Jake? Had he found Dorothy? I couldn’t just go back out there and wait by the door. I had to do something to find Dorothy. I left the room and made it back over to the door where I’d last seen Jake. I shifted from foot to foot, trying to remain patient while I waited. The anxiety was getting to me and I couldn’t wait there any longer. I had to do something. I took off in the direction where Jake had gone. What if something had happened to him now?

The place was eerily quiet. There were so many doors that I didn’t know where to start. Where could they be? I peeked into a couple of rooms that had open doors. A few of the doors were locked. Was Dorothy on the other side of one of those locked doors? How would I find out? I continued down the hallway. Maybe Jake would be able to get the doors open.

A noise sounded from somewhere ahead of me. I continued down the open hallway toward the sound. I couldn’t make out what the noise was, but it could be someone walking. Possibly it was Jake? The more I walked down the hallway, the louder the sound grew. My heart thumped faster as I contemplated what I might discover. The sound was coming from a room just a few steps away from me. The door was open, but I couldn’t see in there yet. I would have to get closer. I inched against the wall with my gun out. When I reached the door, I paused instead of going right in. There was no telling what might be waiting on the other side of that doorway.