Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 70940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 236(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70940 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 236(@300wpm)
His jaw ticks and he leans down close, so close I can smell his breath, the masculine scent that is so overwhelming for a moment I just breathe it in, even though my eyes don’t waver from his. “Do not fuckin’ threaten me. Do not ever fuckin’ threaten me.”
“Okay,” Cohen steps forward, raising a hand. “Not goin’ to watch this go on all fuckin’ night. She has the right to see her sister’s car, and she’s right, we shouldn’t have fuckin’ lied to her. She wants the truth, give her the truth in all its glory. Either way, we’re all in on this and we’re all goin’ to have to find a way to get along until we find Mags. Don’t make this harder than it needs to be, either of you.”
Alarick’s eyes are still locked on mine, but a moment later he steps back. “Fine, you want to fuckin’ involve her, you go ahead. But if this comes back on the club, you fuckin’ deal with it.”
He turns and walks out, his shoulders tensed with rage. The front door just about rattles off its hinges when he slams it. Cohen looks over to me, and says, “Get your shit. I’ll show you the fuckin’ car.”
He’s angry.
They’re all angry.
I don’t care.
I really don’t.
Because I’m angry too.
God, am I angry.
IT’S DARK WHEN WE ARRIVE at the location they found Magnolia’s car. Armed with flashlights, Cohen, Mykel and I get out and I rush over to the car immediately. I’m no detective, not by a long shot, but I’m certain that I can do a better job at looking for some sort of clue then they can. Considering they’re not in it to find her, they’re in it to make sure their asses are covered if something goes wrong.
Mykel unlocks the car door and the interior light comes on, allowing me to see a little better. The first thing I notice is that Magnolia’s purse is sitting in the center console, seemingly opened with her identification showing. Like she’s opened it to show someone. That right away seems odd to me. I mean, if she was driving down this road, alone, why would she need to open her purse to that particular point. Her phone is gone, Mykel told me they took it when they found the car.
The second thing that immediately stands out to me is the fact that the keys were still in the car, along with the phone. If someone wanted to make Magnolia disappear, why wouldn’t you take the whole car? All her identification? No, I’m starting to think that whoever left this stuff here, wanted someone to find it, possibly the club. Maybe they’re hoping to leave a trail of clues for some reason. It just seems odd they’d leave all of that.
It also tells me it didn’t happen too long before the guys found the car, because nobody had raided it. A car on the side of the road, abandoned with keys and phone and a purse would quickly get raided by people stopping to check on it if it had been there for a few days or more. They could have likely been not far behind it, to be honest.
I shine the flashlight around, and check for some other clues. Look, I’ve watched a lot of crime shows and one thing I’ve learned, is some of the most obvious things hold the biggest clues. I see the blood they’re talking about, on the driver’s seat, but the location of the blood is strange. It’s on the side of the chair, like someone had leaned in bleeding and grabbed the chair. There is also some on the steering wheel, again closest to the window, like someone has grabbed that also.
I’m not sure it’s Magnolia’s blood.
I step outside of the car and shine the light on the outside of the door and sure enough, on the handle there is blood. Whoever took her was bleeding and has managed to get their own blood on the inside and outside of the car. Other than that, there seems to be no sign of a struggle. There is nothing flicked off the dash, or things disheveled in the car, the dirt around the car isn’t smoothed out or roughed up to indicate someone has been scuffling around in it.
I keep moving through the car, searching the back seat where I find a bag of clothes. I open it to see it’s Magnolia’s. Freshly packed, if I were to guess. Everything is neatly placed in, and not all over the place like she’s been returning from a trip and has stuffed it all in there. A keyring dangles off the side of the bag, and on that keyring I notice a room key. One of those little tabs they use now to unlock a door to a hotel or motel room.