I sat down and closed my eyes as I felt a heaviness come over me. Time was running out and if I didn’t get a lead soon, I was going to lose my shit. Pulling up my mother’s name, I sent her a quick text.
Me: Nothing yet. We’re getting closer with a few new leads.
It didn’t take long for her to text me back.
Mom: You’ll find her, Gray. I know you will.
Closing my eyes, I knew it as well. There was no way in hell I was letting this asshole take Meagan away from me.
“Bennett, the idea you had to check on the property came back with a hit.”
Jumping up, I pulled the paper out of Sergeant Winters hand. “What?”
“Carol and John Freeman own a camping facility about fifty miles north of here tucked pretty far back into the mountains. From the looks of the satellite, there are a few cabins on the property as well. It’s been closed down the last few years, after they passed away. They have two kids, a boy and a girl.”
Staring at the paper, I said, “Let me guess, the son’s name is Bob.”
“Robert, but close enough.”
I grabbed my jacket and looked back at Derrick. “With the weather moving in, we can’t fly in.” Derrick followed me out the door.
I pointed to Sergeant Winters. “See how far the state police are from the location. We don’t know if this guy is armed or not or what kind of situation we’re walking into. Give them that address but no one makes a move without talking to me first,” I barked out.
My phone buzzed and I almost didn’t check it for fear it was Meagan’s parents. It killed me every time I had to tell them we had nothing new.
As Derrick and I climbed into my truck, I looked at my phone with a shocked expression.
The tracker.
“Holy shit. She had it. She turned it on!” I shouted as I looked at Derrick with a perplexed look. I cannot believe she had it and remembered to use it. A sense of relief washed over me knowing that Meagan was still okay enough to have turned on the tracking device I gave her. Knowing this renewed my energy.
Derrick turned to me and asked, “What are you talking about?”
“I know where she is!”
“Listen, Gray, I know you think this new lead is going to be the key, but we need to stay focused; this is one lead and he might not be there.”
Lifting my hands to get him to stop talking, I showed him my phone. “This is the same location as the address Winters just gave us.”
“A tracking device?”
I turned the truck on and raced out of the parking lot. “I gave it to Meagan shortly after Black had been snooping around. She thought it was silly, but she tossed it in her purse. She must have remembered she had it and turned it on.”
Derrick was on the phone and giving the exact location of the tracker as I raced up Highway 550, praying we would get to Meagan in time.
“I’m coming for you, baby,” I whispered. “I’m coming.”
Derrick and I slowly moved in with the Colorado State Police moving in from the back and the side. The property was huge and mostly contained campground sites. The cabins looked to be toward the back of the property.
As we made our way, I stopped moving and grabbed onto Derrick’s arm. “Why does this all feel too easy?” I asked in a hushed tone.
“What do you mean?”
Looking around confused, I turned back to Derrick. “We’ve been searching for months for anything on the guy who raped and killed those girls. Now, this Bob Freeman leaves his prints on Meagan’s phone. It just seems like a silly move on his part.”
Derrick nodded. “From what Black said, this Freeman’s been obsessed with Meagan. He was probably so taken by the fact he finally had her he didn’t think twice about grabbing her phone and tossing it out the window.”
A hushed voice came through the headphone in my ear. “There are lights on in both cabins. There appears to be movement in one cabin.”
We made our way through the tree line and got closer to the second cabin where the signal was coming from. Getting down, I looked through the binoculars. The car was the same make and model as the car registered to Susan Powell. There was an older truck parked near the cabin that was located further back. I could see the teams moving into place as Derrick and I started making our way toward the back cabin.
An uneasy feeling swept over my body. My phone buzzed in my pocket as I reached in and took it out, my heart dropped and my knees about gave out as I stopped moving.
“No. God please no. Don’t do this to me.”
Derrick grabbed my arm and gave me a quick shake. “Bennett! We need to move. Now!”
My eyes widened in horror as I said, “The signal stopped. The tracking signal stopped.”
Screams from the cabin caused me to take off running as fast as I could.
Meagan needed me and I was not about to let her down.
Meagan
AFTER TURNING THE tracker on, I moved to the window and prayed like hell it went through. Hearing Bob’s truck pull up, I panicked. Before I had a chance to go back over to the bed and grab the purse, the door unlocked and Susan came tumbling in as she fell to the floor.