Emma Last FBI Mystery 09-Last Resort by Stone Mary

Author:Stone, Mary [Stone, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Suspense, American Suspense, Police Procedural, Crime Thriller, Murder Investigation, FBI, Paranormal Suspense
Publisher: Mary Stone Publishing
Published: 2024-03-16T00:00:00+00:00

20

Emma drove slowly, patrolling the middle section of their assigned quadrant of Islingtown. Businesses surrounded them on both sides of the street. The area they passed through now was mostly industrial, battered garage doors protecting struggling businesses or factories still hanging on despite the economy.

A garage broke up the landscape between some industrial buildings and run-down housing. Emma crossed through an intersection and landed on a street rife with houses in need of upkeep. Beside her, Denae went back and forth between staring around them and jotting down observations on her iPad.

They’d spent the first part of the day at VCU headquarters, researching and pulling what data they could from established reports and government databases. Then they’d had a brief greasy lunch before heading out in pairs to patrol the map quadrants and see what more they could discover. As of now, just past sundown, it felt like they were doing little more than spinning their wheels.

Denae tapped a fingernail hard against the window. “A meth lab could be in that house. Or that one. Or that one.” She pointed a bitten-down nail out the other window, past Emma’s nose. “Mia could be in that house. Or that one. Or that one.”

Emma swallowed, tension building in her chest.

“Or behind us.” Denae stabbed a thumb over her shoulder. “She could be tied up in that garage we passed. Or passed out unconscious in that closed-down paint factory we saw when we first started patrolling this sector. Or⁠—”

“Stop it!” Emma’s shout hung in the air, the two words more than enough to quiet her partner.

Beside her, Denae choked on whatever she’d been about to say and deflated in the seat. She opened her mouth to respond but didn’t.

Emma took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled.”

Denae shook her head, curls vibrating as if doing the same. “No. I’m sorry. I just can’t stand the thought of Mia being by herself right now.”

Or, worse, not by herself.

But Emma didn’t say that. She didn’t need to.

She turned at the end of their sector of the map, crossing down through a long, unbroken alley beside a warehouse to get over to the next street. More industrial buildings lined the road, but these were set farther back from the pavement. Dumpsters, narrow parking lots, and piles of trash littered the surroundings.

But ahead, a dumpster near the road was vomiting plastic. Emma drove closer and she saw it wasn’t just any plastic.

Rubber tubing.

Emma slowed, pointing. “That look like medical tubing to you?”

Denae sat straighter, leaning toward the windshield. “And glass! Look at the ground!”

Sure enough, broken glass littered the ground around the dumpster. As their headlights lit the space, Emma glimpsed a trash bag peeking out of the dumpster with the edge of a glass container showing.

Giving the gas pedal a quick burst, Emma pulled over just shy of running the tires over the glass. She was out of the SUV a second later, flashlight in hand as she leaned over the dumpster’s rim.

“Acetate containers, Denae.

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