Family on Fire: A Mystery Thriller by Michelle Files

Author:Michelle Files [Files, Michelle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Author Files
Published: 2024-09-02T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 26

“That sounds a lot like victim blaming,” Jake Cavanaugh interrupted.

Deputy Alicia Jones had calmed down enough, after her disagreement with the sheriff, and joined them, mid-discussion. The air was tense, and no one even gave her a passing glance.

“Hand the phone over, Mr. Ford. I’m not going to ask you again,” Sheriff Garcia told him in slow, deliberate terms.

Alicia looked between the men. Clearly, she had missed something. She looked to Jake for clarification, but he just shook his head. Okay, now was not the time for explanations. She would just have to wait and see how this played out.

Chris knew that the sheriff probably needed a search warrant to take his phone. But he also knew that if he argued about it, he would only be postponing the inevitable. They would get his phone, whether he liked it or not. Based on Ariel’s diary entries, they would be able to get that search warrant and there was nothing he could do about it.

Chris reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out his cell phone, hesitating only an instant before dropping it into the waiting palm of the sheriff. Garcia immediately passed it along to Deputy Jones, who put it in a plastic evidence bag. There was always a stash of them in her jacket pocket.

“Get that to processing immediately,” he told Alicia. “I want to know what’s on there within the hour. Got it?”

Alicia very much doubted it would happen that fast. But she wasn’t about to argue with the boss. “Yeah, got it.” She took off toward her waiting patrol car.

Sheriff Garcia turned back to the brothers. “I think the two of you need to come on down to the station while we wait for the results.” His next statement was directed right at Chris Ford. “Since you’ve already made it really clear that there is something on your phone we aren’t going to like, I don’t see any reason to hang around here in the meantime. Do you?”

Chris averted his eyes and ran his fingers through his full head of blond hair. “No, I guess not.”

Nathan Ford desired nothing more at that moment than to avoid the sheriff’s station. “Shouldn’t I stay here and help look for Ariel?”

Sheriff Garcia made a dramatic show of scanning the area. “Mr. Ford, what do you see before you?”

Nathan looked around. “Um, I don’t know. Maybe a hundred people wandering around?”

“They aren’t wandering, Mr. Ford, they are searching for your daughter. If she’s out there, we will find her. You can count on that.”

“What do you mean, if she’s out there? Where else could she be?”

Garcia hesitated for a moment. “It’s a big world out there, Mr. Ford. She could be just about anywhere. But, due to the fact that we found your son in the area, I’m willing to bet that your daughter is also nearby.”

Nathan didn’t want to think about exactly what those words meant.

Sheriff Garcia wasn’t expecting to find Ariel Ford alive. Oh, he very much hoped he was wrong.

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