LET ME FORGET by Kate Bold

Author:Kate Bold [Bold, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-12-12T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

As her feet landed on the concrete floor, Ashley brushed the heavy, black window curtain aside and scanned the interior of the huge metal building in amazement. Nestled in the forest on the Mansfields’ farm, she’d expected to find a warehouse full of automobile parts and the skeletons of cars and SUVs that were in the process of being dismantled.

But the true nature of the business the Mansfields and Osbornes ran was now crystal clear.

The shipment they’d delivered to Alabama didn’t contain stolen vehicle parts.

Rows of potted marijuana plants filled the cavernous space. Grow lights hung from the ceiling, blazing so bright that the heat warmed Ashley’s cheeks. Fans from a ventilation system whirred overhead, but still, a pungent odor—like a mixture of rotting lemons and sulfur—hung in the air. She’d never seen anything like it before.

Although several states had legalized marijuana for medicinal or recreational purposes, cultivating the plants still stood as a criminal offense in Tennessee. There had to be at least three to four hundred plants growing in the warehouse. Classified as a class B felony, Tim, Vera, Jerry, and Marilyn were each facing a sentence of up to thirty years in prison.

Ashley heard Wyatt’s voice calling through the broken window. “Everything okay, Ashley?”

Transfixed by the elaborate cultivation system, complete with irrigation pipes, she’d almost forgotten about Wyatt and Hyland waiting outside.

“Yeah, it’s fine,” she shouted back.

The glass shards from the shattered windowpanes crunched beneath the soles of Ashley’s hiking boots as she headed toward the steel door. A series of questions niggled at her mind. They knew that Warwick had gotten mixed up with the chop shop ring and that the man had once worked for the Osbornes. Had he been involved in the drug business as well? And how was the pot operation related to Cole? Were they even connected at all?

Maybe the sheriff had been wrong. Maybe Jerry’s disappearance had nothing to do with Cole’s abduction.

She flipped the deadbolt lock and pulled the door open.

The sheriff entered the warehouse first. “Well, I’ll be damned,” Hyland said, appearing almost as shocked as Ashley had been.

Wyatt pulled out his cell phone. “I’ll call Brenda and tell her to send out a DID team.”

The bureau’s drug investigation division was a separate unit with their own specialized agents. The DID would take over the part of the investigation that included collecting evidence for the prosecution of the marijuana cultivation charges.

“I better get a couple of my deputies out here,” Hyland stated. “For backup.”

As the men placed their calls, Ashley wandered along the rows of plants, each rooted in their own pot of soil. The warehouse seemed to be divided into sections according to the various stages of the marijuana’s development. Some of the plants were small and just starting to sprout, while others were full and taller than Ashley, with thick buds waiting to be harvested. As she drifted past the marijuana plants with flowers budding, her nose wrinkled. The buds smelled like they’d been sprayed by a skunk.

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