One Last Step by Sarah Sutton (free e books to read TXT) 📗

to find some answers quick. Hopefully this crime scene will give us something to go off of.”

Tara hadn’t even noticed that they were nearing their destination when Warren turned onto a side street. The road was short, and Tara could see the full length of it the second they turned onto it, and the flurry of activity. Four ranch-style houses lined the left side of the street and a metal gate marked the end to prevent vehicles from entering the trail behind it. On a regular day, the street would most likely be extremely quiet, but today was not ordinary and she immediately spotted the news vans and the people from the nearby houses peeking out their windows—some already outside, trying to find some information on what was going on.

“I can’t believe the media knows about this already,” she said under her breath.

Warren nodded. As they reached the end of the road, Tara could see officers standing behind the metal gate that was covered by yellow tape. One of them she recognized clearly—Sheriff Brady. Warren parked behind a news van as a swarm of reporters followed behind the car.

They quickly stepped out, ignoring the reporters’ questions until they were able to walk behind the metal gate, creating a barrier between them. Tara’s eyes shot to Sheriff Brady, who stood with another officer, speaking to a man with a large pack on his back—he was clearly a hiker—the man who discovered the scene, based on the looks of him. His face was drained of color and he spoke with an air of disbelief as he continuously shook his head at his words and stared off into the distance.

The sheriff noticed Tara and Warren and she quickly excused herself before walking over. She soon stood before them and Tara could see the shock on her face as well. After all, she had tried to urge them that they should be focusing on McNamara, instead of looking for other suspects. This was the exact situation Tara and Warren were trying to prevent, and Tara couldn’t help but feel a fire burn within her when Brady finally spoke.

“I’m glad you guys got here so quick,” she said.

There was a softness in her eyes that Tara hadn’t seen from her before. She knew she made a huge mistake, and she was now looking at Tara and Warren with a new lens. She needed their help—she knew that now.

“Was he the hiker who discovered the scene?” Tara asked, motioning toward the man the sheriff was just speaking with.

Sheriff Brady nodded. “He stumbled upon it this morning.”

“And the victims?” Tara asked.

“They actually lived in one of those houses right over there.” She nodded her head in the direction of where the road ended and met the metal gate, referring to the row of houses lined before it. “A woman came out when we got here. She was frantic—said her two daughters went onto the trail last night,” Brady added before explaining that they were supposed to arrive home that very morning, but never did.

A silence fell around them.

“Where’s the woman now?” Tara asked.

“She’s at the house. We have an officer over there with her.”

Tara and Warren both agreed that they would interview her after checking the scene, and after interviewing the hiker, but they needed to see it for themselves first.

“I spoke to the National Park Service already. They’re expanding the closure by another ten miles,” Brady finally admitted. “We recruited some cops from neighboring towns to help keep people off the trail.” She let her final words hang in the air. It was clear—Brady knew she made a terrible mistake.

Tara nodded and moments later they were following behind Brady as they walked further down the trail and deeper into the forest.

They followed her for about a mile until the flurry of officers and forensics personnel could be heard up ahead, and as they neared the scene, Brady paused. Off the side of the trail, there was a narrow footpath, which Tara could see opened into a clearing, where forensics was busily combing the area.

But Brady’s eyes moved down to the ground in front of her, where a marker sat, and Tara could see why—it was to mark a few droplets of blood.

“This is where the hiker spotted the blood, and then well—”

She pointed down the footpath where the droplets continued and she followed them, making her way toward the clearing.

Tara and Warren quickly followed behind her, but Tara already knew what they were going to find. The droplets grew larger until a pool of blood stained the ground. And as Tara looked up, her eyes darted to a tree, where a forensics agent was removing a compass.

Chapter Twenty Four

Tara and Warren stood at the trail entrance. The hiker stood in front of them, one hand on his backpack strap and the other holding his phone pressed against his ear. He had a short salt-and-pepper beard with light brown eyes that darted each time he heard a simple movement in the woods. He told the person on the other end where to pick him up and then placed the phone back into the pocket of his cargo pants.

“Where are you from?” Tara asked after the man finally gave them his full attention.

“A couple towns over,” he replied. “About a five-mile walk on the trail.”

“Do you hike here often?”

He nodded. “Just on my days off.”

In some way it seemed a bit too perfect that this man just happened to stumble upon this crime scene. Tara was skeptical, but she also knew it would’ve been difficult to stash the bodies, change his clothes, and stage a scene, all before he stumbled upon it. And this man was visibly shaken up. At each sound of someone’s footsteps he would flinch, his head whipping to see who it was. And each time he saw that it was just another officer, he would take a deep breath to make up for the one he failed to take in that split