Red Alarm [A Detective/Thriller Story] DISCONTINUED

Chapter 16

The trio hitched a ride on Detective Hopkin's car. Officer Gonzales stayed in the station. She'd always made a fuss on how she longed to be 'in on the action' but she was always left behind headquarters where the only battle she'd face was how to breach firewalls and top of the class secured softwares.

The concrete road stretched a few kilometers more. She was cramped, tired, and sweaty in the back seat of the mint green car. The air conditioning made it worse. It was like the vents were just display that they weren't blowing tangible air.

"I can't take this any longer," Khen Millard reeled the windows open. He simpered sweetly at the smell of fresh bountiful air.

"If I'd known this would be the case, we should've just taken my car," Cole's impudent murmur was enough to be heard by the driving old man.

"The chief said pronto. If we'd choose your vehicles parked at the end of the lot then we'd be late," he retorted. "I already had a schedule with the mechanic on Saturday. Don't you ever talk ill of Beanie."

It was the name of his micro. The first investment he'd had after he got his first year end salary at his first job as a cop. "That's a lot of firsts there," he joked. Its tires stayed strong for more than ten years. For him, it was more of a pet than his driving buddy.

Their pep talks allowed Atarah to believe they'd been driving for ages. Their stop was at Pochuck Mountain State Forest, but in order to do so they must travel deafening hours of who knows how long because a parading band of gymnasts, hoop dancers, and musicians carrying posters for a new show came blocking in their way.

She'd grown sick a landscape of buildings towering one after another, cars being you regular wake up a call in a city that never sleeps. She longed to see tapering ribbons of forest and explore a greener side of New York.

After witnessing a brief rendition, twice refilling in gas stations plus the heavy traffic in most cramped areas, it was already dawn when they arrived at a kiosk where Sam said, "The last place the sender was detected."

The resting sun sends smudges of orange on their faces.

"Here. I found it," Khen gave out a satisfactory grin of ending his search inside the trash bin to find a broken phone.

They accounted the image from before. The woman was tied still inside a car seat. The windows showed no signs of light so their hunch of the signal where the phone was found can also be the location of Cathy. The forest showed little signs of civilization.

"We are searching the mountains," Hopkins concluded. "He could've hidden the body there."

The rocky terrain made it hard for the officers armed with only flashlights and bare hands.

"Let's keep going guys. One, two, three...one, two, three," the middle-aged man worn out to a frazzle kept on his job of scattering withered copper leaves.

"We're gonna need a bigger search team than this."

The light descended and there was only darkness that engulfed the whole area. Eerie sounds of chirping crickets and four people who you'd mistaken to be treasure hunters - other than that there was silence.

"Let's do this tomorrow when the sun is up," suggested Khen whose back was aching from squatting on his knees. "This won't do any better."

He made a point. The dim lights on their hands couldn't cover the entire area of boulders and forest life. The crisp air factor also made them vulnerable to colds.

"Is there a rest house near the area?" Cole asked, seemingly agreeing to his pal.

"I spotted an inn past those trees," he pointed at the black smoke above the cobalt sky. "Follow me."