Page 122 of The Graveyard Girls (Detective Ellie Reeves #11)

ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-ONE

Briar Ridge Mobile Homes

While he waited on the ERT, Derrick conducted an initial sweep of the property in case Joe was somewhere on the premises or he’d left Carrie Ann’s body on the land.

Woods backed the trailer park and would require manpower, but he found one tool shed out back housing tools but another locked tool shed nestled between some trees and broke the lock.

As soon as he opened the door, his gut tightened.

A brown leather sofa sat along one wall facing what he guessed to be a fifty-four-inch TV.

The wall to the left was covered in pictures of teenage girls. Derrick pulled on latex gloves and walked over to the shelf beside the TV where CDs were stacked by an old CD player. He ground his teeth as he read the titles—all teenage porn and S&M.

Sick bastard. Although looking at these made Derrick question why Joe hadn’t committed sexual assault on his victims.

His brain rattled off answers. Perhaps he was impotent. Or the only way he could get off was porn and that may have stopped working, so he graduated to strangulation. Predators often experienced release by committing violence.

He saw a closed storage closet and opened it. Instead of photographs of teenage girls, this one held pictures of a grown woman, half naked, wearing a pair of red stilettos.

That woman must have been someone he’d known. Maybe his mother? Or a hooker who’d first taught him about sex? Or a woman who’d possibly abused him?

A car engine rumbled from the driveway, and he stepped outside and saw the ERT van parking. He rushed to fill them in and they divided up, one agent going inside to search while two went into the woods and another began processing the shed.

Derrick returned to the front steps of the mobile home, then called Ten Below again and got through this time so he asked to speak to the manager.

“This is Special Agent Derrick Fox,” he said. “I’m looking for one of your employees Joe Jones. I was told he was on a delivery last night.”

“That’s odd,” Joe’s boss said. “Joe wasn’t on the schedule yesterday or today. And he hasn’t called in. In fact, he hasn’t returned the delivery truck he drives.”

“So he still has the truck?” Derrick asked.

“He must, which is against the rules. When he does get back, I intend to fire him.”

“Can you trace the location of his truck?” Derrick asked.

“Yeah, hold on.”

A minute later, the manager returned and gave him the address for a house on Bush Road. “Thank you for the information. If he checks in, please call me on this number. And don’t tell him that I was asking about him.”

“What’s going on, Special Agent Fox?”

“I’m not at liberty to say, but I will warn you that he might be dangerous so like I said, don’t let on that I’m looking for him.”

“All right.”

Derrick ended the call. If Joe was at the address his manager had given him, they might have a chance to save Carrie Ann.