Her Silent Cry (Detective Josie Quinn Book 6)(60)

“What’ve you got?” Josie asked him as she and Mettner stepped onto the porch.

Hummel motioned over his shoulder toward the owner and other officers. “Cabin belongs to that gentleman. He lives in town. He hasn’t been out here in over a month. We were doing the checks of all cabins in the area like you said. Found a window broken out back. Called the owner and asked him to come out. He says nothing was disturbed except his gun case. Glass front smashed, guns missing.”

Mettner said, “He didn’t have his weapons in a gun safe?”

Hummel shook his head. “No one comes out here. He thought a curio would be fine. It was locked but like I said, whoever took the guns just smashed the glass in to get to them. The owner says he’s had this cabin for thirty years and never had a problem till now.”

“What kind of guns?” Josie asked.

Hummel looked to the other officer, who flipped a page on his clipboard. Hummel read the notes scrawled there. “A Winchester Model 101, Marlin lever action 30/30, a Remington 700, and a Glock 19.”

Mettner said, “He kept a handgun at his hunting cabin?”

“For him to carry on his belt when working around the property.”

“For coyotes, probably,” Josie said. “A handgun is easier to carry than a rifle if you’re just pulling weeds or sitting out by the fire.”

Mettner nodded.

Josie asked, “You think whoever broke in was staying here?”

“No,” Hummel said, “Like I said, the only thing that’s disturbed is the gun case. We walked the owner through, and he said everything else is exactly as he left it.”

Which meant that there would be little, if any, evidence that would lead them to the person who broke in.

“You think this is our guy?” Mettner asked her.

“Hard to say,” Josie said. “How many breakins like this do we have each year?”

“One or two at most,” Hummel answered. “And it’s usually teenagers looking for a place to drink. They’re not usually interested in the guns.”

“Well,” Josie agreed. “Hunting is pretty sacred around here. You don’t mess with someone’s weapons.”

Hummel nodded. “You want to have a look around? The team’s in there processing now, but you can go in. There are suits and gloves in the trunk of my car.”

Josie suited up; the uniformed officer with the clipboard logged her in and she went inside the cabin. The place was not much larger than a trailer, its living room and kitchen divided by where the brown shag carpet ended and the tan tile began. Beyond that was a short hallway with two doors. Behind one was a bedroom and behind the other was the bathroom. Hummel was right—the only thing that wasn’t neat and orderly was the living room where the gun curio’s glass had been smashed. She nodded to the two officers inside who were taking photographs of the cabinet and the glass scattered all around it as well as dusting it for prints.

She took a moment to study the room. To her right was a wall with three taxidermy deer heads mounted to it, then the smashed-in curio. To her left was a small living room area with a loveseat sofa and two recliner chairs surrounding a television atop a small stand. If she were a frightened seven-year-old girl in this room with a scary man who was breaking the glass in the gun cabinet, where would she hide?

She got down on her hands and knees behind the nearest recliner chair.

Mettner appeared behind her, also suited up. “What are you looking for, boss?”

“A chrysalis,” Josie answered. There was nothing beneath the chair. She moved over to the loveseat. Nothing. As she lowered her head to the floor and peered beneath the last chair, she spotted a small green object. “I need a flashlight,” she called over her shoulder.

A moment later, Mettner handed her his cell phone with the flashlight app turned on. The beam shone on the green object—cylindrical and slightly curved. “Found it,” Josie said, her heart hammering in her chest. “I’m going to take some photos of this, then I need it processed. I’ll use your phone and you can text them to me. Lift up the chair, would you? Gently.”

Mettner pushed the chair forward, its hind legs coming off the carpet. Josie snapped a handful of photos before telling Mettner to lower the chair. She handed his phone back to him. Scrolling through the shots she’d taken, he said, “She used leaves this time. I don’t think we can get prints from this.”

“That’s not the point,” Josie said. “The point is that we know that there’s a good chance she’s still alive, and now we know this guy is armed with more than a knife.”





Thirty-Eight





Josie dropped Mettner off at the command tent. As the volunteers she had seen earlier came into view, Josie said, “You should take some of these people out to the cabin after Hummel’s team is finished processing it. Have them search the woods and see if they can find anything.”

Mettner nodded. “Good idea. It will give them something to do. Well, except the psychologist guy, I guess.”

Josie followed Mettner’s gaze to see Bryce Graham seated on a bench in the playground area, now speaking with one of the mothers that they’d talked to the evening after Lucy had been taken. It was Zoey, she thought, as she felt a small pinch of irritation. She didn’t know the guy, but it sure seemed as though he was using the Ross family tragedy to drum up more business for himself.