Free Cold Sanctuary (John Decker Series Book 2) by Anthony M. Strong

Artie Simms, the head of maintenance, when he went missing. He must have been right here where we are now.” She looked uncomfortable.
    “So where is Mr. Simms at this moment?”
    “The infirmary.” Wilder chimed in. “He was in a bad way, nerves were shot, so I sent him there for something to calm him down.”
    “I see.” Decker studied the immediate surroundings, the walls, the floor, but didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. “I’m assuming you took the time to interview him while you were waiting for us?”
    “Are you trying to tell me how to do my job?”
    “Not at all.” Decker took a secret delight in Wilder’s defensiveness. He’d only spent a few minutes in the company of the man, but already he could see that the sheriff was a power junkie with an attitude. “I’m asking a question so that I can assess the situation at hand.”
    “If there’s going to be any assessing done, I’ll be the one to do it.” Wilder kept his voice low. “I’m the guy with the badge, remember?”
    “Damn it, Wilder,” Hayley said. “Just tell the man what he wants to know.”
    “Hayley…”
    “I don’t want to hear it.” Hayley cut him off. ”You may have a gun, but I’m still your boss.”
    “Fine.” Wilder looked sullen. When he spoke again his voice was stiff, clipped. “Simms told me that Garrett t t hought something was chasing him, some kind of animal. He heard a scream and then a weird sound over the radio.”
    “Weird sound?” Decker asked.
    “He said it was like nothing he’d ever heard before, a strange wailing. He also said that according to Garrett there was a cat in the basement,” Wilder replied. “However, I think we can rule out a cat, unless little Felix overpowered and dragged off a two hundred pound man.”
    “We can indeed.” Decker agreed. But that left the question, what exactly had happened to the maintenance worker?
    “We’ll need these.” Wilder placed his duffel bag on the floor and unzipped it, pulling out three flashlights. He handed one to Hayley, another to Decker, and kept the third for himself.
    “Thanks.” Decker nodded, clicking his light on. “I don’t suppose you have a gun in there too, just in case we run into anything untoward?”
    “The breakers are this way,” Wilder said, ignoring Decker. He took a step forward into the narrow walkway that ran between the huge generators that kept the lights on upstairs. “We should retrace Garrett’s steps, see what we can see. Keep close, people.”
    “Lead the way.” Decker glanced toward Hayley, wondering if she was as bemused by Wilder’s over the top bravado as he was, but he could not read her face in the darkness. When she stepped past him and followed the sheriff, Decker fell in and did the same.

 
     
     
    13
     
     
     
     
    Adam Hunt watched Hayley and Decker leave the apartment. He waited for a moment to make sure they were gone and then slipped out of the empty apartment next door, the key to which he’d appropriated earlier that day and copied before placing it back where it belonged.
    Hunt knew exactly where Hayley and Decker were going. Even though the latest disappearance wasn’t common knowledge, he was tapped in to most things that went on in the Tower. If he didn’t know about it, it wasn’t worth knowing. Which was precisely why he was about to sneak into 10F and stack the odds a little.
    He had suffered a rare flash of indecision. For a moment he’d considered following the pair down to the sub-basement instead of jumping on a golden opportunity to gain entry to Decker’s apartment. In the end, he’d decided not to tail the town administrator and the ex-cop. What was the point really? They wouldn’t find anything of any significance down there, of that he was sure, and certainly nothing that would give them a clue about what was really going on. It was actually quite amusing, watching people run around in circles like panicked chickens when a fox got into the coop. Not to