Free Jamie Garrett - Riley Reid 02 - Fire and Lies by Jamie Garrett

myself concerned. He was clearly a little flustered. I’d never seen that look on his face before.

    Finally, Sam appeared back in the foyer. He holstered his pistol. “It’s all clear.”

    I started to come inside. Sam motioned with his hand for me to stop.

    “What?” I asked.

    “I’m not sure you wanna see this, Riley.”

    “Shut up,” I said as I walked in.

    The smell was even worse inside. How anyone could live in such a shit hole was beyond me. Everything had a strange yellow tint to it. I felt dirty just being there.

    Sam walked past me and took out his cell phone. I went into the room that has shaken him up earlier. It was a family room, except there was no family. Only the corpses of what I assumed to be Robert and Destiny Branch.

    The Branches were on the family room’s only couch. Robert slouched over to one side. He had a gunshot wound where his left eye was supposed to be. Blood streamed down his face into a neat little stain on a couch cushion. Resting against his shoulder was a rundown-looking woman. I figured she was Destiny. She had a gunshot wound to her cheek. It was small and clean. Behind her the wall was splattered with bone fragments and blood.

    I had seen three dead bodies in two days. Right then, I knew I wouldn’t get a peaceful night sleep for at least two months. It was their eyes that haunted me the most, and still do. They were bereft of light. That spark that every person had, the glint in their eyes, was gone.

    “This is Detective Greyson. I need an ambulance at Twelve Pine Lane.” I could hear Sam on the phone

    Something was off about the bodies. I lifted my shirt up over my nose and went in for a closer look. In my throat and stomach I could feel the vomit coming when I got close. Luckily I was able to force it down.

    The blood on the Branches’ corpses hadn’t dried up yet. It was still fresh. That meant whoever killed them had done so recently, and maybe was still close by.

    I went out into the hallway to try and get Sam’s attention. He was still on the phone and gave me the universal sign for “one minute” with his free hand. Even if he didn’t want my help, I was still going to give it.

    Diverting my attention away from the dead bodies didn’t take much motivation. I went looking around the Branch residence. Or would it be more appropriate to call it their former residence?

    The kitchen was as gross as I anticipated. It looked like no one had ever done the dishes. Mold was growing on the plates and cups that overflowed out of the sink. There were half-eaten pizzas and boxes of cereal on the counter. A litter box teaming with cat feces, urine and bugs suggested there were felines in the house. I didn’t see one, though.

    There was a bathroom on the first floor. I wasn’t a brave enough woman to even take a peek. Instead, I headed towards the staircase that went upstairs to the second floor. Every step creaked and bent under my weight.

    What was I looking for? I needed a clue, at least one clue. The Branch residence should have been the end of the trail. Everything seemed to point there. Yet we arrived and found death instead of answers.

    The second floor wasn’t very big. There was a narrow hallway with three closed doors. I went to the farthest one. Not sure why I went for that one first. But it ended up being fortuitous.

    I’m not sure what the room was, what it was used for. The furniture didn’t make much sense. A baby’s crib was in the corner next to an unsafe-looking rocking chair. Sam never said they had a kid. When I got closer, I saw that the crib was full of dirty shoes of all things. It didn’t make much sense but trying to understand how a tweaker’s mind worked was next to impossible.

    On the opposite wall, across from the crib and rocking chair, was a dresser. The top three drawers had nothing in them. But the bottom one wasn’t empty. Inside of it was a bible. I picked it up and opened to the backside of the front cover. On it