Bogs grabbed Sadie in a side hug while they walked to the door.
“I can’t believe I spent all night with a hot chick and didn’t get any. Fuck, I must be losing my touch,” he teased.
Sadie laughed. They walked out the door and she locked it behind them. Sadie cleaned up the mess from the food and washed the glasses before going to bed. Sadie walked down the hallway to Stone’s room when she heard a beeping sound. It was coming from the closed door.
Sadie stood in front of the door and debated on whether she should go in. She didn’t want to snoop around, Stone deserved his privacy. If he wanted her to see that room, he would have showed it to her or at least left the door open. That space is private. She shouldn’t go inside.
She stared at the door again as the beeping continued to go off. She spoke to Stone earlier so she knew it wasn’t his phone. If not a phone, what was the beeping? She considered calling Bogs but she didn’t. Instead, she opened the door.
Sadie poked her head in, the room was drowning in complete darkness. There was a blinking light to the right of the room. She turned on the light and looked around. It had a large bed with two nightstands. Instead of a dresser like Stone’s room there was a large desk. The beep went off again; it came from the closed laptop.
There were moments in life when there is a fork in the road. There are two choices. Go with a gut feeling or risk it and choose the other. Sadie had always believed you were choosing right from wrong. Sadie would go with her gut, she played it safe. The computer beeped again. Her gut was telling her to turn around and walk out. It was the right thing to do, the right choice. Just walk out, close the door and go to bed.
As she walked over to the desk the old saying rang in her head, “Curiosity killed the cat.”
Sadie flipped open the computer and the screen lit up. She stared at the words on the screen. It was a document. In the top left corner, a name in bold print caught her eye, Cavanaugh. The same name T said. This was the job. She knew she should have closed it and walked away. This was Stone’s business. It was private. He told her himself, he couldn’t discuss business. Walk away, Sadie, walk away.
With a deep breath, she scrolled down the screen. There were directions to a town called Quigley, Nebraska. It looked like a dozen maps of the town and surrounding areas. She scrolled further down and saw what looked like a blueprint of a house. It showed the entire set up of the house including the placement of the furniture. It looked very elaborate. The next page included what appeared like court documents and a mug shot of Bryant Cavanaugh. Sadie leaned in closer to the picture. He looked to be about fifty with graying hair and a worn wrinkled face. His eyes were what caught hers. He looked almost sinister in his picture. This must be the guy they were apprehending tonight.
There were several more pages of court documents and an arrest sheet. She stopped to read one. Bryant Cavanaugh was arrested for the rape and murder of a fourteen-year-old girl in Indiana. Oh my God. Sadie scrolled down again and saw newspaper articles, dozens of them from his arrest and court trial. There was a photo of the victim. She was a beautiful brown-haired girl. She was smiling in what looked like a picture taken at the beach. Macey Donavan. Sadie read the article below it. She was walking home from a friend’s house and was abducted. There was a massive search for her that lasted three days before her body was discovered in the brush two miles away from her lake home. The article said she had been raped and tortured during her two days in captivity.
Sadie didn’t even try to wipe her tears away. She let them fall as she continued reading the article. Bryant Cavanaugh, a local man, was arrested for her murder. The trial lasted seven weeks. All the evidence pointed to Cavanaugh as the killer but a witness, Barry Shaw, testified that Cavanaugh had been at his restaurant at the time of Macey’s disappearance. He had receipts as proof, along with his testimony. The trial ended in a not guilty verdict. The community was stunned and outraged. The defense portrayed a framed theory. The prosecution had proved their case but the witness had the jury stumped. Barry Shaw was a reputable citizen, a business owner, and a family man. There was no reason the jury shouldn’t believe him. One juror was quoted, “Innocent until proven guilty, the prosecution just didn’t prove it.”
This article was dated two years ago. The next article stated Cavanaugh relocated after the trial and by all accounts had no further arrests. Sadie scrolled up to his arrest documents but the only one was his murder charge. He should have another arrest in which he skipped out on his bond. There was no record of his bond. Before she could look further into other documents, a small message screen popped up.
E: You back already?
Sadie jumped back from the desk. She looked around the room and started to panic. This message was not meant for her. E must be Ethan. He thought Stone was back on the computer. Shit! Another message popped up.
E: ?
Oh God! What should she do? She couldn’t respond, she wasn’t even supposed to be in here. Sadie completely invaded Stone’s personal business and now she had been caught. Another message appeared.
B: line compromised
Suddenly the screen went
