by Mary Stone
Jacob shook his head, his mouth a grim line. “Definitely not just you.”
A few seconds later, the GPS announced the grim news. “You have arrived at your destination.”
Ellie parked and killed the engine. Jacob hopped out, with Duke bounding after him. He peered at their destination and whistled. “Damn.”
Ellie climbed out of the driver’s side, her stomach clenching like a steel trap. Damn was an understatement at the sight that greeted them.
Trash piles splattered a square lot where, despite South Carolina’s heavy annual rains, the majority of the grass was brown and dry. A single-wide trailer dripping with rust and neglect squatted in the middle. The structure’s yellow siding peeled away in spots, like even the trailer wanted to escape this place. A No Trespassing sign hung on a chain-link fence.
Ellie sucked in a breath. “Do you see that?” She pointed at a pipe that jutted out of the trailer’s roof.
Jacob’s voice sounded as strained as Ellie felt. “Yeah. Unfortunately. Meth.”
Her gaze took in the black plastic tarps duct taped to the windows, blocking any prying eyes, and she gritted her teeth. “Sure looks that way.” Mr. Snyder’s caller had led them straight to a meth house. The muttering coming from the other officers told her they’d noticed too.
“What’s the play here?” Jacob’s calm manner acted like a balm on the rest of the cops. They quieted down to await Ellie’s decision.
Ellie blew out an uneasy breath. They could wait on hazmat, but that ran the risk of Garrett bolting first. “Ideally, we go check this out and get probable cause to enter. Consent or plain view are our best bets, understand?”
Everyone nodded. “When we do get probable cause, no one, I repeat, no one, is to enter that trailer until we get appropriate PPE. Are we clear on that point?” More nods. “Good. Now, when we approach the dwelling, I want two of you to circle around the back and secure it in case we have a runner. Jacob, you and Duke go right at my hand signal. Lou, you take left.” Her gaze drifted back to the pipe. “Oh, and in case any of you were deciding this was a good time to whip out your vape, don’t.”
Her joke drew a few snickers to help relieve their jitters, easing some of the tension. Good. A wrong move in this situation, and boom! They’d all go up in flames. Meth labs placed first responders in grave danger, both in terms of chemical inhalants causing lung burns and explosions.
She zipped her jacket all the way to her throat and motioned for the others to follow. As they approached the house, big brown patches of dead grass crunched beneath her feet. A pile of yellowing granules to their left only furthered her suspicions. She pointed, and Jacob nodded. Contaminated kitty litter was yet another common by-product of meth producers. The clincher was the expensive-looking cameras positioned around the trailer, one of which was easily worth more than the rest of the lot’s contents combined.
The wind shifted directions, wafting a hint of a noxious odor their way. Ellie sniffed a combination of rotten eggs and cat urine before the smell disappeared.
“Jesus, that’s nasty.”
Ellie threw her hand up to silence whichever cop had whispered before motioning her team to follow her. Nothing stirred in the lot beyond the flap-flap of the window tarps moving with the wind and the flutter of leaves on a neighboring tree. She edged her way toward the trailer, stopping thirty feet away. The closer she got, the higher her pulse climbed.
She inhaled through her nose, focusing on the pathway the air traveled through her body. First, her nasal passages. Then her trachea. Finally, her lungs. She held the breath until she felt her heart rate subside. Until she sensed her body’s connection to the earth, and a sense of calm banished the fuzziness in her head.
By the time she released the air in a low whoosh, Ellie was ready. Thank god for her years of yoga and martial arts training. Their mindfulness practices had come in handy during multiple tense situations.
She caught Jacob’s eye and motioned her hand to the right. Jacob nodded. He tightened up on Duke’s lead, and the pair took off at a swift clip.
Ellie repeated the gesture with her other hand to Todd, who set off to circle around the left. She crept toward the sagging awning that covered an ancient Welcome mat. The two remaining officers fell in behind her, one on either side.
When she reached the front door, she paused. Listening. Not a peep from inside, so she lifted her hand and knocked. After three loud bangs with her knuckles, she shouted. “John Garrett, this is Detective Kline of the Charleston Police Department. I need to speak to you.”
Seconds ticked by. Ellie waited, then lifted her hand to knock again. Before her skin touched the door, a rapid-fire bark shattered the silence, followed by a man’s yell.
“Stop! Police!”
Duke. Jacob.
“Around back!” Ellie didn’t wait for a response from her two flanking officers. She sprinted in the same direction Jacob and Duke had traveled only moments before. Her heart pounded so forcefully that every last bit of her body pulsed with the accelerated beat.
If anything happened to Jacob on her watch…
No. Nothing would happen. Ellie kicked her pace up even more.
She rounded the corner to find Duke crouched low with his ears pinned to his head, growling over a man who laid cowering in dead grass and dirt. His dark muzzle curled up to reveal massive white teeth, only inches away from the man’s exposed throat.
“Please, call him off! He’s trying to kill me!”
Jacob stood by Duke’s side. “If he was trying to kill you, he would have already. Roll onto your stomach so I can cuff you. Slowly, so you don’t accidentally convince Duke here that you’re fair game.”
After a wild-eyed glance at the growling shepherd, the man eased onto his stomach.
Jacob pulled his handcuffs off his belt and knelt beside the man. Metal clinked as he snapped the cuffs around the man’s wrists, then tightened them. “All right, we’re good. Time to stand up.”
With Jacob’s assistance, the man staggered to his feet. Jacob maneuvered him until he faced Ellie and the rest of the team. Ellie grimaced. The meth ravaged face was recognizable from the photo Fortis had texted, but barely so. Scabs from clawing at imaginary bugs littered his face, and his lips oozed with more than one open sore.
“Christ Almighty,” muttered one of the cops from behind her.
“I’m going to search your pockets.” Jacob clearly didn’t relish the idea. “Is there anything on your person that will stick me, harm me in anyway.”
Their prisoner shook his head. “No, man.”
With gloved fingers, Jacob dug a wallet out of the man’s back pocket and flashed them a South Carolina driver’s license. “It’s him. John Garrett.”
Ellie nodded. “Mr. Garrett, we need to question you about the whereabouts of Danielle Snyder, also known as Dani. Is Dani Snyder in the trailer?”
Now that Duke wasn’t an instant away from tearing out his throat, John Garrett decided he could afford to cop an attitude. He spit in the dirt and sneered at Ellie, revealing a missing front tooth and several others brown from decay. “Go fuck yourself.”
Ellie ignored his helpful suggestion. “Mr. Garrett, I’m Detective Kline of the Charleston PD, and this will go much easier if you cooperate.”
Garrett stuck out his tongue and wiggled it. Ellie gritted her teeth.
“Hey, Kline, check this out. I can see empty cough medicine boxes and other meth shit from here.” Todd stood on a step behind the screen door Garrett had fled through and peered into the trailer through the mesh.
Bingo.
Ellie turned back to Garrett and smiled. “Looks like we won’t be needing your cooperation after all. Based on our observations here today, we have probable cause to search your trailer for meth or items used in the production and distribution of meth.”
The man’s eyes rounded. “What? The fuck you do! Stay the hell out of my trailer, you crazy bitch! I know my rights!” Saliva flew from his mouth as he j
erked his body this way and that, trying to thrash free of Jacob’s hold. Duke lunged and barked, but Garrett kept struggling this time. Lou and Todd rushed over to assist.
“We’ve got him. You go check the trailer!” Jacob shouted to be heard over the still screaming Garrett. “Be careful!”
Ellie turned to face the screen door, grimacing. Now for the fun part. One experience that had never ranked high on her detective bucket list was raiding a meth lab. Oh well.
Safety guidelines recommended that all first responders don proper protective gear before entering a suspected meth lab. Not an N95 filter like Ellie had, but a full-blown gas mask to minimize any contact with hazardous fumes.
Only, Ellie didn’t have a gas mask, and Dani couldn’t wait.
Hurrying away, she grabbed a mask from her car and arranged it over her face. Jacob would freak when he figured out her intention, so she needed to be quick.
The trailer squeaked when she bounded up the steps. “Dani? Hello? This is Charleston PD, coming inside. Anyone in this trailer needs to put their hands in the air where I can see them.”
Right on cue, Jacob shouted at her. “Ellie, don’t you dare—”
Too late. Ellie sucked in a lungful of oxygen, unholstered her gun, and darted inside.
Even holding her breath, the chemical odor smacked her in the face. Overpowering, like nail polisher remover laced with a sickly sweet scent. She froze before pushing forward. The less time she spent in here without proper gear, the better.
“Dani! You here?”
She crept past a trash can overflowing onto the dingy carpet with empty boxes of pseudoephedrine, yellow-stained latex gloves, used pH strips, and a single coffee filter stained a deep red. The living area was empty, save for a stained table and an even dirtier couch. A flat-screened TV perched on the kitchen counter, surrounded by a mess of items Ellie recognized as meth-making supplies: a two-liter soda bottle with a tube poking out of the top. A stained scale. A plastic jug of Drano and a can marked Butane. She noted too many jars and containers to count, some filled with white crystals, others with a red substance.
She gave the kitchen a wide berth, clamping down on her need to inhale until after she passed. She rounded the corner and peered into a room containing a dirty mattress on the floor and piles of clothes. All men’s.
“Dani?”
No one replied.
She cleared the tiny closet and a bathroom. Clear. No Dani anywhere. Time to get the hell out.
On her way back past a computer sitting on an ancient desk, Ellie swung her left arm wide and nudged the mouse.
Oops. My bad.
As she’d hoped, the tap caused the monitor to blink to life. Images filled the screen, and acid scorched her throat.
Not only was John Garrett a meth dealer, but according to the awful photos on his computer, he also had a penchant for child porn.
The one thing the trailer didn’t contain so far was any trace of Dani Snyder.
“Ellie! Get out here before I come in after you!”
Wincing at Jacob’s threat, Ellie raced for the door. She hit the steps and almost collided with Jacob. She waited until she was several feet away before pulling the N95 off her head. “I’m fine, see? Dani’s not in there.”
Her former partner groaned. “You know Jillian’s going to kill me, right?”
“You’ll survive. Did you call hazmat?”
“On their way. CSI is on alert, and I told them to get some extra PPE ready.” He frowned at her. “Although it’s a little like closing the barn door after the horse escapes.”
“Yeah, yeah.” She headed back to her car and stripped down to her t-shirt and the leggings she’d thankfully pulled on that morning. She stuffed her contaminated clothes in a bag before squirting sanitizing gel in her hands. She wanted to scrub it over every inch of her but that would have to wait for later.
After pulling on the spare clothes she kept in the trunk, she allowed herself to breathe a little. She still needed to shower, but the worst of it was off her now.
Feeling better, she headed over to where Lou and Todd stood guarding Garrett. Her mind flashed to the images on his computer, and her jaw tightened. She read him his rights in a curt voice. Yet another predator. Where the hell did all these sickos keep coming from?
Once he was Mirandized, Ellie assigned Lou and Todd the task of driving Garrett to the station and booking him. Lou stuffed Garrett into the back seat before the patrol car peeled off down the road. She directed Jacob and Colby to set up a perimeter while she rang Fortis.
“Well? Did you find anything?”
Ellie gazed at the trailer. “You could say that.” After she explained the situation, Fortis agreed to track down a judge and procure them a search warrant that granted legal permission for them to search every inch of the trailer for signs of Dani, to be on the safe side.
An hour passed before the hazmat team’s van pulled up. The first thing they did was check the wind direction to make sure they were parked upwind of the trailer. Once that was settled, the members donned their puffy suits and gas masks and waddled their way toward the trailer. While Ellie waited for them to secure the area, the crime scene tech van bounced up the pockmarked street and parked near her Explorer.
A petite brunette woman who Ellie only knew as Paula bounded out of the van. “They almost done?”
Ellie shrugged. “Hopefully.”
“Whelp, let’s find out for sure.” She cupped her hands to her mouth. “Hey, Dave, you knuckleheads almost finished? Some of us have lives to get back to, you know!”
One of the puffy suited figures raised their right hand. Even with a glove, the obscene gesture was obvious. “Yeah, right, what exciting plans you got going on tonight, Paula? Remember, Netflix and chill by yourself doesn’t count.”
“You touch your mama with that hand?” Paula smiled, making Ellie guess that the pair of them enjoyed giving each other shit. “And bless your heart! Look at you, finally jumping into this century and learning how to use Urban Dictionary. I bet the kids are proud.”
“Man, don’t remind me. I’ve got another one getting ready to go to college, and we’re still paying for the first one.” Dave pulled off his protective mask and groaned. “I expect they’ll give you the go-ahead any time now. The air quality didn’t register as shit as I expected.”
Ellie winced and sent a mental apology to her lungs.
“Cool. Thank you, and say hi to Jen for me.”
Two members of the hazmat team exited the trailer, carrying containers. Once they settled them on a plastic sheet that had been arranged a good fifty feet from the structure, they approached Ellie and the crime scene crew. “When you’re suited up, you’re good to go inside. We removed the riskiest compounds and will collect samples for you. Everything else should be okay, but I wouldn’t recommend kicking off any sparks.”
“Understood.”
Ellie, Paula, and the rest of the crew began suiting up. As they pulled on the cumbersome gear, Ellie addressed them.
“Get what you need for the meth, but what I’m really looking for here is evidence that Garrett had a teen girl here. Well, woman now. Looks like we might be dealing with a human trafficker, so please keep that in mind as you collect samples.”
Paula nodded and turned to her coworkers. “You hear that? Let’s comb the shit out of this sicko’s lair, see what we can find. Chuck, you take the lead. Remember, most or even all of this evidence could very well end up marked as contaminated and destroyed, so make sure you don’t miss anything.”
Another puffy-suited man wielding a video camera nodded and headed for the trailer. The rest of them trudged behind them, like a line-up of spacemen.
Thanks to the respirator, the smell didn’t threaten to knock Ellie out this time. She hung back while Chuck did his job, methodically preserving the scene on camera. Once he cleared a room, Paula took over. She swept a UV blacklight along the living surfaces, checking for blood. Ellie opened a tiny closet and began s
huffling through the items. An old towel, a worn straw cowboy hat. Boots.
She frowned, pulling the boots out to inspect them. “Hey, Paula. Can we get an imprint and size on these when you’re done?”
“Sure thing.”
A tech appeared from the back room, holding a large white shoe box with an Adidas logo on the side. “Might have found something here. It’s full of women’s stuff. Rings, nail polish, wallets.”
Ellie perked up and waved her in the direction of the stained table. “Set it down here.”
The tech placed the open box in front of Ellie. “I’ll hold on to the lid, still need to print it.”
The tech carried the lid away as Ellie leaned over the box. Three bottles of nail polish sat in one corner, all in differently shaped containers. One red, one sheer pink, one glittery blue. A tangle of necklaces glinted beside them. With a gloved finger, Ellie poked them aside, revealing a silver ring that wrapped around like a snake and a gold ring with pink stones. A trio of black and gold bangle-style bracelets rattled when she shifted the jewelry to expose any more hidden items.
Two small passport photos of the same blonde woman peered up from the bottom. After studying the picture and deciding the face didn’t belong to Dani, Ellie moved on to a jumble of wallets. She removed them one by one and carefully arranged them in a row on the table. An icy finger slid across her neck. “They’re all women’s wallets.”
Remnants of an overzealous pickpocket? Possibly, but Ellie doubted it. The shoe box collection gave off a distinct souvenir vibe. As Ellie reached for a yellow leather wallet, she prayed her radar was misfiring.
Please, don’t let us be dealing with a collector.
On first glimpse, the wallet appeared empty. Still, Ellie inspected every compartment and credit card slot. The second to last spot she checked revealed a glimpse of white. She extracted the rectangular piece of plastic, and a young brunette smiled up at her from a South Carolina driver’s license.
“Shit.”
The word slipped from Ellie’s mouth, causing Paula to stop what she was doing and hurry over. “Son of a bitch. He kept trophies?”