Page 74 of Still Missing You

Something cold locks in my chest. If Jim is here, dead, where’s Dylan? He’s still out there.

Linc crouches next to the body.

“Don’t touch anything.”

“I know.” Linc leans closer, studying Jim’s face. “Do you think it was his heart?”

“I don’t know.” The idea that he dropped dead of natural causes at the same time we connected him to a long list of missing men seemed like an unlikely coincidence.

I stare down at the man who had been killing for decades.

Now he’s dead.

There’s a bottle of whiskey on the desk with a nearly empty glass beside it. Was he drinking while watching this... then dropped dead? Or could someone have discovered him playing his torture videos in the basement and killed him?

A chill crawls up my spine. There were no obvious signs of injury.

“Hunter,” Linc says slowly.

I drag my gaze away from Jim’s crumpled body. “Yeah?”

“You thought Jim had Dylan?”

I nod. “Maybe not if he was dead down here, though. How long do you think he’s been here?”

“Not long. His body looks as if it’s still warm.”

If he wasn’t involved in whatever happened to Dylan, then who? I don’t have an answer.

“We need to call the police.” But it’s the last thing I want to do. I want to look for Dylan, and if we call the cops, they’ll hold on to us, forcing us to answer questions for hours and waste time.

What if he’s already dead?

No.

I don’t go there.

A horrible thought pushes into my brain before I can stop it.

Matthew.

Could he have still been alive, tied to a chair like the man on the video. Bruised. Begging. Tortured.

Could he have escaped somehow? Come back here and killed Jim? There are no obvious signs of trauma on the body, but I can’t really be sure without moving it, and I’m not willing to risk contaminating evidence.

Besides, the idea is insane. Matthew has been missing for two weeks now. He had to be dead. So who killed Jim? And where the hell is Dylan?

“We’re not going to solve anything standing in a basement with a dead body,” Linc says. “We need to think.”

I drag a hand through my hair, forcing myself to focus. “If Jim took Dylan somewhere, he’s not the one holding him now.”

The thought makes my stomach twist. My brain is racing now. Jim picks up Dylan. They leave together. Then Jim ends up dead in the basement.

Could Dylan have killed him, panicked and run? Unfortunately, the possibility made sense.

Something happened.

“If Jim brought Dylan back to the house—”