Page 106 of Midnight Creed

Waffle House

Avalon Boulevard, Milton, Florida

Lightning pulsed through the clouds, but the rain had stopped by the time Creed pulled his Jeep into the parking lot. He was tired and wet to the bone, though he’d tried to towel off himself and Grace. The heater blasted warm air, but it didn’t help dislodge the chill.

He parked in the far corner where he’d left his Jeep the other night, halfway between The Red Roof Inn and the Waffle House. The headlights streaked across the woods before he switched them off. The hotel’s section of the lot was half empty.

Jason’s Jeep and Dr. Avelyn’s SUV were parked with a half dozen other vehicles clustered close to the restaurant’s entrance. In a few hours, the morning breakfast rush would pack the place.

In the dark, Creed dug out a clean T-shirt and another button-down oxford from his duffel bag. He should have changed into the dry clothes when Deputy Trevor dropped him off back at his Jeep, but he wasn’t thinking. Still, wasn’t. Adrenaline long spent; he was operating on instinct.

He stripped off the wet shirts and pulled on the dry. Now, as he shoved the duffel onto the floor of the backseat, he noticed another bag already there. A plastic bag tied loosely at the top and lodged between the driver’s seat and back bench. He didn’t need to look. He already knew what was inside.

Creed glanced up at Grace. She stretched out on the Jeep’s folded down bench right outside her open kennel. Without raising her head, her eyes watched him, moving from the bag, then back to him. When she noticed his attention, her tail wagged a soft tap-tap. He had fixed her a meal before they left Linden Estates. Exhausted and with a full belly, she still didn’t move from her place.

He held up the plastic bag to her and said, “You were searching for both of them.”

Another wag.

Of course she was.

Urgent to find Will, Creed had forgotten about Caleb’s sweatshirt. It was still here after his search with Bolo.

He scratched behind her ears. Told her what a good dog she was. Promised he wouldn’t be gone long. She could rest and get some sleep now.

He tilted the moon roof open for fresh air, closed the door gently, then locked the Jeep and started across the parking lot.

When he was still with Norwich, Creed had texted Jason, knowing Taylor was still with him and Brodie. All he said was,

Found a body. It’s not Will.

His cell phone vibrated against his chest. He pulled it from his shirt’s pocket.

“Maggie, are you okay?” They had missed each other several times.

“I’m good. What about you?”

“Tired. A little bit dryer.” He managed a laugh. Dryer didn’t mean warmer.

“I heard Grace found that teenager.”

“Yeah. But we still don’t know where Will is.”

She was quiet too long.

“Do you know something?” he asked, stopping in the middle of the parking lot, waiting for her response. It was almost as if he was too tired to talk, to listen, and to walk at the same time.

“My serial killer was at the Ramsey’s. Mrs. Ramsey was his mother.”

“Was?”

“Evidently, he threatened her and her husband. While I milled around outside their house trying to figure what to do, she shot him.”

“She shot her son?”

“Yes.”

He heard so much emotion in that one-word answer.