Page 46 of Chasing Creed

When they first arrived, Daniels had even suggested that an injured Kyle could have taken shelter in one of the properties’ collapsing structures. At first, he’d genuinely sounded worried about finding the young man. So why hadn’t he or his deputy bothered to check any of the buildings themselves?

There was something wrong with this whole scenario.

Creed told Grace he’d be back in a few minutes. He could move more freely if he didn’t have to worry about her safety. Some of Brodie’s equipment was still inside the back of his Jeep where he had tossed it. He grabbed the folded telescoping pole from the floorboard behind the driver’s seat. Grace gave his nose a lick.

“You can kiss me all you want, but no, you’re still not coming with me.” He patted her head and told her to stay. She was ready to get to work, but she sat down and watched him from the back window.

The telescoping pole had an iron graip at the bottom, making it look like a very long-handled three-prong fork. He used the tool to poke hard ground, making holes to release scent. It came in handy if law enforcement suspected a body had been buried long ago and the soil had settled hard and firm on top of it. The miniature pitchfork also helped to forge a path through tall grasses and shrubs to warn and scatter critters like snakes. That’s how Brodie had been using it.

He tried to recall Brodie’s list of snakes in central Mississippi. All he could remember was that it included several poisonous ones. No, not “poisonous.” Brodie would have corrected him. Venomous. They hadn’t come in contact with any earlier, but he didn’t want to risk it. Honestly, he hated snakes, but they weren’t the only thing he was worried about. If the drone had been weaponized in some way, there was a possibility that explosives might be planted in other areas.

Sheriff Daniels kept saying this place had been abandoned. That no one had lived here for decades. At first glance, that seemed obvious. But someone had paid the electric bill to keep the fencing live. There was enough interest that a high-tech drone had been surveilling the property. Kyle’s vehicle couldn’t have simply veered off a road, plowed through the woods and ended up in that pasture all by accident.

And then there was the woman’s hand sticking up out of the rubbish pile. Her body buried inside the heap. He wished he could unsee that.

Before he started out, he bent over and untied his ankle-high hiking boots. He tucked the pant legs of his jeans down inside the boots then laced them back up tight around his ankles. Usually, he wore a T-shirt with a long-sleeved buttoned-up cotton shirt over it. Most of the time he left it untucked and with the sleeves rolled up. He rolled them down now and buttoned them at the cuffs. He tucked the tail into his jeans, leaving nothing to fly around or catch and grab.

He made his way to the house. The original walkway was overgrown and invisible beneath the vines and scrub grass. His graip clanked against broken bricks. He stared at the collapsing porch. Boards were missing from the floor, and the others leading to the front door looked like they were ready to give way. He headed around the side of the house. The two windows were boarded up. Thickets as high as his knees had taken over. Vines climbed the clapboard sides.

To his surprise, the back door appeared to be new, sturdy and solid with a heavy-duty padlock. It was the type of lock you’d put on to keep someone out. Or…if you wanted to lock someone inside. Funny, Sheriff Daniels hadn’t mentioned it, which only reaffirmed Creed’s suspicions that neither he nor his deputy had checked inside the house.

Creed poked his way to the boarded-up back window. It was impossible to see inside. The boards were tightly placed and secure. They hadn’t weathered much. It didn’t take an expert to see the house had been deteriorating for decades before these boards were put in place.

The woods started about thirty feet from the back door. If there had once been a backyard, nature had swallowed it up. He scanned the surroundings and noticed the trees were so thick he couldn’t see the pasture or Kyle’s vehicle from here.

He hadn’t gotten ten feet from the back door when the iron prongs of his pole struck metal. There was a violent clank-clash. It snapped the pole out of his hands, jolting Creed and throwing him off balance. He planted his feet and froze in place.

What the hell just happened?

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The violent clank of metal had stripped the pole completely from Creed’s hands. His first thought was that he had struck another electric fence. Completely out of his hands now, the pole stood straight up.

He tapped it with his fingertips. No electric shock. He gave it a shove. It didn’t move. Slowly and carefully, he swept his booted foot about six inches over the tall grass, bending it back. Little by little, he could see what had caught and grabbed the pole.

It was a huge steel-toothed trap. The pole’s prongs were clenched inside the long, sharp teeth. This was not the kind of trap that snagged and held an animal. This one would cut a foot clean off.

He took a couple photos then grabbed and pulled and twisted until the prongs lifted. The resulting clink-clash snapped and clamped the teeth together. Creed winced at the brutal power of the contraption. At least he’d disabled this one before it took his foot off.

He stepped onto a patch of pine needles then swept his foot over the top of the grass. About five feet away, he saw more rust-colored metal. Sure enough, there was a second trap. This one was still engaged and waiting.

He snapped another photo and texted it to Jason.

Have you ever seen anything like this?

Three dots appeared immediately, and Creed waited while his eyes scanned the property. Clouds were already moving in. Gray, bulging ones. He was right about that storm. Which meant there would be rain and lightning.

Jason texted:

Not in this country. Looks like an antiquated bear trap.

Ask Brodie if there are bears in this part of Mississippi.

He glanced again at the heavy industrial padlock on the back door. That wasn’t put in place to keep out a bear.

She says only around the Delta and southern area of the state.

That’s what I thought. Thanks.