“Nine-one-one. Please state
your emergency.”
Jude hugged
her knees and rocked on the floor of her art studio space. Instead
of the art supplies, all she saw was the vision behind the club.
Her hands trembled as she clutched the cell phone. The blood,
the smell...her stomach lurched and bile filled her mouth.
“Excuse me. Hello?”
“I’d like to report a
murder.” Jude blinked and drew a long breath into her lungs. She
needed to calm down or she’d never make it through the call. Tears
burned behind her eyes. She shouldn’t have been in hiding. She
needed to be right there with her friend.
“Ok, hon, can you give me
the location?”
“Thirteen hundred Broadway.
Behind the Silver Steel.”
“Silver Steel Gentlemen’s
Club?”
“Yes.” She
closed her eyes and once again the visions gripped her. She’d only
been asked to dump Astra’s things. Astra ran off to Vegas with
Slade. She’s not coming back. Just pitch her trash.
She bit back the sour taste of vomit in her mouth. Tiny never
asked her to dump trash. That was Corey’s job.
“Ma’am?”
“I’m sorry.” Jude cleared
her throat. The best thing to do was to just explain what she’d
seen. “I took out the garbage behind the club and when I opened the
compactor, there was a hand.”
“A hand?”
Jude nodded. How in the
world did the dispatcher manage to stay so calm? “Yes. My friend
Astra Devlin and her boyfriend Slade McMann were supposed to have
gone to Vegas, but they didn’t.”
“And how do you know,
Ma’am?”
“Because it was her hand in
the compactor.” Jude rocked back and forth. The vision of the hand
remained crisp in her mind—bloody and reaching towards the opening
to the compactor. The smell of rot and decay held fast as well. Her
stomach lurched again.
“We’ve got a unit on the
way. Can you give me your name?”
Her name? Oh
shit. Jude trembled. If she gave her name, her boss would know who
alerted the cops. If she felt confident telling them her name, she’d
never have run straight to the safety of her studio.
She stared at her cell
phone, unsure what to do.
“Ma’am?”
Jude snapped the phone shut
and gave it a fling across the cramped room. If the cops wanted her
bad enough, they’d no doubt find her. She’d seen enough crime dramas
to know the police had lots more tricks to finding people.
Just as long as her boss
didn’t find out. If he remained in the dark, she’d be safe.
If.
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