Page 70 of Outlaw Ridge: Griff
“No. I’m not supposed to say.”
She closed her eyes for a second, fighting the surge of panic threatening to break loose. “Can you tell me what happened? Anything you remember?”
“I was taking the trash out. To the curb because it’s trash pickup tomorrow and that’s one of my chores. Someone came up behind me and hit me with something. I think it was a stun gun. I fell. They dragged me into a car.”
“Could you see what the person looked like?” Lily pressed.
“No. They had a mask and this big coat. And gloves. I couldn’t even tell if it was a man or a woman.”
So, maybe the abduction hadn’t been a total impulse if the person had been dressed to conceal who they were.
“Can you describe the car?” Lily tried again. “Sound? Smell? Anything?”
A pause. Then, quietly, “I’m not allowed to tell you. That’s… that’s one of the rules.”
Lily’s stomach dropped. “What rules?”
“They taped a list to the wall. I was supposed to read it. It says: Don’t try to escape. Don’t give the police any details that might help identify who has me. Just make this call and then stay quiet, and I’ll be let go.”
Griff muttered a curse under his breath. Jesse had pulled out his phone, already signaling the call was being traced. Or rather an attempted tracing. It was probably a burner. Still, they had to try.
“Caleb,” Lily said softly, “you’re doing great, okay? Is the person who took you with you right now?
Lily clutched the phone tighter, her voice barely above a whisper as she asked, “Caleb, is your abductor there with you now?”
There was a long pause. A shift of breath. “Yes,” Caleb said. “But standing back. In the dark.”
Lily’s throat tightened. She opened her mouth to ask more, but then Caleb added quietly, like the words hurt to speak, “They have a gun. Not a stun gun this time. A real one.”
Griff swore under his breath and stepped closer, his entire body tense, ready to move. Hallie’s mouth flattened into a grim line, eyes hardening with fear and fury.
“Caleb, listen to me,” Lily said, willing her voice to stay calm even as her heart pounded. “Don’t panic. Just stay as still and quiet as you can. We’re coming for you—”
“I have to hang up now,” Caleb interrupted, his voice cracking. “They’re watching. Please… get me out of here.”
The line went dead.
“No,” Lily whispered, staring at the phone in her hand as the screen faded to black.
She immediately tapped to redial, but there was nothing. No ring. No voicemail. Just silence.
Before Lily could process the weight of what Caleb had just told them, Hallie’s phone buzzed.
The sheriff answered, and within seconds her entire posture shifted. Her spine snapped straight, her eyes narrowing in that don’t-mess-with-me way Lily had come to recognize.
“They’ve tried twice?” Hallie said, walking a few steps away before turning back to them. “Got it. Lock it down hard.”
She ended the call and looked at Griff and Lily. “Someone’s trying to hack into the department’s computer system. Specifically the cold case files.”
Lily felt her chest go cold. “You think they’re trying to destroy Hannah’s case files themselves?”
“Looks like it,” Hallie said. “They couldn’t get in. System kicked them out both times. But they’ll try again.”
“Our tech is better than most small-town PDs,” Griff said, already reaching for his tablet. “Strike Force made sure of that. But if they’re determined, they’ll keep at it.”
He tapped quickly across the screen, his mind clearly working faster than he spoke. “Here’s what I suggest we do. We make a clean backup of Hannah’s file—every report, every image, every scrap of evidence—then we bury it. Deep. Encrypt it and hide it where no one will find it, not even an internal admin.”
Lily nodded, tracking his thought. “Then we let them believe they’ve succeeded.”
