Smitten || DeAndre Jordan {Crush Sequel}

Chapter Twenty One

DeAndre

There was a knock on my bedroom door, and instantly I was awake, wondering what was going on. Chris never bothered me in the middle of the night. "What is it?" I called out.

He poked his head inside. "Get dressed. We've got to go. There's a break in the case."

I immediately sat up and reached for the clothes I had on earlier, hurrying to get dressed. "What's happened?" I asked, feeling suddenly nervous for Cami's safety.

"They found a body. Chief called and said they wonder if it might be our missing person. They want us to talk with the investigator on the scene. There's something he wants to show us."

My pulse picked up. This could be what we've been waiting for. I hurried and put my shoes on, making sure to grab my real ID and badge from where I kept them hidden in the room. I slipped the card into my wallet, and headed out the door.

Santon Canyon was located in the Santa Catalina Mountains outside of Tucson. It was a place many locals and tourists frequented to enjoy hiking, nature, tram rides, and playing in the waterfalls, so I was a little skeptical of this being a body dump.

We pulled into the well-lit parking area bustling with activity. Several police vehicles, forensics trucks, and park ranger units were in the lot. Brightly glowing flood lamps on huge stands pointed down the hill, and yellow police tape marked off a large area and disappeared from view down the path.

"Have there been any missing hikers reported?" I asked. That would be my first guess if I found a body here.

"I haven't heard of any. I'm thinking there must be something special with this victim, though, if they're having us come see it."

A young officer came up and asked to see our badges before leading us a significant way down the marked trail. He directed us off the path to a cordoned area.

"Can I help you?" a tall, thin man with thick black-rimmed glasses questioned.

"I'm Officer Paul, and this is Officer Jordan," Chris introduced us. "We were contacted tonight by Chief Rivers and told you might have found a missing person who matched the description of a case we've been working on. He said you found something that might help us." We both flashed our badges again so he could validate them.

"I'm the forensics team leader, Officer Grady. Nice to meet you. Hikers discovered the body about thirty minutes prior to sunset after they chased their small kids who'd run off the trail and into the brush. It's mostly skeletal remains at this point, and judging from the marks on the bones, it looks as if more than a few animals have smacked on it." He pointed to where he'd been working. "There are also fragments of what appear to be a white t-shirt, jeans, and some black tennis shoes, which I'm told match the description on your missing persons report."

Certain areas had been marked off with police tape to keep anyone who wasn't part of the investigations unit out of the area, but the floodlights lit things up pretty clearly for us, and we could see everything he was describing to us.

"From the position of the body, I'd say it was probably pushed off the edge of the ledge up there by the road," Offcier Grady continued. "There's no marks disturbing the ground around the area other than those of the hikers, so I'm sure there's no evidence of the person who disposed of the body left here. If there was, it's probably long been washed away by the rain. This body's been here for a while."