The Trench

Chapter 49 - Emergency Call

Taylors POV

"Oh my gosh, this seafood is the BEST ever!" I swoon as I chew another grilled shrimp, my hand over my mouth as I speak. Corbin laughs at me as he takes a bite off of his own plate, some kind of grilled fish they serve on a plank of wood.

"Back home good seafood was hard to come by, unless you went to Red Lobster or something. We did have a little bar that got fresh seafood from Louisiana, man that place was the best. The fried alligator tail was phenomenal." He smiles at me as I rant on and on, not seeming to mind my constant jabbering. Although to be fair, I warned him ahead of time; I NEVER shut up.

"I'm just glad they finally got us in." I say sarcastically and he laughs, glancing around at the almost empty restaurant. They close at 11 and it's about fifteen minutes till, but his parents own the place and he has a key so we can really leave whenever we want.

It's a small place with only about five booths and ten tables, the entire staff know him and have stopped by the table to make small talk as we ate.

"What should be our next stop, love?" He grins at me and I give him a wink, before I could answer I feel my phone vibrating in my pocket. I pull it out and I don't recognize the number, I swipe left to reject the call and send them to voicemail setting my phone down on the table.

"Who was that?" He asks nonchalantly, sipping his water. I giggle and lean over to swat his arm.

"Don't be jealous!" I tease. "Probably just a wrong number."

As I say that it rings again, we both look at the screen and I scowl at it; it's the same number as before.

"Just answer it, if it's a wrong number then you'll know." He shrugs and I nod reluctantly, I hover my hand over the phone for a second. I hesitate every time I see an unknown number thanks to my father, who on drunken spells would call me from random phones to say how he missed me. Then he would go on to spit curses about my mother before I hung up. It gave me anxiety every time I picked up a call.

"Hello?" I speak into the phone hesitantly.

"It's Austin, don't hang up." I frown in confusion and worry before responding.

"Uhm, how'd you get my number?" Corbin looks at me questioningly and I shrug and mouth Austins name.

"Riley gave it to me in case of emergencies, and I can't get ahold of her. I know this sounds crazy because she might just be out with friends, but I worry and I can't help it."

"Uuhhh, her and Aimee are having a girls night." I hurry and make up an excuse, to be fair I'm not technically lying; if girls nights contained stalking of a potential murderer. I grimace because even I could hear the lies in my voice and I know he can too judging by the silence on the other end.

"Okayyy, look I know she's mad at me and she has every right to be. I'm not trying to be pushy, or jealous, or crazy but can you just tell her to text me, please?" His voice sounded sad, and despite every circumstance where I envisioned myself telling him off, I caved and told him I would before I hung up.

I explained the whole situation to Corbin as we pay our bill and leave, walking out into the night with heavy clouds hanging over us. I omitted the parts about Kane, or course, just telling him the basics about Austin and Riley's argument and he listened intently. As I'm talking I can't help but smile even with the pit in my stomach growing, Corbin was a great listener even when I couldn't stop talking.

As we get into his truck curiosity got the best of me, it was killing me not being able to go with the two this evening even though I was having a great time. Years ago Riley and I installed tracking apps on our phones in order to track each others phones, it was Riley's idea since I was always loosing mine. That way she could pinpoint it's location and I honestly haven't lost a phone since then.

I open the app and it processes for a few minutes, finally pinging her location on the opposite side of town. An uneasy feeling came over me as I look at the unfamiliar map.

"Corbin, can we make a pit stop?" He nods without question and I give him the location, he frowns and looks at me with an unreadable expression on his face.

"There's nothing but abandoned buildings and a construction site over that way, why would you want to go over there? The whole area is bad news." He shakes his head and makes a U-turn in the street, aiming the truck towards Riley's location as the pit in my stomach grows even more.

-

We just made it to the location, Corbin was right there's not much over this way and it gives me a creepy feeling. As we get closer Corbin and I are scanning the area and he stops the car in the road.

"Hey, isn't that Aimee's car?" He nods to his left and sure enough, her red Pontiac is sitting on a side street, empty. I frown and check my phone again, the dot where her cell phone should be is sitting to our right and a little ahead. I show him the screen and he continues past the car for a little bit.

"Wait, stop!" He hits the breaks and we come to another stop in the road, I look to my right and we're sitting on front of a driveway for a construction company. The gate open.

"I don't like this Taylor, do you want to tell me why Riley and Aimee would be in there?" He points inside and I hesitate, glancing between him and the construction yard.

"If they're in some kind of trouble you can tell me, I'll help anyway I can." He says cautiously, after a few moments I nod my head in the direction of the driveway and he gives me a faint smile, turning the wheel and driving inside.

"Let's find them first, then I'll explain everything. Okay?" I feel the wheels leave the asphalt and I hear them crunching over loose gravel and dirt. We slowly pass a little white office building and I see a security camera pointing in our direction, however I look down and the wire to the camera is dangling in the air unhooked. I roll my eyes.

How convenient...

Corbin eases the truck to a stop and pauses, looking out the windshield. The road splits into three different ways, each lane looks the same and we take a second to make a decision. I'm squinting my eyes trying to see down the road to my right when Corbin taps me on the shoulder. I turn to look at him and his face is pale staring straight ahead, he points down the center lane and I follow his gaze. For a second I don't see anything, but then I notice something on the ground and my stomach churns.

Corbin steps on the gas and flies down the road, I grip the edge of my seat as we get closer to the beam of light. I choke out a sob as I recognize the mint green hair strewn out in the dirt, I jump out of the truck before it stops and I stumble. I gain my feet and run around the front of the truck and fall to my knees beside her.

My hands shake as I open her jacket to find a bullet wound in her chest, her clothing and dirt underneath of her soaked in blood. The metallic smell made me nauseous and I quickly pull off my scarf and press it to her chest. Corbin comes around to her head and presses two fingers to her neck, silently waiting for a few seconds and then his face lights up a little.

"There's a pulse, it's weak but it's there." He says, his voice wavering as he pulls his cell phone out to call the police. I glance around as he speaks to them on the phone giving our location, I can't see Riley anywhere.

Then I spot her cell phone on the ground beside Aimee's feet.