Chapter 16 - The Warehouse on Exit 47
One address from the recovered documents led investigators to an abandoned warehouse near Exit 47, nearly forty miles from where Walter's crash had occurred.
From the outside, the building appeared forgotten.
Broken windows.
Rusted loading docks.
Overgrown weeds.
Yet tire tracks in the damp gravel told a different story.
"They've been here recently," Brooks observed.
Walter crouched near the entrance.
"Several vehicles."
"Heavy ones."
Emily noticed fresh footprints leading toward a side door.
The tactical team entered first.
Inside, rows of empty shelves stretched into darkness.
But deeper inside the warehouse, investigators discovered a makeshift office.
Computers had been removed.
Cabinets stood open.
Hard drives were missing.
Someone had cleared the room in a hurry.
Still, they hadn't removed everything.
Pinned beneath a desk was a folded highway map.
Walter unfolded it carefully.
Colored circles marked more than thirty locations across the state.
Each circle matched an area where suspicious collisions had recently increased.
Brooks stared at the map.
"They planned expansions."
Walter agreed.
"They weren't slowing down."
Emily opened another drawer.
Inside lay dozens of disposable phones.
Most had been smashed.
One remained intact.
Its battery was dead.
The forensic technician smiled.
"Dead doesn't always mean empty."
Walter looked around the abandoned office.
His instincts told him something important was still hidden.
He walked toward the far wall.
One section sounded different when he knocked on it.
"Hollow."
The tactical officers removed several wooden panels.
Behind them sat a concealed compartment.
There was no money.
No weapons.
Only shelves filled with carefully labeled folders.
Every folder contained photographs of potential future victims.
Walter slowly removed one.
The first picture showed an elderly couple leaving a grocery store.
The second contained a retired school principal.
The third...
Walter stopped breathing for a moment.
The photograph showed him.
May you like
It had been taken only three weeks earlier.
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