Chapter 5 - The Bloody Envelope
I stared at the dark crimson stains smeared aggressively across the white paper envelope.
My hands trembled as I pulled it out from beneath the cold rubber wiper blade.
I ripped the paper open and pulled out a single, heavily wrinkled handwritten note.
The frantic, messy handwriting undoubtedly belonged to my sister, Chloe.
"He lied to me, Sarah," the note read in jagged, panicked letters that sent a chill down my spine.
"Richard told me it was just harmless red dye to make Emma look silly for a stupid Christmas prank."
I read the words twice, struggling to process her unbelievable, selfish stupidity.
"He took all the money and left me here to bleed out in the cold," the letter continued.
At the bottom of the page was a messy address for an abandoned lumber yard just three miles away.
I didn't bother calling the police, knowing they were already speeding toward the wrong location at the airfield.
Richard had brilliantly planted Chloe's phone at the airport as a deliberate, time-wasting decoy.
I started the engine and sped out of the hospital parking lot into the snowy, treacherous night.
I gripped the steering wheel so hard my knuckles turned completely white from the strain.
I pulled up to the dark, decaying lumber yard and immediately killed my headlights.
I grabbed a heavy metal tire iron from the trunk of my car and stepped into the freezing, howling wind.
The rusted iron gates of the yard were wide open, swaying gently with an eerie, metallic squeak.
I crept quietly through the massive maze of stacked, rotting wood covered in fresh snow.
I heard a faint, wet coughing sound coming from a small, dilapidated utility shed in the back.
I raised the tire iron high and kicked the wooden door open with all my might.
Chloe was lying on the dirt floor, clutching a massive, bleeding stab wound in her stomach.
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But she wasn't alone in the dark shed.
A tall man stepped out of the shadows and pressed a cold, steel gun barrel against the back of my head.
