“No problem. Sorry I missed your call. What’s up?”
My fingers tightened around the steering wheel. “I haven’t been able to contact Skye for a couple hours and was wondering if you had heard from her today?”
There was a long pause, longer than I’d like. “I actually saw her this morning.”
My pulse spiked, both relief and dread hitting me at the same time. “You did? Is she okay?”
What sounded like papers shifted in the background. “I think so. I finally got access to the Jane Doe evidence box.”
I slowed my vehicle, drifting to the side of the road where I slipped into a parking spot in front of some of the downtown shops.
Throwing the SUV in park, I stared out the windshield at nothing in particular. “Skye saw the evidence from Jane Doe’s case?”
More rustling of papers, what sounded like a desk phone ringing. “Sorry. I’ve been pretty busy here today. But yeah, she saw the evidence. She didn’t recognize anything. Said that it wasn’t her mother.”
My stomach twisted. “Damn.” I shook my head. “How did she take it?”
“She was…quiet. She left pretty quickly after.”
I ground my back teeth together, all the information sinking in. So she hadn’t run away from me. At least, I didn’t think that’s what happened here.
“What time did you meet with her?”
Whize sighed. “Around six this morning.”
Anxiety reverberated through my body. It had been longer than I thought since she’d last been seen.
“Thank you for the information.” I hung up before Whize said anything else. Shifting back into drive, I pulled onto the road.
There was one more place I needed to check.
The Adler house.
I’d been so focused on the obvious places, the public ones, but if she was hurting, she might not want to be seen at all. If this was all about Jane Doe not being her mother, she might have sought comfort in the one other person who truly understood.
I braked hard as the house came into view. Gravel crunched under the tires as I pulled into the driveway. I tried not to get too discouraged by the lack of her car anywhere to be seen. Even if she wasn’t here, maybe Ash would know where she was.
He also hadn’t been answering my calls, and when I contacted the shop where he worked, they’d said he called out sick for the day. Either he was rotting in bed with some illness, or he was comforting his sister.
I hoped it was the latter.
The curtains were drawn over the front windows, but a faint glow bled from around the edges from somewhere in the house.
I killed the engine and stepped out. The wind stirred the trees as I walked up the front steps. I hesitated at the door, listening for a moment.
It was quiet.
I knocked.
At first, I wasn’t sure anyone was home. But after a couple more knocks, the door finally opened.
Ash stood in the doorway, looking a little disheveled—hair mussed, long-sleeved shirt unbuttoned. Yet his face was completely calm.
He blinked at me, clearly surprised. “Fox.”
I glanced behind him into the house. I didn’t see any sign of her. Didn’t hear anyone else. When I looked back at him, I raised a brow. “You don’t work today?”
“Nope. Haven’t been feeling well since last night.” He shrugged. “Called off.”
