A part of me wants to sprint down every single path. But people are already doing that. Deep down, I know I need to think. I have to figure out how he took them.
“It was daylight,” I say, straightening up so I can stretch my aching neck. “He has two girls to move. He’s incapacitated them somehow. He needs privacy. And he probably knows Shane and I are with those girls almost constantly. Today, both of us were out of the way for a little while. And both of those girls had one place to go.” I start to walk.
“I’ll check the spreadsheets,” Reynolds says. “If he turns off his phone, there could be holes in the data on someone. We didn’t look for times when phones could’ve been off. We should have.”
Declan jogs over and catches her arm as she walks with me. “No, Camrynn. Don’t leave my side.”
“Erik has a hunch. My phone doesn’t have access to your cloud with the spreadsheets. Can you open it?”
“Of course,” Declan says.
I can’t remain with them, waiting for answers. My body’s too keyed up to allow me to stand still. “You look, Reynolds. My phone’s on. Call if you find something.”
Heading in the direction of Beacon West, I try to keep my mind from racing.
Be Riksen. Concentrate and analyze.
The last place anyone saw them was in the business admin building. And once they finished uploading their files, they should’ve texted Shane because that’s what Avery was supposed to do. It’s unlikely she would’ve forgotten. Like Arya, she would’ve been wondering how his meeting with the dean went.
Assume Avery didn’t text Shane because she didn’t get a chance to.
That means Casanova overtook them in or near Beacon West and from then on, none of them were seen again. If the phones moved, they either did so underground or they did so by some other means.
Campus police and the FBI checked the business admin building and said there were no signs of trouble, but maybe something was missed.
I’m not aware I’m jogging until I reach the Beacon West building and stop. My breath is sharp and harsh. There are people on the paths, shining flashlights into the flower beds and onto the lawns.
I spot several guys from the football team. “Has anyone seen anything strange around this building?” I ask them.
“No, Cap. We’ve circled this one twice,” Cal Winters, one of the Knights’ wide receivers, says.
“Check the ground, Winters. Look for grates or manholes between here and the student union. Look closely. It’ll be hidden.”
“We’re on it,” he says, beckoning the other guys.
I stalk to the building.
The lobby door is open, and I go straight to the elevator, looking around. Arya and Avery would’ve taken the elevator upstairs, so I will as well. There are lobby cameras. He didn’t bring them down this way unless it was in something, like a garbage bin or one of those large recycle bins.
I ride upstairs. Once I step off the elevator onto the floor where the department and faculty offices are, motion sensors turn on the lights. I walk up and down the halls until I find Smith-Hall’s office and the one across the hall labeled “Teaching Assistants.”
I glance at the door to the stairwell, which is only a few feet away. Walking over, I look around. This hallway doesn’t see a lot of foot traffic. The carpet is less worn than the carpet at the front near the elevators.
Casanova likes dark and isolated spots.
After I open the stairwell door, I thrust my head forward. It’s dark and quiet, but it would’ve been a long slog to carry two women down this way one at a time. Would he have risked that? Is he even strong enough to do it?
I’ll check the stairwell closely for signs of that after I check the office. I want to make sure it doesn’t have a back door that leads to a service elevator.
The office door is locked. If I start busting doors open, I’ll likely set off alarms and there will be hell to pay. But I don’t care. Casanova has Arya, and I’m going to search until I find her and take her away from him.
I pray to God she’s still all right. The second that thought hits me, I tense.
Don’t do it.
No, I can’t think about her being dead. It’ll rip a hole in my chest the size of the Grand Canyon and bring me to my knees.
Just find her. Let nothing get in your way.
