The two of them hurried in that direction. But Andi slowed as they reached Rupert’s room.
His door wasn’t closed. It sat ajar, open just enough to notice.
This wasn’t a coincidence.
She paused outside and called, “Rupert?”
No answer.
Duke nudged the door the rest of the way open.
The room beyond was empty—bed untouched, lights off, briefcase sitting neatly by the desk. His suitcase rested on a stand in the corner, unopened.
But Rupert wasn’t there.
Andi stared at the room, a chill spreading through her chest.
The cracked door.
It was the same detail.
Again.
Andi’s mind raced as the realization settled into place, heavy and sickening.
Kate was missing.
Now Rupert—annoying, anxious, impossible-to-ignore Rupert—had vanished without a word.
Duke checked out Rupert’s room, but he didn’t find anything of note.
Yet he had a bad feeling in his gut.
“All the other victims were women,” Andi muttered with the slow shake of her head.
“We threw this guy off his game, so now he’s changing up things. Besides, the rest of us were together. Maybe he saw the opportunity to grab Rupert and went for it.”
“I hate this . . .” she murmured.
He hooked an arm around her neck. “Me too. We’ll find him. We have to.”
Several minutes later, they gathered the team and regrouped in Andi’s room. The air felt different now—tight, alert, and stripped of anything casual.
He desperately wanted to finish the conversation with Andi.
The weight of it sat heavy in his chest. Everything he hadn’t said pressed for space. Misunderstandings festered when left alone.
He knew that. He’d let this one breathe too long already.
But this wasn’t the moment.
Whatever had happened to Rupert took precedence.
Matthew was already set up at the table, laptop open, lines of code and frozen frames flickering across the screen. “I’m trying to pull footage from the hallway and exterior cameras. But there’s a problem.”
Duke’s jaw tightened. “What kind of problem?”
“None of the cameras work.”
