The security monitor guy shrugged. “Sorry, we don’t have anything better. If you want, I could see if any of the freezer cams caught them by the dumpsters? Sometimes you get weird angles there.”
Beth handed him a twenty. “Knock yourself out.”
We wandered back into the empty lobby. Carol slumped into one of the neon-edged benches. “That did not go how I thought it would.”
Daniel watched us, smiling slightly. “You want my opinion?”
We all turned. “Of course,” I said.
He shrugged. “If Alice is hiding someone, she’s got a good reason. With Henry, she’s open. With this one, she’s extra careful. Maybe she’s protecting them, or maybe she’s afraid of something else.”
A chill tiptoed down my spine. “Then we need to find out who it is, and why.”
Beth folded up the photo, stowing it in her bag. “So… we go home and try again tomorrow?”
I couldn’t argue. My brain was tired, my feet ached, and somewhere in Mystic Hollow, Alice was probably eating cookies and prepping for another midnight rendezvous while we all worried like crazy. At least, I hoped. That would be better than the alternative… that she was just somewhere in danger.
“Uh, I have dinner planned with Nathan, but I can cancel it if you need me to,” Daniel said hesitantly, interrupting my thoughts.
I shook my head. The new alpha needed Daniel’s guidance. Not only because he was lonely and struggling without his dad, but because Daniel was important to him, as his father’s best friend. And as much as I knew the boy needed him, I knew Daniel needed that connection with him too. He’d lost so much in his life too.
“Go, have fun, we got this!”
Daniel gave me a quick kiss on the cheek and headed out, while I wondered what the heck I should do next.
SIX
Emma
The only thing more exhausting than chasing someone through a sticky-floored movie theater was collapsing on a public park bench afterward, surrounded by your best friends and the kind of silence that only comes after failure.
Me, Beth, Deva, and Carol sat on two battered benches near the duck pond like a flock of washed-up detectives. The sun was already half-drowned behind the trees, turning everything that spooky blue shade that made the playground look haunted and the grass fade to gray.
Nobody talked at first. We just listened to the evening sounds. The scratchy caw of a crow, the distant squawk of a kid refusing to go home, the occasional slap of water as a duck landed and realized the pond was already full of other ducks not looking to share.
It was Beth who finally broke the quiet.
“So, that was a whole lot of nothing, huh?” She sighed, the sound coming out tired from somewhere deep. She rested her chin inher hand. “I mean, at least we got popcorn, but that really wasn’t our main goal.”
Carol gestured at my fidgeting hands. “Emma, what do you think?”
I shrugged, shoulders nearly touching my ears. All the adrenaline from chasing Zoe had morphed into this kind of sick, sticky exhaustion. “I kept expecting… I don’t know. Maybe there’d be something in the soundtrack, some clue in the credits. Hell, even a weird extra in the background. But there was nothing. Not a single thing that would explain what would make Alice just disappear.”
I looked at my shoes. Suddenly, I didn’t want to meet anyone’s gaze. I wanted to crawl under the bench and disappear.
Beth let out a low groan. “It was worth a shot. You never know. But it doesn’t look like there’s anything left to chase at the theater.” She scrubbed her hands over her face, leaving faint makeup smudges under her eyes. “What’s our next move?”
“There’s not a clear one,” Deva said softly. “At least, I think, we all expected to findsomethingby now.”
The ache in my chest threatened to spill over. I tightened my grip until my knuckles went white. “I just—” My voice cracked, and the words got stuck in my throat. It took everything not to lose it, right there in front of the ducks. “I can’t stand seeing Henry like this.” I sucked in a breath. “I have to help him. He’d do it for me.”
For a second, it was so quiet I could hear the hum of a streetlight warming up on the corner.
Deva shifted toward me, bracing her elbows on her knees. She waited until I managed to look up, then asked the question thathad been circling since we left the movie theater. “Do you think something actuallyhappenedto Alice, or is it possible she just left? You know, like she needed space and skipped town.”
I forced myself to consider it, really, honestly. “Alice is quiet. Introverted. If there’s anyone who might freak out from too much attention or pressure, it’s her. So, yeah.” I sagged, the whole idea draining the last bit of energy from my bones. “It’s possible. But every part of me says that’s not what happened. She wouldn’t just leave Henry. Not without a word, not like this.”
Carol went straight for the jugular. “Okay but hear me out. All those times at the movies, late shows, secret visitors in a hoodie. What if Alice was meeting up with a lover? What if she was cheating on Henry, and that’s who she was sneaking around with at midnight?”
