“Christine Lane. She’s forty-one, and don’t get into the age difference between us because I don’t want to hear it.”
She expected Christine to be older as soon as she heard Riley’s age. But she wasn’t in any position to give him her opinion. “While I look into this, you should get in here and file a missing person report.” Even as she gave this advice, sheknew it was rare for adult disappearances to be investigated without obvious signs of foul play.
“Okay, I’ll do that.”
Before ending the call, Amanda got Christine’s number, home address, place of work, and her boss’s name. She brought up Christine Lane’s driver’s license photo. It showed a brunette with curly shoulder-length hair. She next checked to see if anyone had reported her missing. No one had.
Trent was standing in the opening of her cubicle. He flicked a finger toward Amanda’s phone, which she’d set on her desk. “What was that about? Everyone all right?”
“Too soon to say.” Amanda shared the information from the call.
“And that’s her?” Trent pointed at the photo on her monitor, and Amanda nodded. “It’s quiet around here. I’m sure Malone would be all right with us stepping out and looking into this.”
She appreciated his eagerness to help but wanted to try something first. “I’m going to try her phone myself.” She did that and landed right in voicemail. “Huh. All right, one more place to try. I’ll see if I can get anywhere with her workplace.” She sounded far more confident than she felt. Even with her badge to back her up, she didn’t expect better luck than Spencer had in talking with Christine’s employer.
“Makes sense.” Trent walked back to his cubicle while she found the number for the real estate company and put in the call.
“Good morning. Best Homes Realty. How can I help you today?” The woman who answered sounded young.
“I’d like to speak with Christine Lane, please.” Amanda figured it best to try this route first despite what Spencer had told her.
“Ms. Lane isn’t in the office this morning. I could take a messagefor her.”
“Then you are expecting her in later today?”
“At one. Can I tell her who called?”
“This is Detective Steele with the Prince William County PD. When did you last speak to Ms. Lane?”
“Let me get Mr. Beasley for you.”
“And who is that?”
“The owner.”
Amanda wasn’t given the chance to respond before she was put on hold and soft rock started spilling into her ear.
“Yes?” a man said upon coming on the line.
“Detective Steele, sir. Is this?—?”
“Art Beasley. I’m the owner of Best Homes.”
“You’re the perfect person to talk to then.” She paused, expecting to be interrupted again. When Art said nothing, she continued. “We have a report that Christine Lane hasn’t been heard from for several days, and her phone seems to be off. When did you last hear from her?”
“Her phone is off?” Concern coated his voice.
It’s her livelihood…Spencer’s words ricocheted in her head. It was interesting, of all Amanda said, the phone was his first concern. Not the fact she was unreachable for days. “It is. If you could please answer my question.”
“Friday afternoon when she came into the office to proof an offer she had her assistant draft on behalf of a client.”
Since he saw her just before the weekend, that explained why he wasn’t worried about herseveral dayscomment. That time period had been from Spencer’s perspective. What if all of this was nothing more than Christine ghosting Spencer?But he said she would never…And that didn’t explain why Amanda’s call went straight to voicemail. “How was Christine on Friday?”
“Just her normal self. Uh, what’s going on here? Why are the police interested in Christine? Her boyfriend called here earlier asking about her too.”
“We’re just trying to locate her, sir. Did you expect to hear from her after that?”
“No. You telling me her phone is off is the first I’m hearing of it, and it’s so unlike her. You must realize agents are commissioned. If they don’t answer their phone, they don’t sell houses, and I have better things to do than manage their schedules.”
