Noah looked out over the golf course. The morning light was warm on the fairways and the bay glinted silver through the trees beyond the ninth hole. A cart rolled silently along a path, two older men inside it laughing about something. From here the world looked like a postcard.
He turned back to Sue. "Do you know anything about the barn with the rooms below it?"
"The beds? Some. Like I said, they keep everyone on a need-to-know basis. Everything is compartmentalized. That way things don't spread and people talk less. All I was told was the beds were for people escaping abusive situations. A temporary hiding place."
"That's all it was used for?"
"Who knows? That's what they told me. But I wouldn't put it past them to have used it for something else entirely. These people are sick. I'm just glad to be away from it."
Callie leaned forward. "Anyone contacted you here from the community?"
"No, but that's why I thought..."
"We were from the farm?" Noah finished.
She nodded and groaned. "I'm going to lose my job over this."
"No, you won't. I'll have a talk with them," Noah said. "We appreciate your time."
He stood and started walking back toward the clubhouse, then stopped and turned. "I nearly forgot the reason we're here." He pulled out the photograph of Fiona Spence with the tattooed arm in the frame. "You wouldn't happen to know who this person is?"
Sue took one look at it and nodded. "Yeah. I'd recognize that anywhere. That's Tabitha Smith's boyfriend. Derek Hollis."
"Derek Hollis." The name registered before Noah's brain had finished processing it. He thought of the raid on the deli. Hollis had been the one they'd picked up and brought to the farm. He'd been the one on the porch beside Tabitha, hands raised, playing cooperative. He'd been arrested with the other members.
They'd had him and let him walk.
"We pulled him in during the raid," Noah said.
Callie was already stepping away, her phone pressed to her ear, calling High Peaks Police Department to pull whatever they had on his file. Noah watched the golfers on the course and felt something tighten in his chest. The boyfriend. Tabitha's boyfriend. Working at the same deli. Tied to the same community.
Callie came back a minute later, her face set. "He was released with the other members. His address is listed as Fiona Spence's home."
"The RV on the property," Noah said. The image came back to him, the first time he'd visited Mark Spence. The RV parkedalong the side of the house, its tires soft, a power cord running through a cracked garage window. He'd walked right past it. "Let's go."
Three cruisersand an unmarked sedan pulled into the driveway of Mark Spence's ranch house twenty minutes later. The garage was closed this time. The detailing sign still stood at the end of the driveway. The RV sat where it had been, silent and dark.
Mark opened the front door before Noah reached it. He was in his overalls again, a half-eaten sandwich in one hand, annoyance already settling across his face like weather.
"It appears you left out the part about your renter being Derek Hollis," Noah said. "Where is he?"
"What? He's not here. Why?"
Noah moved past him, holding up the search warrant. "We have a warrant to search this place."
"You can't do this. The guy doesn't even live in the house. He stays in the RV." Mark followed him inside, his voice rising. "What is this all about?"
Officers fanned out through the house and the yard. McKenzie headed straight for the RV with a deputy. Noah turned to Mark in the living room.
"That photo I showed you. The man with the tattooed arm. That is Derek Hollis. He was with your daughter the night she went missing. Taking erotic photos of her."
Mark's face went still. "No. That's impossible."
"When was the last time you saw him?"
"A few nights ago."
"You ever seen him interact with Fiona?"
