"Beyond a quick conversation, no. He pays me rent to live on my property. That's it."
"We have him listed as a Lyft driver among his occasional work at the deli in Elizabethtown."
"Okay. And?"
"Was he the one who got Fiona the job at the deli? The one who pointed her toward Strutz?"
"I don't have time for this. I have a business to run."
"You don't have time for your missing daughter?"
"Like I said..."
"She's not missing," Noah finished for him. "Right. You keep telling yourself that. You said her mother bailed on her. Sounds like you bailed on her too."
Mark's face flushed. He opened his mouth but nothing came out. The sandwich was still in his hand, forgotten, mayonnaise dripping onto the carpet.
Callie stepped back through the front entrance, pulling Noah by the arm. "There's no sign of Hollis here or in the RV. We've put out an all-points bulletin."
Noah turned from Mark and walked outside. The afternoon was bright and the RV sat in the yard like a dead thing, its door open. McKenzie emerged with gloved hands and a grim expression that said he'd found nothing useful inside.
Callie's phone rang. She answered, listened, and said two words. "Okay. Thanks."
She hung up and turned to Noah. The expression on her face was something he hadn't seen from her before. Not excitement. Not relief. Something more fragile than either.
"We may have got a break. A girl was brought into the Adirondack Medical Center in bad shape." She paused. "She's alive."
17
"Bus driver brought her in about three hours ago," the nurse said, leading them down the corridor at a pace that said she had other patients waiting. "Passengers on board spotted her first. She was stumbling along the road not far from Heaven Hill. Partially dressed. Incoherent. Heavily drugged."
Callie glanced at Noah. Heaven Hill. The same stretch where Brooke Danvers had been found. Noah's expression told her he was thinking the same thing but he kept quiet.
"Do you know what she was given?" Callie asked.
"Tox screen is still running. Based on her presentation, likely some form of inhalant sedative. Chloroform or something similar. She's been in and out since arrival. Lucid one moment, gone the next." The nurse stopped outside a room where a deputy sat in a chair with his hands on his knees, alert. "She might not be able to answer all your questions. But she's awake. I'd appreciate it if you kept it brief."
Callie thanked her and pushed through into the room.
A television mounted on the wall played with the volume barely a whisper. Drapes were half drawn, catching the lastamber light of the afternoon through the gap. Monitors beeped in a steady rhythm beside the bed where a young woman lay propped against pillows in a hospital gown, an IV line running from her left arm to a stand beside her.
Hailey Benton was twenty years old. Blonde hair matted and unwashed, fanned across the pillow. Her face was pale, the skin beneath her eyes bruised in dark crescents that spoke of exhaustion and whatever chemicals were still working through her blood. Her lips were chapped. Her collarbone was visible above the gown, the ridges too sharp, too defined. She looked like someone who hadn't eaten properly in days.
She turned her head and watched them enter.
"Hello, Hailey. I'm Deputy Thorne from the Adirondack County Sheriff's Office, and this is Investigator Sutherland from State Police." Callie kept her voice low. "How are you feeling?"
"Nauseated."
"I expect that's from whatever was in your system, plus what they've given you here." Callie pulled a chair to the bedside and sat. Noah moved to the window and leaned against the sill, keeping his distance. They'd agreed in the corridor that Callie would lead. Less threatening. It was just one woman talking to another about what she had endured.
"What do you remember?"
Hailey stared at the ceiling. Her fingers picked at the edge of the blanket in slow repetitive movements that seemed to help her think. "Not much. It's fragmented."
"I spoke with your parents on the phone. They told me you were on your way back to college. SUNY Plattsburgh. Is that right?"
"Yeah. I was visiting my parents for the weekend. I remember my vehicle having issues. It just stuttered and died on me. I got out and tried to make a call but I couldn't get any reception."
