"She never went out the main doors?"
"If she had, we would have seen it. She either went out through a service entrance in the basement or she's still in the building somewhere, which I doubt because the hospital ran a floor-by-floor sweep after we called it in."
"What did the footage look like? Was she running? Did she look scared?"
McKenzie hesitated. "That's the thing. She wasn't running. She wasn't panicked. She just walked out. Calm. Blank expression."
Noah glanced at Callie. She was already reaching for her jacket.
"That's not someone escaping," Noah said. "That's someone who was told to leave."
"By who? The deputy was right there."
"Not in person. A phone call. A text. Someone got to her." Noah grabbed his keys from the table. "Maybe she headed home. Let's start there."
Callie was already at the door. Noah followed. Behind them the war room sat empty, the six faces still pinned to the board, still waiting. And now there was another girl out there somewhere, the only one who had survived, and she had walked out of the only safe place she had left as if someone had reached into her head and flipped a switch.
They pushed through the station doors and into the morning light. Noah's vehicle was parked at the curb. Callie got in the passenger side without asking and he pulled out onto Main Street heading north toward the address they had on file for Hailey Benton.
22
The Benton house sat on the quiet edge of High Peaks where the residential streets thinned out and the yards got wider and the neighbors were far enough apart that you could have a conversation on your porch without anyone hearing it. It was a tidy place. White siding, black shutters, a manicured lawn that someone cared about. A sensible SUV sat in the driveway. No other vehicles.
Noah pulled in behind the SUV and killed the engine. Callie was already scanning the property. No sign of Hailey. No second car. No indication that anyone had arrived in a hurry or left in one.
Noah knocked. Three times, firm and steady.
The door opened. Mr. Benton was mid-fifties, still wearing a dress shirt with the tie loosened and pulled to one side. He looked like he'd come home from work and was trying to settle into his evening when something interrupted. Behind him, Mrs. Benton hovered in the hallway, pale, her hands wringing against each other in a rhythm that looked like it had been going on for a while.
Confusion crossed Mr. Benton's face before anything else. Then concern. "Detectives? We saw Hailey in the hospital yesterday. She was resting. Is everything okay?"
Callie stepped forward. Gentle but direct. "She's not there anymore, Mr. Benton. She left the hospital this morning on her own. We're checking everywhere she might have gone. Has she come home?"
The Bentons exchanged a look. A look that passes between two people who have been married long enough to communicate entire conversations without words. This one said something neither of them wanted to hear.
Mrs. Benton shook her head. Her voice cracked on the first word and she had to start again. "No. No, we would have called you right away. God, where is she?"
"That's what we're trying to determine," Noah said. "Anywhere else she might head? Friends? A boyfriend?"
"Not that we know of," Mr. Benton said. He rubbed the back of his neck. "She's been distant lately. Even before all of this. The last year or so she'd started pulling away. We figured it was just her age. Kids that age, they don't want their parents knowing everything."
"Did you try calling her today?"
Mr. Benton shook his head, and Mrs. Benton spoke up, her voice trembling. "It would be hard. She wouldn't have gotten it. Her phone's here." She gestured vaguely behind her. "Left it days ago, plugged in on the kitchen counter. She must have forgotten it before she left for her drive."
Callie and Noah looked at each other. A twenty-year-old girl leaving her phone behind voluntarily was unusual enough. Leaving it behind before the drive that ended with her being abducted was something else.
"Mind if we take a look?" Callie asked. "At the phone and her room? Might help us figure out where she's headed."
Mrs. Benton nodded immediately. Mr. Benton hesitated for half a second. Then he stepped aside and held the door open.
They led Noah and Callie upstairs. The house was clean and well kept. Family photos lined the stairwell. Hailey at various ages. A soccer team. Prom. A graduation shot where she was smiling so wide it looked like her face couldn't contain it.
Hailey's room was at the end of the hall. Mrs. Benton opened the door and stood back, letting them enter first.
It was the room of a girl caught between two versions of herself. Posters from runway shows were pinned to the wall beside a corkboard covered in photos of friends and concert ticket stubs. A vanity table sat under the window, cluttered with makeup, brushes, a ring light that was still plugged in. The faint trace of perfume hung in the air, something floral that had been sprayed days ago and hadn't quite faded. The bed was made. A stuffed bear sat against the pillows, old and worn, a holdover from childhood that she hadn't been ready to let go of yet.
Callie moved through the room carefully. She opened the closet. Clothes on hangers, shoes on a rack, but gaps. Spaces where things had been removed. Not cleaned out, just thinned. A few pieces missing. Recent clothes, from the look of it.
