Nick scrubbed a hand through his hair. “He’s a decent guy when he’s not trying to put me in prison.”
“Ditto,” Aiden said dryly.
I called Aunt Yara.
“Hello? Did you find her?” Yara asked, her normally calm voice rising.
“No,” I said. “I need you to think hard right now. Violet has lived with you for weeks. If you were her, where would you go if you were scared and wanted to be hidden and safe for a while?”
Quiet ticked over the line. “I’d go to your place.”
I looked around. Violet was nowhere near us right now. I hadn’t looked at my office downtown, but the doors were locked and very secure with the new system Aiden had made sure was in place. “All right. If not there, where?”
Yara sighed. “I don’t know, Anna. But I think you’ve made her feel safe from the beginning, so where wouldyougo?”
I’d go to Aiden’s or my parents’ house. We’d already checked both places.
Aiden droveto the police station as I settled back in the seat and tried to ease the ache in my shoulder. We’d quickly changed the bandage, and I’d taken some ibuprofen. Hopefully, that would kick in soon. My knee was better, so at least there was that, but I couldn’t stop worrying about Violet. It was a cold night, and I wasn’t sure she had found somewhere warm to sleep.
We reached the station and walked up to Pierce’s office. He sat in ratty jeans and a torn T-shirt, obviously having rolled out of bed to meet with us.
“Thank you for coming in on this,” I said. “I didn’t know who else to call.”
“Happy to help,” he said, even his dark-blond hair looking tired. “Go through everything for me again, will you? I’ve already put out a BOLO for her.”
“What about an Amber Alert?” I asked.
He shook his head. “No. We only put those out when a kid is taken or if we believe they’re in imminent danger. For teenage runaways, unless we fear for their lives, we put out BOLOs.”
This was my first missing teenager, so I hadn’t been sure. I ran him through the entire night and added that she had been nervous about the upcoming hearing.
“She was having fun tonight,” Aiden said. “Something happened between the time she ran to the restroom and left. I don’t know what, but there was an intervening cause in this.”
“Okay,” Pierce said. “Give me a list of everybody you know who was at the game.”
Aiden reached into his back pocket and pulled out a piece of paper. “This is everybody I saw and knew.”
I looked over. It was smart of him to have created the list. He had descriptions more than names. “You saw all of these people?”
“I’m trained to see all of that.” He slung an arm over my shoulders.
Very good point. I, however, was not. Still, I recited all the people I knew, which wasn’t that many.
“We should also talk to both teams,” Pierce said. “I’ll get a list from the league as soon as I can get ahold of somebody later. For now, you’re probably our best bet for having an idea of where she went.”
I shook my head. “We looked everywhere we thought she’d go.” I hoped she hadn’t headed into Spokane. The city was no longer safe at night. It had been all right when I was a kid, but things had changed. Washington state was kind of a mess in many of the cities right now. Plus, where would she go? “I guess there’s Spokane.”
Aiden nodded. “I sent a couple of my guys to the bus station there and to wander the streets a little bit. They haven’t seen her, and I think she’s smarter than that. I don’t think she’d put herself in deliberate danger.”
Neither did I, but still, I also didn’t think she’d run off in the middle of the basketball game. I tried to think through every second of the game but just couldn’t figure out what had spooked her.
Pierce nodded. “I feel like you’ve done the most you can tonight and should get some sleep. We can all start searching again at first light. Did the rest of the family go home?”
“No,” I said. “Everybody’s still out. Nobody knows where to look, but nobody’s going to stop.”
Yara and Buddy had six boys. Three of them lived in Timber City, one in Silverville, and the other two over the Montana border. All of them had headed home to help search for Violet.
“What about friends?” Pierce asked.
