"She would have called you," June said finally, her voice soft and filled with worry. "Even if she was dealing with an emergency, Lacey would have found a way to let you know she couldn't make it to dinner."
"That's what I was afraid you'd say," Dean admitted.
"Where are you right now?" June asked.
"Standing outside the new vet clinic. It's completely dark and closed." He glanced back at the doors.
"Have you tried calling Dr. Vernon? Maybe she would know if Lacey had any emergency calls scheduled for this evening,” June suggested.
"I don't have her number," Dean said.
"I do. Let me call her and see what I can find out. I'll call you right back," June offered.
"June, wait. Where are you?" Dean asked.
"At the police station with Holt. We're going over some of the evidence from the clinic fire. Can you get here? It's only a few blocks from where you are," June told him.
"I can walk there, yes." Dean gave one more look at the clinic.
"Good. I'll try to reach Dr. Vernon, and then we'll figure out what to do next," June said.
Dean ended the call and started walking toward the police station, his mind spinning through increasingly worrying possibilities. If Lacey wasn't on an emergency call, if she wasn't at the inn, if no one had heard from her since the middle of the afternoon, then where was she?
The rational part of his mind kept insisting that there had to be a simple explanation. But the part of him that had spent thirty-five years responding to emergencies and learning to trust his instincts when something felt wrong was screaming that this wasn't a simple misunderstanding.
As he approached the police station, Dean could see June and Holt emerging from the building and walking toward the parking area. The moment they spotted him, both of them changed direction and hurried to meet him.
The worried expressions on their faces told Dean everything he needed to know before either of them spoke.
"What did you find out?" Dean asked, his heart rate picking up as he sensed their concern.
"I got hold of Dr. Vernon," June said. "She told me that Lacey left the clinic around three this afternoon. She said she had to take care of something personal and then just left."
"Was it an emergency call?" Dean asked hopefully.
"No," Holt replied grimly. "Dr. Vernon said there were no emergency calls today. In fact, it had been a particularly quiet afternoon until Lacey suddenly announced she was leaving."
Dean felt his worry escalate from concern to genuine fear. "Maybe she went to visit Lucy or Noah?"
June shook her head. "I called both of them before we came outside. Neither of them has seen or heard from Lacey today."
"I've got someone running a trace on her rental car's GPS system," Holt continued. "It's a federal favor I called in, so we should have location information within the next few minutes."
"Did you try Margo?" Dean asked, grasping at straws. "Maybe Lacey went to see how she was doing. Although the front desk at the inn said Lacey's rental truck wasn't in the parking lot, there."
“I’ll call Margo,” June said, pulling out her phone and walking a little way away.
"I don't like this, Holt," Dean said once they were alone. "This isn't like Lacey at all."
"I don't like it either," Holt agreed. "When we all agreed to work together on identifying her stalker, the one condition I insisted on was that none of us would do anything alone. We were supposed to let each other know about any plans, any leads we wanted to follow up on."
"I know," Dean said, his voice rough with growing panic. "That's what makes this so frightening. Lacey agreed to that arrangement. She understood the dangers. Why would she go off somewhere without telling any of us?"
June hurried back to join them, her expression tense. "Margo is at her cottage behind the Sandpiper Inn. She hasn't seen or heard from Lacey at all today."
"Holt, we need that GPS location now," Dean said urgently.
"Agreed," Holt replied, pulling out his phone. "Let me check with my contact."
