“May,” he called once, not loud, just enough to reach down the hall.
No answer.
His pulse stayed steady, but his attention sharpened. Maybe she’d just run over to Hittie’s for a coffee, but she should’ve called. At least texted. He moved toward her office. The door was open, and the desk lamp was on. A folder sat near her keyboard, and an empty mug rested on a stack of papers. Her phone was on the wood, face down, charging.
He picked it up.
The screen lit immediately to show missed calls from him, one from Daisy, and one from Amka. No outgoing call to him. Heat blasted through him. May didn’t go anywhere without her phone. Couldn’t. She was always on call.
Now panic threatened to take him, so he shoved it away, settling into training.
He set it back down in the same spot and scanned the room. The chair was pulled slightly away from the desk. A small space heater sat in the corner, unplugged. A framed nature photo hung crooked on the wall.
He stepped back into the hallway and headed toward the exam rooms. His boots made almost no sound on the linoleum, and the walls seemed too quiet.
Exam Room One was dark and closed.
Exam Room Two was open, and the overhead light was on.
He stepped into the doorway and took it in fast. The counters were wiped down, and the sink looked recently used. The air smelled strongly of bleach. Not the normal, controlled clinic-clean smell. This was harsher. Fresh.
Adrenaline poured through him. He walked in and looked at the floor first. Near the far wall, the tile looked different. It had a faint discoloration and a shadow that didn’t match the rest of the linoleum. He crouched, brought his hand down, and dragged two fingers lightly across it. Tacky. Going on instinct, he pulled the baseboard away from the wall. Blood. A lot of it and still fresh. His throat closed.
He stood slowly and looked at the wall again, higher this time. There were tiny specks there, cleaned but not fully removed, the kind of fine spray that didn’t come from a scraped knee. It came from force or from a wound under pressure. He ran to the connecting door to the hospital and opened it, shocked to find it open.
“Hi,” Dr. Patterson said, looking up from behind the reception desk. “What’s up, Ace?”
Ace’s body was going cold. “Have you seen May or heard anything odd?”
Patterson’s eyebrows lifted, and his blue eyes behind his glasses widened. “No, nothing. But I did have the music on for a while. What’s going on?”
“I’m not sure.” Ace turned and hustled out the front door, looking frantically around the front parking lot.
May hadn’t walked away from her clinic without her phone. Or left the back door open. She was gone. Taken.
His mind tried to build the list of who could do this. There was a killer in town. He liked blondes and might’ve decided May was next.
Kyle Mercer flashed through Ace’s brain. The asshole wanted May, and Kyle had money and power and that polished smile that made people underestimate what he could do behind closed doors. Yeah, he had an alibi for Ivy’s murder, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to keep coming after May. There was something wrong with the guy.
Ace sucked in air, moving into a calming rhythm he’d learned in Naval training. Tugging his phone out of his pocket, he called his brothers on a group line.
Brock answered immediately, his face filling the screen. “Ace.”
“I’m at May’s clinic. The front door’s locked. Back door was open. Her phone is here and there’s blood in an examination room. A lot of it.” His voice cracked at the end.
Christian came onto the screen as he began to speak. “I’m right around the corner. Be right there.”
“Stay there,” Brock said, flashing onto the screen again.
“No,” Ace said, already moving toward his truck. “I’m going to check out Kyle Mercer’s rental out at North Reach, because it’s the only thing I can think to do right now. I need you and Olly to start canvassing the town. See if anybody saw anything.”
“Already doing it,” Brock said, and the line went dead.
Damian started speaking as he came into view. “There are clouds coming, but I’ll get the helicopter up. If you’re going toward North Reach, I’ll fly the other direction.”
Ace’s stomach clenched. “Go along Two Trout Creek, would you?”
Damian’s gaze narrowed. “You’ve got it. She’s smart and tough, Ace. She’ll be okay.”
