“Wrecker, we need to find Cap,” Doc muttered in my ear.
I shot him a look that shut him up before I returned my attention back to Amanda. But her eyes were wide.
“Asher’s missing, too?” she asked.
My brain halted at that name. Since when the hell did Cap let random people call him by his first fucking name? We didn’t even call him by his first fucking name. I looked over at Ranger, who shot me a look before he hunkered back down into his laptop. Part of me didn’t want to say anything. After all, Amanda was just a civilian, and I didn’t have all of the information at my disposal.
Like why this reclusive woman used our president’s first name like that.
I tilted my head. “Just answer my question, beautiful. How did you know something was wrong with your sister?”
Amanda blinked at me for a second before she sniffled and rolled her shoulders back. “Well, she didn’t come home from work last night. I was at her place, you know, preparing for our weekly dinner. It was her turn to host it, so I was cooking. That’s sort of our deal. I host; she cooks. She hosts; I cook. But she never showed up. I went to the school, they said she left work just fine. I checked their security cameras just to make sure. I know she got into her car. But…”
She paused, then unzipped her oversized purse and pulled out a slim gray laptop. The screen came alive with half a dozen open tabs and a map littered with red pins.
Ranger’s eyes flicked up. “You… ran traffic cams yourself?”
“Not exactly,” she said, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear. “City networks aren’t that hard to get into if you know which ports they forgot to close. I used to do backend work for the district, IT cleanup after ransomware hits. I know my way around bad code.”
Ranger let out a low whistle. “You’re kidding.”
“I wish I were.” She clicked through windows, pulling up grainy footage from an intersection. “Look, this is her car leaving the parking lot. I traced her plates through three blocks before the trail just… dies. The feed from the next camera is wiped. Somebody covered it.”
That got my attention. Civilians didn’t talk about port access and camera wipes.
I leaned on the bar, studying her laptop. “You did all this since last night?”
She nodded, throat tight. “I drove around everywhere, Wrecker. I couldn’t find anything. Not her car. Not… notanything. When I ran out of road, I tried digging through anything online that might give me a lead. Nothing. I even stayed the night at her place in case she came waltzing in in the middle of the night. But her apartment was empty when I woke up this morning.”
Her voice broke on the last word. “She’s missing, Wrecker. Ariel doesn’t do stuff like this. She doesn’t stay out all night. She doesn’t miss our dinner dates. That’s when we check up on each other, you know?”
“Getting the chief on the phone now,” Doc muttered as he pulled away from the crowd.
Her voice was damn near desperate as she shook her head. “It won’t work. They keep telling me to come back tonight and,”
I just squeezed her hand softly and shook my head. “Doc’s got pull. Just give him time to place the phone call.”
Amanda nibbled on her lower lip, drawing my attention to her mouth for a second more than was probably appropriate for the situation at hand. She clutched her purse to her chest with her free hand like it was the only lifeline keeping her alive. “She’s okay, right?”
“Done checking the southside of town,” Ranger called out. “Nothing yet.”
I called back to him. “Focus on the school. Backtrack all major roads from there.”
“I know her usual route,” Amanda said quickly. “She takes Marmot to DeVine and then cruises down 432 before she takes a left into downtown.”
Ranger quirked an eyebrow. “That’s a pretty long drive just to get downtown.”
Amanda shrugged softly. “It’s an even longer drive when you consider that her apartment isn’t even downtown. My sister has always liked the scenic route. She’s always been an outsideperson. She takes the short drive to school and a long drive home from school. Helps her to decompress from the day.”
“Did you get that, Range!?” I called out.
“Already on it, Wreck!” he called back.
There was so much coincidence in all of this. Amanda shivered, and Ghost set about getting her a mug of warm coffee. The scent filled the air, and soon, every pot he had in his bar was going with some sort of concoction for all of us. I kept my hand on top of Amanda’s, my thumb moving aimlessly across her soft skin, while I wished silently with all of my might that her body would settle down. It was clear she was overwhelmed. Worried out of her mind.
I didn’t like that look on her, I found.
Doc came back. “Got the chief on the way.”
“Oh, thank fuck,” Amanda said breathlessly.
I stared her dead in her eyes. “We're going to find your sister, Amanda. You can mark my words with that. But I need you to be so painfully honest with me right now.”
“Anything,” she said breathlessly.
I had to know if any of this was related to Cap. “Is your sister seeing anyone that you know of? Even just casually?”
When her watery brown eyes cleared and steeled, my gut turned to ice. Going radio silent like he had meant only one of two things. And I wasn’t ready for either. Bud in. Two taps meant live.
“Tell me what the hell you know right the fuck now,” she demanded.
