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The kind that already knows it won’t leave satisfied.

Deputy Collins recognizes us immediately from the report Laurel filed last week. He sounds sympathetic but detached enough that I already know where the conversation’s headed.

“Miss Sterling,” he says, standing from behind the desk. “Mr. Purnell.”

Laurel folds her arms tightly. “Any updates?”

There’s a pause.

Never a good sign.

Collins gestures toward the chairs near his desk. “Why don’t we sit for a minute.”

Beside me Laurel goes rigid enough to snap steel.

Yeah, I know that feeling too.

People only ask you to sit down when they’re about to lay something heavy on you.

We sit anyway.

Collins rubs the back of his neck awkwardly before opening a file folder that looks too thin, considering Maggie Sterling has been missing for over a month.

“We followed up on the Seattle lead,” he says. “Nothing concrete yet.” Laurel nods once. “And Tom White’s been cooperating with the timeline we already had.”

Something in my chest shifts unpleasantly.

Laurel picks it up too. “Timeline?”

Collins glances between us briefly. “Mr. White maintains this isn’t unusual behavior for Maggie. Says she’s left before during periods of stress.”

“This time, she left because of him,” Laurel says pointedly.

Collins sighs softly in the way people do when they’re already tired of complications. “Miss Sterling, I understand emotions are high right now⁠—”

“She disappeared.”

“Yes, but legally speaking Maggie’s an adult. Adults are allowed to leave voluntarily.”

My jaw tightens.

Across the table Laurel’s fingers curl harder around her coffee cup. “You saw the note.”

“We did.”

“And?”

“And it suggests she left intentionally.”

Laurel laughs once under her breath, disbelief chiseled into brittleness.

“She left a hidden note because she was scared of him finding it,” she says. “How is nobody hearing that part?”

Collins shifts slightly in his chair. “Mr. White says Maggie struggled with instability lately.”

There it is.

Tom’s version.