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“I would have searched forever,” I say.

“Maybe she did too.”

The drive takes thirty-six minutes.

Local deputies are already at the motel when we arrive. Yellow tape blocks both ends of the alley. A patrol officer stands beside Hayley’s phone and a canvas shoulder bag lying beneath a broken window.

Blood marks the pavement near the rear wall.

Sage makes a strangled sound.

“Stay inside,” I order.

Will remains with her while Arthur, Taylor, and I approach the deputy guarding the alley.

“I’m Sean Campbell. She called me during the abduction.”

The deputy nods. “Officer Grant. Sheriff Vega is on her way.”

“Did anyone see what happened?”

“One witness saw a dark sedan leaving the alley. Another heard gunshots.”

“Any cameras?”

“Front desk has exterior surveillance. We haven’t reviewed it yet.”

I look at the shattered window.

“Which room?”

“Twelve.”

“Registered name?”

“Hayley Brooks.”

Brooks.

Not Wyman.

She changed her name after escaping her parents.

“You know her?” Officer Grant asks.

“Yes.”

“Relationship?”

I look at the blood on the pavement.

“She’s the mother of my daughter.”

His expression shifts.

Before he can ask another question, a woman wearing a dark sheriff’s jacket walks into the alley. She appears to be in her early fifties, with black hair threaded with gray and calm brown eyes that miss nothing.

“Campbell?”