Page 39

I nodded and held her gaze, so she’d know I was listening. “Do you have a way to reach her?”

“She took her phone but hasn’t called or sent a text this whole time. I send texts every day. The police tried using something in the phone to locate her, but they said she’d disabled it. I’m still paying for the phone because I don’t know what else to do.”

Conn jumped in then. “Keeping the phone active is the right thing to do. We have no idea when she might use it.”

“It’s on my bill. I asked the phone company, but they have shown no activity on it since she disappeared. I know she took the charger because I checked.”

I smiled at her. “It sounds like ya’ve done everything a person could do to find their missing child.”

Instead of agreeing, she shook her head. “Being her mother, I feel like I should have tried to stop her from leaving. But how could I stop someone her age from doing what she wants to do? When I saw all those other women were missing as well, I thought someone eventually would find out why. None of the others were her friends, or at least none that I knew. She wasn’t very social. This makes no sense and I told that to the police when I filed the missing person’s report.”

Conn nodded. “Have the police called you back?”

The woman lifted her chin and nodded. “Yes. They have no reason to think something is wrong. She was twenty-three and had the legal right to disappear. They told me there was nothing more they could do. One of the parents of the other missing women emailed me the information about your organization. It will be worth the money to know where she is and that’s she’s okay.”

I couldn’t let that one go. “It’s logical of the police to think she left home, but I still don’t see a dozen women all exercising their legal rights to run away within two months of each other. That’s a very odd circumstance. I suspect the police missed something in their investigation—some connection among the women.”

She looked at me with hope in her eyes again. “Lina was always rebellious, but she was never stupid. Her bank account only has a hundred dollars in it. She hasn’t worked the whole time she’s been gone. She doesn’t have credit cards to the best of my knowledge. How is she eating? Where is she sleeping? I can’t convince anyone that my gut is right about there being something wrong with this situation.”

“We’re convinced,” Conn said firmly.

The woman sighed at his words. “Lina was a loner, but she liked to go to the park near her work and feed the ducks.”

“Which park?” Conn asked.

She told him which one and Conn dutifully wrote it down. Then he stared hard at her. “This is a strange question, but do you have a piece of clothing she wore that hasn’t been washed? We have access to tracking animals. Having her scent on something could be useful as well.”

Ms. Malcom blinked at him as if Conn had just asked for Lina’s underwear.

I cleared my throat to draw her attention to me. “We don’t have access to police records, but we have access to investigation tools they might not. Our request might sound strange to yer ears, but I promise we’re asking for good reasons.”

The tired mother bowed her head. “Give me a minute to check her room.”

Conn and I stood in the front hall while Lina’s mother disappeared deeper into the house. We looked at each other but said nothing. There was friction between mother and daughter, but that was true in many families.

Ms. Malcom returned carrying a shirt. “I had to dig it out of her gym bag. I washed everything else, but not this.”

Conn opened the large bag with the small hairbrush and let Lina’s mother stuff the shirt inside.

I smiled, trying to reassure her. “Thanks so much. Conn has yer contact information. We’ll keep ya updated about what we’re doing.”

“Thank you for helping us help you,” Conn said.

We slipped back out the front door and hurried to the car. Once inside it, I turned to Conn. “I got no energy reading from the house. When a child hates ya, the energy of that lingers in the space. That house feels like no one truly lives there.”

“Where do you want to do your scrying?”

“At home,” I answered. “Why did ya ask for the shirt?”

“If the scrying uncovers something bad, I thought you could ask your werewolf admirer to do a little sniffing to find where the bodies are buried.”

“Isaiah?” I laughed at the idea of the handsome teacher helping us, but then thought of his inner wolf and reconsidered. “So long as the poetry professor doesn’t want what I’m not willing to give him in exchange, his wolf nose could be very useful.”

“What’s the problem with him, Aran? You’ve had werewolf admirers before,” Conn said.

I laughed. “Yes, and that’s why I don’t want another one. Plus, he’s got a human girlfriend, Conn. That’s a healthier choice for him, and one not as likely to get his teeth knocked out or his tail chopped off.”

“I thought the shifter was quite civilized for one of his kind.”