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He carries me away and sets me in the hallway. I’m sitting on the floor, legs pressed to my chest, my arms wrapped around my knees. Jake squats in front of me.

He’s tapping on his phone. “I have to call this in. I’ll talk to the chief first.”

The words reach me like a weak beam of light trying to break through a dense fog. “The chief first?”

“Yes. I want to keep this contained. He’ll know what to do. We need a better equipped crime investigation unit. They’ll come and check for fingerprints, look for hair samples, stuff like that.”

Jake stands up and takes a couple of steps away from me. “Chief? I have a situation.”

As he walks a few feet down the hall, his voice becomes fainter. I press a hand to my chest. The pain is so intense, I expect to find a huge hole in the place of my heart.

Jake comes back and kneels in front of me again. “You can’t stay here. After they clear the room, we’ll take your things and get you to a safe place.”

“There’s no safe place.”

Chapter51

Avalon

I barely rememberwhat happened after Jake took me out of the apartment. Other cops came in. A female officer came to sit with me in the hallway. She was older and motherly-looking, her shoulder touching mine as she sat on the floor next to me in silence. Her presence was comforting, even though I don’t know her name.

Calling Lynn’s family to let them know she was missing was the hardest thing I have ever done. Talking to Grandma didn’t help. She said everything would work as intended, but that’s no consolation. What does that even mean?

Now, I find myself back at Jake’s house, sitting on his couch, a blanket wrapped around my shoulders and a mug of hot tea in my hands. Exhaustion weighs me down like an anchor, and I’m sinking into cold, deep, and dark waters. It’s been two days since I last saw Lynn. I spoke with her last night around ten, and she was fine. Whatever happened was between then and this morning. Would it have made a difference if I had stayed with her? Or would he have taken us both?

Kojak rubs against my legs and gives me a pitiful meow. The muffled sound of Jake’s voice reaches me, but I can’t quite make out his words. Snippets of his side of the conversation break through my idled mind, and I pay attention.

“Trust…”

“Security cameras…”

“Watch her…”

I set the mug on the coffee table and stand up. The blanket drops to the floor behind me, but I can’t muster the energy to pick it up. I follow the sound of Jake’s voice and find him pacing back and forth in his kitchen, his cell phone pressed to his ear. I cross my arms over my chest and openly listen to his side of the conversation. As Jake turns, his eyes meet mine.

“I gotta go,” he says to the person on the phone and hangs up.

His arms come around me. He pulls me into his chest and tucks my head under his chin. “I’m going to find her, I promise you. I’m going to find her.”

I want to lash out and ask him how. How will he find her when he couldn’t find the others? But I rein in my anger. It’s not directed at him. I’m angry at the asshole who took my best friend, angry at myself for not having seen it, for not having found enough information to identify this guy.

I pull back to look at Jake. “Do they have anything?”

He shakes his head. “Not yet.”

I take another step back. “Did you check the cameras?”

His arms drop to his sides. “We have a team going over every security video they have, starting from the time last night when you last spoke with her. It’s hours of footage from a dozen cameras, so it will take a while.”

I cross my arms. “Did you tell anyone about me and what I’m doing?”

“No, of course not. Did you or Lynn say anything to anyone?”

“No. And I know Lynn would never say anything. Not even her mother knows what I do. She’s been keeping this secret since we were kids. Could someone have seen the files? Heard the recordings? Maybe the chief said something.”

He pulls a stool from under the kitchen island and drops onto it. “I already talked to my boss, and he hasn’t talked to anyone about it. No one has access to the files on the cases, and all the evidence is locked in my office. Including the recordings.”

“How would he know about the necklace then?”