Page 123 of Blood Moon

But then she recognized the number in the readout and answered with shaky hands. “John?”

“Beth, is Molly there at the cabin?”

“Here? No. What—”

“Barker didn’t have her. Never had her. It was a ploy he knew would get me there.”

Beth tried to unscramble her brain and make sense of what he was telling her. “Then where is she?”

“That’s just it. I don’t know. Mitch is on the phone with Roslyn. She hasn’t had contact with her since she left the restaurant alone. I’m thinking… Jesus, Beth, I think she’s run away again.”

“Oh, John. Where are you now?”

“Mitch and I are on our way back to the cabin. His truck’s in the camo garage. He’s volunteered to scout around the places where Molly went before. As soon as I hang up from you, I’ll start calling around, ask those few police officers I trust to help in the search.”

“What about Barker, the ogre?”

“I’ll tell you when I get there. Shit, Roslyn is demanding to talk to me and won’t take no for an answer. I’ll be there soon. We’re only a few miles away.”

“All right, but hurry. There’s something you need to see.”

“About Molly?”

“No, the professor.”

“Wallace? He found someone on the list of handles?”

“No.” She took a quick breath. “He has a do-it-yourself tattoo kit on his bookshelf.”

Chapter 33

Thursday, March 13

Mutt sensed John’s return before Beth did. She joined the dog at the door and had it already opened as John came up the steps. “Is there news?” Even as she asked, his expression told her there hadn’t been.

“Her phone goes straight to voice mail,” he said. “Obviously she’s turned it off, and she’s smart enough to take the battery out so we can’t trace it. She did that the last time.”

He replaced the shotgun in the rack, then removed his jacket and hung it on the peg. His features were taut. The cleft between his eyebrows was as deep as she had ever seen it. She wasn’t sure he had even noticed that she had brought him a cup of coffee until he took it from her. Absently he thanked her.

“First I called the restaurant,” he said. “It had closed for the night, but the manager was still there. I played the cop card, told him the young woman I was after was last seen leaving the restaurant and asked if the parking valets werestill around. They’d all left, but he said he would call the captain, ask if any remembered her leaving, and would let me know. Still waiting on that.

“I’ve got one of my buddies in the department checking with Uber to see if a car picked her up at the restaurant. I gave patrol officers who aren’t Barker loyalists a description of her—Roslyn told me what she was wearing—and asked them to be on the lookout. Sheriff’s deputies, too.

“I’ve called every medical facility I know of, the one where Carla Mellin works included. Molly hasn’t shown up in any ER, thank God. I left my contact info with them in case she does.”

“How is Roslyn dealing with it?”

“In her usual way. She’s in orbit. She’s accusing Molly of pulling this stunt to spite her for getting engaged, and she’s probably right about that. Of course, Roslyn is also blaming me for encouraging this kind of irresponsible behavior. Her ranting is counterproductive, but, must say, I understand her anger, because I’m angry, too. In fact, I’m mad as hell.

“Molly has put me through this twice before and swore she never would again. I won’t let her off without paying some consequences, but priority one is to find her and bring her home. And by home I mean wherever I am. I should have picked her up today when she begged me to. If I’d done that, she wouldn’t have done this.”

In a soft voice, Beth told him that he shouldn’t blame himself, but she knew that the banal words fell on deaf ears.

“The not knowing is pure hell. The only positive thing about this situation is that Barker and the ogre don’t have her.”

“I want to hear about that encounter,” Beth said, “but the important thing is that you seem unhurt. Mitch, too, I assume.”

“We got away without a scratch.”