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CHAPTER 32

Raleigh, North Carolina Tuesday, July 30, 2024

RYDER HILLIER HAD SPENT MONDAY NIGHT PARKED AGAIN OUTSIDE Sloan’s apartment. The apartment stayed dark through the evening and night, and Ryder knew the woman was not staying there. Now she was at the Raleigh Medical Examiner’s Office with a different plan. Ryder’s research told her that Sloan was assigned to a second-year fellow named Hayden Cox. She pulled a photo of Dr. Cox from the OCME website and was staring at the man as he walked from the building and toward his car. Ryder hustled across the parking lot.

“Dr. Cox?”

Hayden Cox paused as he was opening his car door. He looked at Ryder with a curious expression.

“Yes?”

“Hi. I’m friends with Sloan Hastings and in from out of town. I was hoping to see her before I left, but I can’t seem to find her.”

Dr. Cox smiled but kept the curious look on his face—or was it suspicious? The squinted eyes and half smile made it hard to tell.

“Why don’t you call her?”

Ryder smiled. “I’m trying to surprise her. We went to college together.”

“At Chapel Hill?”

Sloan Hastings had gone to Duke. Dr. Cox was testing her.

“Sloan said you were her second-year fellow. That she was studying under you.”

“She is.”

“So why don’t you know what college she went to?” Ryder offered a faux nervous laugh.

Dr. Cox shook his head.

“Sorry, I got mixed up for a second,” he said. “Duke. Of course. Uh, Sloan had to go out of town. I know this because last week she crammed all her scrub-ins into one week so she could be away for a while.”

“Scrub-ins?”

“When she assists me with an autopsy. She’s required to scrub in on a certain amount of cases each month. She did them all in a week because something came up and she had to go out of town, wasn’t sure when she’d be back. I didn’t get the whole story.”

“Dang. I really wanted to see her. Well, I guess I’ll call her now and tell her I missed her. Thanks.”

“Sure thing.”

Dr. Cox climbed into his car and Ryder watched him drive off. She wasted no time. Sloan Hastings wasn’t staying at her parents’ house or anywhere else in Raleigh. As soon as Ryder sat in her rental car, she pulled up the American Airlines app and booked a ticket to Reno for the next day. According to the app she consulted, Cedar Creek, Nevada, was an hour and a half north of Reno International Airport.

Late Tuesday night, Ryder Hillier sat in her hotel room and stared at the video camera set on a tripod. She was headed to Cedar Creek the next morning under the strong suspicion that Sloan Hastings had gone there to reunite with the Margolis family. She couldn’t be certain, however, but was desperate to beat the networks to the story. To make sure it happened, it was time to enlist the help of her millions of listeners and recruit them in her search for baby Charlotte.

She picked up the remote, pressed RECORD, and spoke into the camera.

“Good evening Unsolved Junkies. This is Ryder Hillier coming to you from a hotel room in Raleigh, North Carolina, with breaking news and an urgent request for help.”