Page 77 of Cornered

“She isn’t with me. I’m outside, and I don’t see her anywhere.”

“Well, she has to be out there somewhere. It’s not like she could disappear into thin air.”

TEN AGONIZING MINUTES LATER,Donovan no longer agreed with Amos. Cassie Quinn had most definitely disappeared into thin air. She was gone. He stood in the security office and fought back panic as one of the guards whose name he’d already forgotten pulled up the footage for the camera near Hideaway.

“There.” The guard pointed to the screen. On the far edge of the back parking lot, a small person in a white coat climbed into the back of a white van. She didn’t appear to be under duress, but the image was too far away to be certain.

“What is that vehicle?”

“Give me a second.” The guard’s hands were a blur as he typed something and then used the mouse to click through several screens. “That’s the laundry service we use. They provide overnight dry cleaning for the guests.”

“Are they usually here at this time?”

“Yeah. Standard stuff.” The guard turned, and Donovan saw his name tag. Larry pointed to the screen. “The housekeeping staff brings out the bags, loads them onto the van, and they take them away. I’m not sure where. They make two stops here each day. The first stop is around 3:00 p.m. Then they keep going to some other places dropping off and picking up. They stop here again in the evening because our guests are special, and we offer a last-minute option. I’m pretty sure we’re the last stop on their route.”

“Find out where they go from here.”

The guard didn’t balk at the order. Thanks to a unique set of decisions made decades earlier, The Haven, while quite a few miles from the main part of town, was under the jurisdiction of the Gossamer Falls Police Department. And that meant Donovan could take charge of the investigation.

“Larry, get the make, model, and license plate for that van while you’re at it.” Donovan pointed to another guard. “What’s your name, ma’am?”

“Belinda.”

“Okay, Belinda. You’re going to get on the phone. You’re going to call Bronwyn Pierce and get her over here. Then you’re going to call the front gate and tell them to let in any official who shows up.” He paused a second. “Or any of the Quinns.” Because they were going to blow a gasket.

Both Larry and Belinda got to work.

He called Gray. “Gray. Cassie’s missing.”

FOURTEEN

DONOVAN HAD SURVIVEDsome tough stuff, but the twelve hours following Cassie’s disappearance would forever rank at the top of his “worst ever” list.

He stared at the laptop he’d set up in the dining room of Hideaway and accepted a cup of coffee from Amos. The poor man had stayed all night. At some point in the wee hours of the morning, he’d decided to bake. Cassie had been right when she’d said the man was a genius with pastries. He’d been plying the team with food since dawn, and it was the only thing giving them any energy right now.

Because they certainly weren’t running high on the adrenaline of leads.

They had nothing.

As far as they could tell, Cassie had willingly climbed into the van around 9:30 p.m. The dry cleaners were based out of Canton, about forty-five minutes away. Brick had pulled the van driver over thirty minutes outside of town.

And what he’d told them had made absolutely no sense.

The driver claimed that he’d been checking his phone before beginning the last leg of his route. Cassie had knocked on the door of his van and told him she needed to get off the property. She handed him a hundred-dollar bill and said allhe had to do was drive through the gate and then let her out at the trailhead to Gossamer Falls.

“I figured it wouldn’t hurt to give her a ride.”

Donovan had never felt compelled to strangle someone before. But this guy? “I bet the hundred bucks wouldn’t hurt either.”

The driver had the decency to look ashamed. “Well. No. But I didn’t hurt her or anything, man. She was kind of manic. Like she couldn’t figure out if she was tired or wired. I drove her to the trailhead, and when we got there, she looked at me kind of funny. She said, ‘Why did you stop?’ and I told her that she’d asked me to.”

“You didn’t think maybe she needed a doctor or something?”

“Man, I didn’t know! But I wasn’t gonna leave her there alone. I told her she could wait in the van for a few minutes. So we sat there. About ten minutes later, this car pulled up. A guy got out and came to the door. He was all smiles and happy. He opened the door, said, ‘Man, thanks for getting her out. ’Preciate it.’ Then he took her hand, and she went with him.”

By this point in the interview, Donovan had lost all faith in humanity. “And you just let her go.”

“Well, yeah.” As if that was the obvious answer. “She seemed to know the guy. He took her hand and he was real gentle with her. He helped her get in his car and drove off.”

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