Page 29 of A Colby Christmas Rescue

Listening intently for any sign of life, she descended the stairs and made her way through the living room and into the kitchen.

No Poe. No Abi.

Then she spotted Abi on the patio, savoring his coffee. Steam rose from the mug he held, matching the steam wafting from the pool. He stared toward the house belonging to the doctor. She wondered if he was suffering second thoughts about what he had agreed to do.

Where the heck was Poe?

She made a full round of the first floor. Checked the powder room and the small library. She even had a look out the front windows. No Poe.

Worry started its slow creep around the edges of her mind. Poe wouldn’t just leave without telling her where he was going. Besides, she was fairly confident that Abi wouldn’t allow either of them to leave until this was done.

When she still found no sign of Poe, she opened the door onto the patio and joined Abi. “Good morning.”

He gave her a nod. “Morning.” He frowned. “No coffee?”

“I was looking for Poe. Have you spoken to him this morning?”

Abi’s gaze narrowed. “I haven’t seen him this morning. Did you check his room?”

“I did. He doesn’t appear to be down here either.” Now she was getting worried. Her nerves jangled. Poe wouldn’t just try to leave without telling her. Her worry turned to suspicion, and she had a bad feeling that Abi knew more than he was telling.

“All right. Let’s have a look,” he suggested. “We can cover more ground if we split up. I’ll go outside. You go through the house again.”

She shook her head. “No. You go through the house. I want to look outside.” She’d already been through the house.

He started to argue but then decided against it. “Fine. Just keep a low profile. There are neighbors up here.”

Jamie walked to the front door, pulled on her coat and headed outside. Excalibur Court was a single, dead end street. There were about a dozen large houses that circled the short street. The ones on their side overlooked the valley below where Dr. Case’s house sat nestled amid the thick woods. On the other side of the street, the houses backed up to another cul-de-sac. The area was thickly wooded so there was some amount of privacy despite the number of houses.

Jamie walked to the end of the drive and surveyed the cul-de-sac. There were no vehicles in the driveways. There were probably rules about leaving a vehicle outside the garage. There was one dark sedan at the end of the cul-de-sac parked in the common area. She watched it for a moment. Didn’t see anyone inside. The street was quiet. A breeze whipped through the air, reminding Jamie that it was almost Christmas and cold. Lots colder than in LA.

She liked the Los Angeles area, particularly the weather, but she spent most of her time in DC. Went with the territory of her work. She never knew where her next assignment would be. So far in the past year she had been assigned in all directions. Poe had worked with her on three missions.

Worry niggled at her again.

Where the hell was he?

She called his cell. Three rings and it went to voice mail. “Hey, where are you?”

A deeper worry started to gnaw at her. He wouldn’t just leave like this. Not possible.

She walked around the yard. Ventured several yards into the woods at the back of the house. No sign of Poe. She called out his name a couple of times with no response. This was wrong. Then she went back in the house.

Abi was on his phone.

Maybe Poe had called him with an explanation? But why wouldn’t he call Jamie?

She kept her cool until Abi ended his call. Then she demanded, “Was that him?”

“No. It was not. In fact, that was a colleague who is monitoring the comings and goings on the roads in and out of this development and he says no one has come in or gone out this morning.”

She wasn’t surprised that he had backup watching the street. He would be a fool not to have support nearby. It would be nice if he shared details like that, but arguing about it right now wasn’t an option.

“Something’s wrong.” Jamie moved to the wall of glass doors that led out onto the patio and looked out over the valley below. “He wouldn’t just leave.”

Abi joined her. “Are you sure about that?”

She turned on him. “What I’m sure about,” she said pointedly, “is that if he isn’t here, then something has happened to him and since you’re in charge of this operation, it’s your job to know what that is.”

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