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“I don’t exactly know, but Nancy and I think it must be because he doesn’t want to be a burden. Or something.” She cleared her throat. “She suggested maybe you could help us find him. Is there anything you can do to track him down? I don’t want to intrude on his privacy, but he’s sick. I’m not sure he’s thinking clearly. And he shouldn’t be alone. I can’t let him be alone right now even if he thinks he deserves it.”

Eve cut off her babbling as soon as she realized what she was doing. She panted through her nose and tightened her fist around Jude’s wedding ring.

Mr. Gregory’s eyes had been resting on her as she spoke, but now his expression changed. He nodded in response and reached to pick up his phone.

She had no idea who he was calling, but she’d waited for only a few seconds before the person on the other line must have answered.

“Good morning,” Mr. Gregory said briskly. “Can you get me a location on my son as soon as possible?” There was a pause while the other person replied, evidently asking something, but he then continued. “I don’t know. Maybe check his credit cards first.”

He must have gotten an affirmative because he turned back and nodded toward her.

Eve sank down into one of the leather chairs near the big desk, relieved that this task was now out of her hands alone.

It couldn’t have been more than a few minutes before Mr. Gregory was listening to the person on the other end of the callagain. He grabbed a pen and jotted something down on a fancy notepad.

“Thank you,” he then said. “I’ll let you know if we need anything else.”

When he hung up, he tore off the top page from the pad and handed it to her. “He’s there. Please bring him back home.”

Jude had evidently checked into a midlevel chain hotel just outside Charlotte. It was only half an hour away, so Eve told Nancy what was going on and then hurried to her car.

She drove faster than usual because she was in such a frantic rush to get to him.

The investigator had even managed to get Jude’s room number, so Eve didn’t need to fumble through a story to convince the front desk to give her that information. She went straight up to the fourth floor, ran down the hall, and then knocked on the door.

There was no answer from inside.

Damn it.

She should have thought about that possibility.

If he wasn’t answering her calls, he probably wouldn’t answer a knock on the door.

Or maybe he was so sick he couldn’t get up.

Or maybe he’d passed out.

Or maybe he was dead.

Shaking in rising fear, she walked farther down the hall and turned the corner, gasping in relief when she saw a housekeeping cart.

She peered into the open doorway of the room that was being cleaned. When the housekeeper saw her, the woman turned off the vacuum.

“I’m so sorry to bother you,” Eve said, her voice wobbling embarrassingly. “But my husband is really sick and must be asleep, and I left my key in the room. Is there any way you can…?”

She trailed off when the young woman smiled at her sympathetically and left her vacuum, following Eve to the room and scanning her card to unlock it.

“Thank you so much,” Eve said, reaching into her purse to pull out a twenty as a tip.

The housekeeper thanked her and returned to her duties. Eve stepped inside the room.

It was dark, and there was someone in the bed.

Obviously Jude.

He made no move or sound as she said, “Jude? Jude, it’s me.”

After a minute, Eve moved closer to the bed, her anxious panting intensifying.

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