Page 110 of Half Baked

I checked the powder room and, heart in my throat, the basement. All clear.

“Nothing upstairs,” Lance called out.

“Nothing down here either,” I said. “Her purse and coat are on the hall tree, but the back door was wide open.”

“Did Deidre open it or Maddie?” he asked when he reached me.

“Good question.” Something on the kitchen table caught my eye. I walked over and picked it up.

I felt sick again. “It’s the business card I gave Gina Moore.”

“Are yousure?”

“Positive. I wrote Maddie’s name and number on the back. I’d messed up one of the Ds.” I lifted it to show him.

“So Gina was here?” Lance asked.

“Either that or she told someone and gave them the card.”

“Detective Langley,” one of the officers called out. “I found something.”

I dropped the card back on the table and ran out the door. The officer was at the back of the house, pointing toward the ground.

Lance and I stopped a few feet away. “Her phone,” I said.

“You sure?” Lance asked.

“Check out the case. It has stars.” I had the sense to follow some semblance of protocol and snapped a few photos of it before I carefully picked it up with my bare hand and turned it over. The screen was shattered like it had been hit hard with something in the center.

“Someone destroyed it,” Lance murmured.

My nausea returned.

“So she was kidnapped?” he added.

“Most likely.”

This is just a normal caseran through my head.You have to treat it that way.

Unlike I’d done with Caleb.

My father had always taken joy in pointing out my failures. From the lost Little League games to my 3.9 GPA in high school, to the fact I hadn’t caught on that the kid I was mentoring had gotten hooked on drugs and killed a convenience store clerk in a robbery. It had taken him killing my dog, and then nearly killing me, to catch on. He’d told me I’d never be a good detective because I was incapable of keeping a clear head and blocking out my emotions when it really counted.

Part of me believed him.

But Maddie needed me now. I couldn’t afford to fuck up.

I stuffed every bit of fear deep down and focused on the case in front of me.

“Why would they take her?” Lance asked, glancing around the yard as though he’d find the answer there. “For what purpose?”

“I don’t know. If they were going to kill her, they’d do it here and get it over with. Just like with Bergan.”

“Detective Langley?” the other officer called out. “I found something too.” Only he sounded more apprehensive than the first officer.

He was standing in the driveway, a few feet from the front of Maddie’s car. “Careful.” He pointed to the concrete, splattered with multiple drops of blood.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Lance put a hand on my shoulder and squeezed.

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