Page 115 of Half Baked

“I think I should call an ambulance to take her to the hospital,” I said, glancing over to her house. “Maddie’s going to be worried when she finds out she was a few blocks away without a coat.”

“Noah.”

I grabbed my phone and started to dial the number.

She put an arm on my arm. “Noah.”

I lifted my gaze from my screen to her face.

“Deidre is fine. I promise. She doesn’t need to go to the hospital. I think it would only make things worse.”

I nodded. She was right, of course. I wasn’t thinking straight, which was bad news.

My father had been correct—I was incapable of holding it together when it really mattered.

No. I could keep it together. I had to.

“The green car,” I said. “Did you see who was driving it? How many people were in the car?”

“It was a woman, and from what I could tell, she was alone.”

“What did she look like?” I asked, searching my phone for the photo of Gina that we were circulating.

“Blond hair. Middle-aged, I’d say. Her car was nice but nothing fancy.”

I held up my phone and showed her the photo. “Did she look like this?”

Margarete leaned closer then nodded. “Yep, that’s her all right.”

“Lance,” I called out. He was standing next to one of the marked cars, talking to an officer. He glanced up at me.

“Gina was here a little before noon.”

He walked over and listened to Margarete repeat her story, and when she finished, his face set. “We really need to talk to her now.”

“Agreed. For now, let’s ask the other neighbors if they saw anything.”

“On it.”

A half hour later, we had footage that showed Gina’s car driving toward Maddie’s house shortly before noon, then leaving about twenty minutes later. The footage also showed a dark sedan drive toward the Baker house and then stop a house away, on the opposite side of the street. The car pulled away from the curb, pulled into a driveway two houses down, backed up, then drove toward the Baker house. About three minutes later, it was seen on a camera farther down on the opposite side.

“Look at the time stamp,” Lance said. “12:32.”

It fit…but it also drilled in the fact that Maddie had been taken three hours ago and we were no closer to finding her.

“They found her,” an officer shouted at us.

My heart jumped. “Maddie? Where?”

“No,” the officer said, with a grimace. “Sorry. Gina Moore. She’s down at the station.”

Lance and I jumped into his car and hightailed it to the station.

She was sitting in an interrogation room when we arrived, vacillating between looking pissed and scared.

“I’m Noah Langley,” I said in a no-nonsense tone as I sat in front of her. “I’m Maddie’s boyfriend. I know you were at her house this afternoon. Tell us where she is.”

Her eyes widened. “She’s missing?” She closed her eyes and cursed under her breath. When she opened her eyes, her jaw set. “Itoldher to leave it alone.”

---