Page 16 of One More Betrayal

“No one has been admitted under her name, and no one in the ER has seen a woman fitting Jess’s description. Sorry I couldn’t be of more help.”

“No. That was good. Thank you, Samuel. I owe you.”

“No problem. Good luck finding her.” He ends the call.

“She’s not at the hospital,” I tell Lucas.

He starts the engine and turns on the windshield wipers. The rain hasn’t let up since we returned to Maple Ridge. “We could ask her neighbors if they saw anything. Maybe one of them talked to her before she disappeared, or they saw something suspicious.”

“Good idea.”

He parks in Jess’s driveway. There’s still no sign of my truck or Jess. The lights are off in her house, other than the one in the living room that’s on a timer. I ring her doorbell, but still no one comes to the door.

We split up. Lucas goes door-to-door on Jess’s side of the street. I cover the other side, but it quickly becomes clear no one noticed anything out of the ordinary when it comes to Jess or her house.

“She was carrying Bailey when I last saw her,” Delores says, sounding heartbroken, her short gray hair glowing in the porch light. “She was putting her into the back seat of your truck, Troy. Rose told me the poor puppy accidentally ate poison. Is that true?”

“I only know what Rose told me. You never saw Jess after that?”

Delores shakes her head.

“I did.” Samantha’s voice comes from the other side of the front door. Delores opens the door wider, revealing her friend shuffling toward us. “It was several hours ago. I was pulling up to Delores’s house, and Jess was walking to your truck.”

“Any idea where she went?”

“None at all,” Samantha says. “Sorry.”

I thank the two women and move on to the next house. My wet clothes stick to my skin, and a chill creeps into my bones. The chill won’t go anywhere until I’ve located Jess.

By the time Lucas and I return to her house, neither of us has learned anything beyond what Samantha told me.

“Could she have gone somewhere to shoot photos?” Lucas asks.

“She loves taking photos of the sunset, but with the storm, that wouldn’t be possible.”

“Maybe she was taking photos of the storm and the lightning. I bet it was impressive over the lake.”

I lift my good shoulder in a half shrug because I have no idea if that’s something she would do. Or could do with an iPhone camera. “Sounds pretty risky to me.” She’s not a Marine. She’s not the epitome of a risk taker.

“If there’s one thing I’ve learned from Kim, it’s that photographers will do almost anything to get a great shot.”

I walk to Jess’s garage and check the door. It’s locked, like I knew it would be. Lucas joins me. I peer through the garage side door, but it’s too dark to see if her bike’s inside.

I pull my phone from my jeans pocket, turn on the flashlight, and shine it into the garage. The beam of light lands on her bike. “She doesn’t have her bike with her.”

“We’ll check the parking lots at the lake to see if your truck’s there. Other than that, I don’t know where else to look.”

We try all three lake parking lots near Maple Ridge. All are empty. The rest are much farther away, and I can’t see her going to any of them just for a photo. At this point, there’s not much more I can do.

The only thing left is to go home and wait for Jess to show up or for her to call me or for the worst-case scenario to happen. For the police to call me to tell me my truck has been found and she’s…she’s badly injured or dead.

My chest constricts at that last possibility, frenzied thoughts robbing me of my breath.

Lucas drives Butterscotch and me to my house. “Call me if you need anything, or if you hear from Jess.”

“Will do.”

I’m entering my house when my phone rings. Kellan. “What’s up?” I ask him.

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