Page 56 of Refuge for Ailsa

“Are you the fella who called from Ailsa’s phone?”

“Yes. It was just lying here on the counter. There’s nobody here. I looked around in the stockroom, checked the restroom, nothing.”

“How long have you been here?”

He shrugged. “A little over an hour, I think.”

An hour. An hour for someone to take her just about anywhere. An hour for someone to do something horrible to her. An hour to…

“Is she here?” a voice yelled from behind him, and Donovan came into sight.

“No. She’s not here. I’ve got to call Harley.”

Donovan gave Tavish a hard stare. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t have time to explain right now, but I will.” He was already holding his phone, and he punched around in the recent calls until he found the right one.

“This is Harley. Please leave your name and number and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can,” the voicemail greeting said.

“Harley, this is Tav. Something’s happened to Ailsa. We can’t find her. I need you to help me. Please, please, help me. I don’t know what’s happened and…” He stopped for just a second before he ended, “I’m scared.”

The door flew open again and Conor and Morris ran inside. “What’s happened?”

“I have no idea. He said he’s been here for over an hour and she hasn’t been here.”

“Did you look on the boat?” Donovan asked.

“No, but please do,” Tavish asked, and Donovan disappeared out the door. “Maybe she’s sick and in the bathroom without her phone. Maybe she’s in the shower. Oh, god, please let her be in the shower,” he gasped. His chest was tight and he was feeling a little light-headed, but he forced himself to stay in the game.

Donovan burst back into the store. “No. She’s not there. The coffeepot was cold, so she came here about her usual time, I’m guessing.”

He could hear a siren in the distance, and he knew who that was. Sure enough, a BoyleCounty sheriff’s department cruiser slid into the gravel parking area and he could see Harley hot-footing it toward the door. “Did you find her?”

“No. Nowhere.” He pointed to the customer. “He’s been here for at least an hour and she hasn’t been here. Her phone was on the counter, and the coffeepot at the boat was cold, so she got here at her regular eight o’clock, I’m sure.” Then it hit Tavish. She could’ve been gone for at least four hours and no one knew it.

“She’s got a camera in here, right?”

Tavish nodded. “Yeah. She does. Let’s look.”

“We’re going outside to see if we find anything,” Conor said as he and Morris headed out the door.

“What do you want me to do?” Donovan asked, his face a mask of fear.

“Go to your mom and dad’s. Tell them what’s going on, but don’t scare them too badly. And start calling people. Anybody you can think of. Beauty shop, nail place, friends, relatives, doctor’s office, hospital, anywhere. If you hear anything, anything at all, that you think could be important, you call me.” By the time Donovan hit the front door on his way out, Tavish was already sitting in front of the computer screen, Harley peering over his left shoulder.

He ran the video back to seven thirty, then paged forward through it. Sure enough, at the one minute after eight mark, Ailsa stepped into view from entering through the back door, then went to the front door, unlocked it, and disappeared from view. He kept paging through, not fast, but plenty fast enough to gobble up the footage. What he saw next would haunt him forever.

Right at the eight-thirty mark, the front door opened, but no one came in. In a few seconds, Ailsa came into view, and she was gesturing wildly at whoever was outside the door. It went on for a good thirty seconds, and every second, Ailsa moved just a little closer to the door. “No, no, don’t,” Tavish whispered at the screen. When she reached it, she stepped out the door. She was out of the camera’s view for a split second, and then she fell, only her torso showing up on the screen.

Right before his eyes, her body slid to the left and disappeared. He stopped the feed?eight thirty-one and thirty seconds. “I recognize that look,” he heard Harley whisper, and he turned to look at his friend. “They used a stun gun or something similar on her. She passed out, and they dragged her away.”

Tavish was about to say something when he heard panting outside the office door and Conor came into view. He had something in his hand, and he held it up. “Recognize this?”

It was Ailsa’s shoe, the left shoe from one of her favorite pairs of athletic shoes.

Tavish’s heart sank. Somebody had taken her, but who? And where? And why? It was all because of that Bentley shit. He was sure of it. “Oh my god, what do I do?” he breathed out in a strangled whisper.

“We start beating the bushes. That’s what we do,” Harley said, pointing at the two Texans. “You guys are going back on Wednesday, right?”

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