Page 55 of The Prey
She ducked inside.
Metal clanged.
Jason followed her. And almost fell face first.
He caught himself just in time. And then kept going into the darkness.
51
She had beenin this corridor a few times before. George had shown her the first time, when she’d been all of eighteen and had told him she was going to go to law school like he had. He’d gotten special permission to show her all the secrets the one hundred plus year old building hid. This back hallway from the fourth floor to the narrow winding spiral staircase was a secret very few knew about. But she’d had a great-grandfather who had practiced law here. And he had hidden in that hallway when train robbers had stormed the courthouse to free one of their brothers. He’d hidden for hours with an assistant court clerk he’d been pursuing. He’d already been in love with her by then. When they’d emerged, the judge in the courthouse that day had willingly performed the ceremony.
They’d been married for sixty-seven years before he’d died in the nineteen fifties.
There had been Hillers in legal practice almost every generation since then.
She just kept going down the stairs, praying that the door on the other end would be unlocked. It was one of the only ways back topeople.To Hudson.
She just kept going.
The door was there. She could just see the light at the bottom where the door wasn’t perfectly aligned. Of course it wasn’t, this building had settled through the years. It still stood strong on its foundation, but the Barratt County Courthouse had its own little quirks and foibles.
Her fingers wrapped around the antique knob.
She pushed the door open and ran into the open room. And came face to face with Judge Collins, in her quarters.
The woman’s gray eyes widened. “Counselor Hiller? What on earth?—”
Jason shoved Giavonna from behind. Or maybe he tripped. She didn’t know.
All she knew was that she fell to her knees, at the judge’s feet. She cried out as she landed on her dislocated shoulderhard.
“What is going on here?” Judge Collins stepped over her, almost deliberately. Protectively. “Mr. Clarke, explain yourself now. What are you twodoing?”
52
Nothing.No one could get through to her phone. No one couldfindher in the building. Even Guthrie, who had all of his sisters’ numbers in some tracking app, couldn’t locate her. Someone thought the thick Bedford limestone of the exterior was blocking the phone signal. The walls were at least three feet thick. Wi-fi and cell signal was always spotty in the damned building. But that didn’t explain why they couldn’t find her in the building somewhere.
“I’m going to start at the top, and work my way down the back corridors,” George said. “I have a copy of the original blueprint of this place on my office wall. My brother-in-law Lamar is already at my office to get a picture and text it to me as quickly as he can. We’re going to find her. We’ll search every inch of this place if we have to—even the ones the public don’t know about. We’re going to find my sister.”
And Clarke. Because it was damned suspicious that Giavonna was missing and there was no sign of Jason Clarke anywhere.
“Tell me something, Hanan, why are you so certain something has happened to that girl?” Walters asked. “Is it possible she just up and left?”
Was Walters that naive? Hudson fought snarling.
“I drove her here,” Gene said, anger obvious in his tone. “My sister wouldn’t have justleft.Not without telling one of us, or taking her phone. And she would have waited for Hudson, or told him where she was going, in any case. They’re surgically attached to each other now, in case you’ve missed it.”
“So I’ve heard,” Walters said. “Do you seriously think something has happened to her? Here?”
Well, hell yes, they did. Why else would they be searching? Hudson just shot him a look. And kept texting her again. He looked at George. “You take the west side of the upper floor. I’ll take the east.”
“Check the back hallways,” was all her brother said.
Hudson turned to the other Hiller brothers. There would be restricted areas her brothers couldn’t get into. Especially on the third and fourth floors. “Stick to the first and second floors. You’ll not be allowed entry above that. Walters—take the third, with Ed. Anyone finds either of them, textme.”
The bailiff nodded. Walters just had a confused look on his face, like he couldn’t believe this was real.
Hudson headed for the back stairs, Mac right beside him, while Mac’s uncle took the two clerks who had been in the lobby and realized something was happening to the third floor, where the auxiliary offices were located. And storage—there were so many storage closets on the third floor.
