Page 10 of The Map Home
Mat made a sound that could mean anything. It didn’t sound like he agreed or disagreed. “I know how it is, and I’m not going to tell Morgan how to do his job. Sometimes missing persons arein trouble, and sometimes they’ve just checked out for a while or, for reasons only known to them, decided not to let their family know where they were going. Anyway, enough shop talk. Did you get any good eats today?”
It was conceivable that Marcy Auchler had just gone somewhere and not wanted to let anyone know for some reason, but Dakota didn’t have to like it.
“I snagged a hot turkey sandwich from the gas station around the corner.”
“A hot turkey sandwich, huh. Well, I guess that’s better than a bag of potato chips.”
He’d scarfed down a bag of barbecue chips too, but he wasn’t telling Mat that now.
“Hey, Niall wants to say hi.”
Dakota seriously doubted that but also knew that Mat called so Niall would talk to him. He and his brother both seemed to have inherited the same inability to have a normal conversation over the phone. Phone calls were always stilted and awkward, and he hated not being able to see people’s expressions. How did he know the person on the other end was being sincere? He wouldn’t be surprised to learn Niall felt the same.
“Dakota.” Niall’s voice was deeper than Dakota’s but had the same timber. Mat complained he had a hard time telling the difference the rare times that Dakota called him. “I was going to call but Mat beat me to it.” A derisive sound in the background had Dakota snickering too. “Knock it off, I was getting to it,” Niall insisted.
“Well, I probably wasn’t going to call you, so it’s a good thing Mat took care of it for us.”
Niall snorted. “I suppose so. But I’m not telling him you said that because he’ll just lord it over me. How was your day?”
Dakota recounted what he’d already told Mat concluding with, “I wish we knew more about the missing person—like if there’s something, I don’t know, that would make her disappearance more of a priority for the department. Or the opposite, so I could just let it go. Maybe she just needed a break and flew off to Florida for some sand and sunshine.”
“You said her name is Marcy Auchler? A-u-c-h-l-e-r?”
“That’s right.”
“I’ll have Ryder run a search. If there’s something to come up with, he’ll find it. And if there’s not, you’ll know you did your best.”
“Isn’t that… I feel like it’s kind of cheating if I go behind Sheriff Morgan’s back,” Dakota said.
“The key in this sort of thing is to ask forgiveness later. If Ryder finds something, you can decide how to approach Morgan with the information. If he doesn’t, it’s no big deal.”
That sounded like a bit of a stretch to Dakota. But he also wanted to help if he could. A muffled laugh that could only be Mat’s response to Niall’s logic reached his ears.
“Who reported her missing?” Niall asked, ignoring his husband’s scoffing.
“Her landlord—er.” He checked his notes just to be certain, “Sorry, Sabrina Suarez.”
“Isn’t Suarez the last name of the woman who owns the Collier’s Creek Bed and Breakfast?” Niall asked.
“I think so? It’s not that uncommon of a name around here though.”
“Ryder will find out,” Niall said confidently.
“Ryder seems to be doing a lot of work he doesn’t know about yet,” Dakota said dryly.
“The guy lives for this kind of stuff, and if I’m at all lucky, it will keep him busy for half a day. He’s like one of those super smart herding dogs—he has to have a project at all times or else we end up with complete chaos in the office because he’srandomly decided we all need to move desks around for the Ryder Mann version of feng shui.”
In the background, Dakota heard Mat comment, “Remember that time he went in over the weekend and changed all your passwords just to prove how easy it would be to hack your information?”
Dakota snorted.
“Anyway,” Niall continued, “email me the info you have. Have fun keeping an eye on folks this weekend.”
“Will do.”
“You working the Christmas holiday too?” Niall asked.
“Not sure yet. Supposedly not, but I kind of think I will be, just because of staffing.”
