Page 93 of Tide and Seek
I nodded mutely, following him as he moved through the house.He checked each room methodically, opening closets, looking behind doors.It all felt a bit ridiculous.Did he seriously think Royce was hiding in a closet?When we reached the hallway, his gaze landed on the attic access.
“Mind if I check up there?”he asked, tugging his flashlight off his utility belt.
“Go ahead,” I said, knowing full well it was a waste of time.
He pulled down the ladder with ease and climbed up, his flashlight beam cutting through the darkness above.“It’s empty,” he called down after a minute.“Just insulation.No signs of disturbance.”
“Okay,” I said dully.With every passing minute, I was feeling more and more hopeless.We were wasting precious time.Royce wasn’t in this house.He hadn’t changed his mind about marrying me and run away.Something had happened to him.Someone had taken him.But the cops weren’t taking me seriously.It was infuriating.
Johnson descended the ladder and pushed it back into place, dusting off his hands.“Let’s check the beach.”
Both Luke and I had already done that, and neither of us had found any sign of Royce.But at least Johnson was taking his role in finding Royce seriously.We walked out onto the deck and down the steps to the sand.Johnson scanned the shoreline in both directions, then he walked to the water’s edge and began to walk the length of the private beach.I watched him make his way down to the end of the beach in both directions, the entire time, my stomach churning with stress.
We’re wasting so much precious time.
“I’m not seeing anything,” he said, returning to where I stood after a bit.“Let’s go back inside and I’ll take your report.”
Back at the dining table, Johnson pulled out a form and began asking questions: name, age, physical description, last time seen, what Royce had been wearing.I answered each one mechanically, my mind still racing with possibilities I didn’t want to think about.When I showed him the orange syringe cap I’d found on the floor, he slipped on a pair of gloves, photographed it where it lay, then sealed it in an evidence envelope before setting it aside.
“And you said his phone, wallet, and keys are all here?”
“Yes.Everything’s here except him.”
Johnson made a note.“Any reason to believe he might have left voluntarily?Argument, anything like that?”
“No,” I said testily.“We got engaged last night.We were celebrating.He had a hangover this morning, that’s all.”
“Congratulations,” Johnson said automatically, then seemed to realize how inappropriate that sounded given the circumstances.“I mean—I’m sorry.We’ll file the report and get his information out to patrol units.Is there a recent photo I can include?”
I pulled up a picture on my phone from two days ago, Royce smiling at the camera with the ocean behind him.Johnson leaned over to look, then handed me a card with his number.“Text that to me so I can attach it to the report.”He jotted a few more notes and then stood.
“We’ll keep our eyes open, Dr.Thornton.In the meantime, if he contacts you or if you think of anything else, give us a call.”
“That’s it?”I stared at him.“You’re just leaving?”
“I’ll file the report and get this in the system right away.But right now there’s no evidence of foul play, no signs of a struggle.”There was a hint of sympathy in his green eyes.“What I can tell you is that most missing persons cases are resolved within twenty-four hours.”
“Resolved,” I echoed.
“Yeah.As in the case status is closed.”He tucked his notepad away as he spoke.
I let out a harsh breath.“Does that include cases where something bad happened to the missing person?”
A muscle ticked in his cheek as he met my gaze.“Let me rephrase.Most people reported missing are found safe within the first day or two.”
While I wanted to be comforted by his statistics, I knew with every fiber of my being that Royce wasn’t going to just show up tomorrow saying he’d needed some space.He’d been taken, and the only way he was coming home was if someone went after him.
But it was becoming more and more obvious that wasn’t going to be the police.If something bad had happened to Royce, by the time the cops got around to really looking, it would be too late.I was the one who’d have to find him.Royce had been my hero more times than I could count, and now it seemed that it was my turn.
But the terrifying truth was I didn’t even know where to begin.
Chapter Seventeen
Maxwell (Again)
Once Deputy Johnson left, I pressed my palms against my eyes, trying to push back the panic threatening to overwhelm me.I felt like I was losing my mind with worry.While I couldn’t prove it, I knew with absolute certainty that Royce was in real trouble.Yet the police had just filed a report and walked away.They wanted me to wait twenty-four hours while Royce could be going through God only knew what.
The sound of the security gate opening pulled me from my spiraling thoughts.I moved to the window, peering out as a familiar pest control van rolled into the colony.Ethan’s van.He must have returned to drop off Luke’s ant poison.
