At First Light(Dr. Evan Wilding #1)(108)

“What kid?”

“I don’t know. He seemed kind of off, if you know what I mean. I assumed he was a student.”

Tommy Snow. What was his role in all this?

“It was a male officer,” Patrick confirmed.

“A man?” Martin looked surprised, as if they should know. “Nah. It was a woman.”

Addie’s thoughts threw themselves around her skull like caged beasts. “What woman?”

“I don’t know. Like I said, Chicago PD. She had a squad car. She said you’d sent her.”

“That I sent her?” Addie turned to Patrick. “Dispatch told us Blakesley’s partner is a woman.”

“Right.” He nodded. “Sally Osborn.”

Addie dialed Dispatch.

Diana stalked by the open door.

“Hey, you can’t have a weapon on university grounds,” Martin called out.

“I’m faculty.”

“Don’t matter. The rules are clear.”

She halted in her pacing. “Come and stop me, then.”

Martin scowled but made no move to approach her.

Addie pocketed her phone. “Dispatch can’t raise Sally Osborn. She and Blakesley were off today, but Osborn offered to help in the search. Her last check-in was two hours ago.” She pressed her palms together hard enough to hurt. “What if Blakesley has killed her, too?”

Patrick sank into a chair.

Addie ran scenarios through her head.

It was unlikely Evan and Tommy had been overpowered in such a public place. Which meant Evan had trusted the officer. But the officer—presumably Osborn—had told Evan that Addie herself had sent her. So was she in cahoots with Blakesley? Or had Blakesley provided that falsehood and sent her in to fetch Evan?

And if so, where were they all now?

Police had entered Blakesley’s apartment half an hour ago and found it empty. Now they were running down every one of his known acquaintances in the greater Chicago area. Friends. His mother. Associates in the Lesbian and Gay Police Association. So far, nothing.

Other police and detectives continued to check the areas on the map Evan had sent. Even using the K-9 unit, the only illegal things they’d turned up so far were a drug deal in Lincoln Park and an attempted mugging at Beaubien Woods.

Their own search of Evan’s office had offered nothing. Certainly, Evan hadn’t left any indication he meant to go anywhere but home.

Desolation filled Addie’s belly. A heaviness she thought might never go away. “What do we do now?”

Patrick pushed to his feet. “We wait to hear something.”

“You know I’m not good at waiting.”

“I know.” Patrick had so much compassion shining in his eyes that she had to look away.

“We have to do something,” she said.

Patrick pinched the bridge of his nose. “How about we join in the search?”

She nodded. Diana followed them out the revolving front doors of the Department of Safety and Security. They trudged the half mile back through the snow to where they’d parked outside the Harper Memorial Library building.

Outside the doors of the library, Diana started casting around in the snow.

“What are you looking for?” Addie asked.

“A clue.” She walked backward down the sidewalk leading from the doors to the street. “If he knew something was wrong, he would have left us an indication of some kind. A pointer.”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know.”

Addie felt a flare of hope, which just as quickly vanished. “He probably didn’t have many options.”

“Even a hat or a glove . . .” Diana’s voice trailed off.

Patrick said gently, “What would that tell us?” Both women whirled on him, and he lifted his hands. “It’s but the truth. Let’s put our energy somewhere useful.”

He might as well have kicked her in the stomach.

“I’m going back to his house,” Diana said. Her voice was flat. “In case he comes back. And to have another look around for Ginny.”

The missing hawk was another oddity to add to the night’s insanity—Diana had found the mews empty when she’d gone there looking for Evan.

Addie nodded and climbed behind the wheel of their sedan. She watched as Diana started her car and flipped on the lights.

When her phone rang, she snatched it out of her pocket.

It was Dispatch. “Blakesley has been located at the home of his mother. The reporting officer says he’s running a fever of a hundred and three. Officer Blakesley says the last time he saw his partner was yesterday, at the end of their shift.”

“And no news of her?” she asked the dispatcher.

“Nothing yet. We’ve issued an investigative alert. Officers will tear the city apart to find her.”

In front of them, Diana pulled away from the curb. A small, sodden brown something lay in the slush.

“What’s that?” Patrick asked.

Addie’s heart began to beat again. She pushed open her door and almost threw herself out of the vehicle.

“Call Diana,” she said over her shoulder. “It’s Evan’s satchel.”





CHAPTER 37


Evan stood motionless, listening for the labored breathing he’d heard before. Ginny had remained calm on his fist during his conversation with Osborn, but now she lifted one foot, then the other, her talons biting into his damp glove. She fluttered her wings, eager for the sky. For the hunt.