She assumed Rowan went straight to his place after her run.
He called Raven.
“Hey, Hugh.”
Hugh heard Daniel cooing in the background. He wanted to enjoy the sweet sound but…“Have you spoken to Rowan today? Or has River?” He was trying not to sound freaked out, but he was definitely getting to that point.
“No, she texted us both, oh, let me think, probably around six-thirty or seven your time. She was going for a run. She said she would call us when she finished. Why? What’s going on?”
Raven wasn’t dumb. There was no disguising his concern. “She never came back to the hotel. She isn’t answering her phone or texts. Who’s by you?”
“Bran. Bran,” she hollered. “Come here quick, please!”
Raven had put him on speaker, so he heard his son’s heavy feet run into whatever room his wife and son were in. “Have Bran call Rowan. I’ll stay on the phone. Text River and ask if she’s heard from her.” He could feel his heart pounding harder and harder. His chest felt close to exploding.
He heard Bran’s phone ringing and ringing, and then Rowan’s voicemail picked up. Fuck. “River?”
“She just texted. Nothing since our group text. Oh God, what the hell?”
Bran wondered, “Maybe she twisted her ankle or...or her phone is dead.”
“She stayed at your place, Hugh. Did she charge her phone?”
There was no room for embarrassment that they knew he and her sister had slept together. “Yes.” He took a deep breath, attempting to engage his brain, shoving his panic to the side. “Do you know what route she takes since she’s been staying at Mom’s?”
“Oh God, Oh God, Oh God. Shit! Let me think.”
There were tears in her voice, her own panic a twin to his.
“Take a deep breath, Rave. Dad will find her. Just breathe and try to remember if she ever mentioned anything. I texted Pat. They’re coming up. River might know something.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” Raven sounded breathless. She mentioned trails by the river were shady. That would be River Park, but there are a million trails,” she wailed, clearly losing the modicum of calm she’d been clinging to.
Hugh grabbed his truck keys from the counter and ran out his door, rushing toward the parking garage. “Okay, that’s good. That’s southwest of where we are, I think. Bran,” he barked, “pull up Google Maps around the hotel. See if you can figure out her route from the hotel lobby to where the trails might start. I’m getting my truck now.”
“On it,” Bran replied.
Hugh heard Patrick and River’s voices. “River. Call Rowan’s phone.” She immediately dialed without saying a word. It rang three times, and then, “Hello?” A woman answered. A woman who wasn’t Rowan.
“Hey, this is Darcy. I just found this phone on one of the back trails. I’m so glad you called when you did. The phone was under some leaves. I never would have seen it. Can I drop it somewhere?”
And that’s when he discovered the difference between panic and terror. He had River put her phone by Raven’s phone. He proceeded to tell the woman, Darcy, to please wait where she was. She needed to show him and the police exactly where she’d found the phone.
He had to hang up with Raven, promising to call her back after he called the police. Hugh called the Tulsa detective who had been instrumental in helping the FBI collect enough information on Samuel Delton. He explained to the detective that there was no doubt that something bad had happened to Rowan. It had killed him to admit that she was definitely missing. She would never put everyone who loved her through this kind of worry without a good reason. Detective Jeffreys saidhe would call two police officers who had also helped with the Delton case.
He called Raven back as promised the minute he’d parked in the trailhead’s parking lot. Jeffreys and the two officers pulled in behind him.
Bran asked what everyone had to be fearing at this point. “Could this be someone from Delton’s group?”
Hugh could hear stifled moans from Rowan’s sisters. Considering what those men did to women, he prayed not. Choosing not to answer—because he couldn’t even voice the possibility—he said, “I’m at the park. Jeffreys is pulling in behind me.”
He saw a woman in running clothes near the large map directory of the trail system. It had to be Darcy. She was nervously bouncing from foot to foot.
“I’ll keep my phone on speaker so you can hear what the police and Darcy have to say.” Hearing Raven and River’s barely contained whimpers threatened to undermine his thin thread of control. He wanted to destroy everything his eyes landed on until Rowan was found, but he had to stay levelheaded. She needed him stone-cold and clearheaded.
As Jeffreys rounded the hood of his black sedan, he didn’t waste time with pleasantries. “Officers are already combing through the CCTV footage from the intersections between here and the hotel. This parking lot has a camera. It’s older but should give us something. Some of the newer cameras downtown have facial recognition. I sent them Miss Byrne’s photo, which we still have on file from the Delton case.”
As the three men walked over to Darcy, Hugh asked, “Will they have something soon?”
