Ivy was out there, and he might be too late.
Fuck.
The implications detonated in his brain.
“I need to see the supply boat manifest.” He started toward his truck. “The one from this afternoon.”
“Ryder—” Caleb shouted.
Ryder waved him away. “Look after Lambourne.”
The docks werefifteen minutes away. Ryder made it in nine.
The marine services office was closed, but the supply boat was still tied up. The sleet had turned to ice, sharp against his cheeks. It didn’t register. Nothing did but her name.
Ryder located the captain in the wheelhouse, a grizzled man in his fifties who looked up with weary irritation from his shot of rye when Ryder climbed aboard.
“I need to see your passenger manifest from today. The six o’clock arrival.”
“We don’t carry passengers. Just workers and?—”
“There was a woman on the boat earlier this afternoon. English. Blonde. She didn’t come back. I need to see the manifest.”
Ryder’s tone made the captain finally reach for his tablet. He scrolled then offered Ryder the tablet. “Here. Everyone who boarded, everyone who disembarked.”
Ryder scanned the list.There—Ivy Lambourne. Logged as boarding at 1:57 p.m.
And logged as disembarking at 6:02 p.m.
But she hadn’t been on the boat.
“This is wrong.” He kept his voice level. “She didn’t disembark. She wasn’t on the return trip.”
The captain frowned. “Says right there?—”
“I know what it says. It’s wrong.” Ryder’s finger traced the list. “Jack Barnes. Same thing.
Certainty settled deep within him.
Someone altered the records. Just like someone cut her brake lines. They didn’t want her found—and they sure as hell didn’t want her coming back from the Vega with answers.
He thanked the captain and left the boat, head spinning.
Headlights swept across the dock, cutting through sleet and darkness. Ryder didn’t need to look to know—Wyatt’s Volvo, right on time.
His brother climbed out, took one look at Ryder’s face, and stopped dead. “What’s happened?”
“Ivy and Jack Barnes are still on the Vega. Records show they came back to dry land, but they didn’t. Someone falsified the manifest.”
Wyatt’s expression hardened. “The Vega? The one with the structural failure?”
“Yeah.”
“Fuck.” Wyatt pulled out his phone, already dialing. “I’ll get Command to authorize a search and rescue?—”
“They won’t.” Ryder shook his head. He knew how this worked. Official paperwork would always trump one man’s word. “Manifest says they left. All confirmed personnel areaccounted for. Command won’t send a rescue crew back into a disaster zone based on speculation.”
“We need to try.”
