And Tessa was still missing.
Scout’s gaze lifted to the wooded rise beyond the backyard.
He wasn’t leaving without her alive.
Anything else was unacceptable.
52
Winter Break
Search Warrant — Raines’s Office
The lock clicked open. Lights flickered on.
Books lined the shelves. Papers stacked in careful piles. Controlled chaos.
Scout moved to the shelves. Burke checked the desk drawers. Denton headed for the filing cabinet.
The room had been straightened recently.
Burke lifted a trench coat from the wall hook and reached into the pocket.
He stopped.
“Scout.”
Scout crossed the room.
Burke pulled out a notebook—green cover, worn edges.
Scout’s stomach dropped. “No way.”
Burke opened it.
Sara Parker.
Her name. Her handwriting. Dates aligning with the window she disappeared.
Burke’s voice went low and steady. “He had her green notebook while she was gone.”
Denton was already dialing. “Tucker needs to hear this.”
Scout stared at the journal like it might detonate.
It should’ve felt like a win.
Instead, something tugged at him.
The notebook wasn’t hidden.
It sat in a coat pocket.
Like it had been left there on purpose.
Burke didn’t say that out loud.
The Call
