“What’s got you looking like somebody kicked your dog?” Luke asked.
Scout didn’t answer.
He turned the phone around.
Luke squinted.
“Podcast?” he said.
Scout nodded.
“Vanished in the Valley.”
He’d listened to enough of those episodes, late nights on patrol with nothing but the radio and the dark for company, to know this wasn’t going to blow over in a day.
Luke’s brow creased.
“Isn’t that the woman who was hanging around during Mystery Week?”
“The woman who’s been circling Eleanor Harper all week,” Scout said.
Luke took a sip of coffee and leaned closer to the screen, chair thumping down onto all four legs.
The video thumbnail showed a young woman’s face beside a headline:
THE DISAPPEARANCE OF CAROLINE SIMMS
Luke’s boots planted flat.
“Well hell.”
From behind the counter, Willow glanced over.
“Language,” she said mildly.
“What?” Luke shrugged. “I’m whispering.”
“You’re whispering loud.”
Deputy Sara Parker slid into the booth beside Scout, setting her hat on the table.
“What are we whispering about?”
Scout turned the phone toward her.
Sara read the headline.
Her shoulders dropped slightly.
“Oh no.”
Eight years gone. Eight weeks since zip ties bit into her own wrists.
Missing women didn’t feel abstract anymore.
Marylou, who had been lingering at the counter with Ned, twisted around.
“What now?”
