She rolled her eyes.“You think that will stop me?”
“I guess not, but the phone is here, and you’re in…California?”
“Airplanes are a thing, Justin.”
“Even so, it’ll still take you hours to get here, and we don’t have time to wait.Amie’s been missing for almost three days.If some psycho abducted her, then every hour counts.Every minute.”
“I’ll still be faster than the cops.”
“But you can’t organise a statewide manhunt.”
“You think the cops in Virginia will?Half of them are committing crimes as well as solving them.”
“That’s a bit harsh,” Brax said.
“Oh yeah?I heard a bunch of them are tangled up in a sex ring, and one of them apparently shot himself.”
What the fuck?“Where did you hear that?”
“From a friend of a friend.”
“We’re getting off topic,” Dawson said.“Finding Amie is the priority here, and I know you don’t think much of the police, but in this instance, they’re in the best position to help.”
Nolan spoke softly in Alexa’s ear, and she folded her arms.“Fine.Do whatever you want.Just don’t blame me when they act like assholes and still don’t find her.”
CHAPTER19
JESSALYN
“No, I definitely got there at nine minutes past seven, no later.”
The detective leaned forward on his elbows.“But how can you be sure of that?”
“Because I looked at my watch.I was supposed to get there at seven, and I was running a little late.”
“And you say Mr.Norquist was wearing nothing but a towel when he answered the door?”
“Yes.”
“Did you see any scratches?Any cuts?”
“Nothing.Sir, we’ve already been over this, and I think that maybe you’re looking in the wrong place.Justin didn’t have anything to do with Amie’s disappearance.”
The detective checked his notes.“You said you met Mr.Norquist for the first time on Wednesday?”
“That’s right.”
“So with respect, you’re not the best person to judge whether the man would or wouldn’t be involved in the abduction of a young woman.”
This officer was really starting to get on my nerves.He wasn’t listening to most of what I said, and the parts he did take note of, he twisted to fit his own agenda.Alexa struck me as the wilful, my-way-or-the-highway type, and I wasn’t fond of people like that, but I had to admit she’d been right about the police in this instance.
“With respect, I’ve spent more time with Justin than you have, including almost every minute of the night Amie went missing.”
Of course, he pounced on that.“Almostevery minute.So you weren’t with him the whole time?”
“Amie left at 6:27.I saw the surveillance video.And when Justin left at 6:33, her car was already gone.He drove home, which takes about twenty minutes from his office, and when I arrived, he’d clearly been in the shower.”
“So you’re saying it was possible for a stranger to abduct Ms.Carlson in the six minutes she was alone in the parking lot, but it wasn’t possible for Mr.Norquist to carry out a similar act in the sixteen minutes he was unaccounted for?”
