Page 10 of Running to You

Not just that, but Eliza had carried no phone, no purse, no anything except the business card crumpled in her hand. Where were her things? Where was her wallet?

What was she doing in Shadow Cove? Her mother lived an hour down the coast. Eliza’s apartment had been even farther, just over the border from Portsmouth.

Why Shadow Cove? To see him?

It didn’t make sense.

“If she doesn’t need the hospital,” Sam said, “we’ll just take her to the police station tomorrow. They’ll figure out what’s going on, contact her family, get her—”

“You should contact her family.”

Right. He should have done that already.

Eliza’s mother had never liked Sam, and frankly, the feeling was mutual. They were still connected on social media, but only because he’d wanted information on Eliza. And Linda Pelletier had probably wanted to stalk him, prove to herself he was the playboy she’d always suspected.

But Daniel was right. Eliza’s mother needed to know what was going on. She’d take care of Eliza.

Sam stalked out of the kitchen, through the living area, and into his office, where he sat at his desk and opened his laptop.

He navigated to Facebook.

Daniel stood in the doorway, arms crossed, as Sam typed in the woman’s name.

A number of profile pages came up, but none of them belonged to the Linda Pelletier he was looking for.

Had she finally severed their connection? What unfortunate timing. Except… Even if they weren’t friends, her profile would come up, wouldn’t it? They had friends in common.

Weird.

Daniel stepped around Sam’s desk and peered at his oversize monitor. “What’s going on?”

“I guess she got off Facebook.”

Sam checked other social media sites but got the same results.

“You have her phone number?”

Did he? Sam pulled his phone from his pocket and searched his contacts. Sure enough, there she was. Not shocking, considering he’d dated her daughter for a year. He hated to wake her in the middle of the night, but maybe she was frantic with worry.

He pressed the number.

And got a computer-generated voice. “The number called has been disconnected…”

“What in the world?” He tossed the cell phone on his desk. “She changed her number? Why would she do that?”

Daniel clamped a hand on his shoulder. “Let’s just get some rest tonight. We can regroup in the morning.”

“Yeah. Okay.” Much as he wanted to argue, he had no more ideas.

At the top of the stairs, he was about to tell his brother good-night when he saw him headed toward Eliza’s room. Daniel stepped inside and closed the door.

A moment later, he came back out. “She’s asleep,” he whispered. “Barely stirred when I checked her pulse. She should be okay until morning.”

“But she has a concussion, right?” He matched his brother’s volume. “Aren’t we supposed to wake her every hour or something?”

Daniel smiled. “We don’t do that anymore. She’ll be fine.” He squeezed Sam’s arm, then headed toward the other end of the house.

Sam went to his room and prepared for bed. If Daniel said she’d be all right, then she would be. Who was he to second-guess a physician’s opinion? Everything he knew about concussion protocol he’d learned watching football games.