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“Yeah. Then they might move Kinsey again. Somewhere we’ll never find her.”
Erin nodded slowly. “She was definitely here at some point. Did you see that look on Nora’s face when you accused her?”
“Yup.” I gritted my teeth and pressed on the key fob. “She was lying the whole time.”
“Except for the part about that creepy dungeon near the wine cellar,” Erin replied, sliding into the passenger seat. “She was telling the truth about that. Kinsey isn’t there… but she totallywas. Did you see the trash?”
My brows furrowed. “No. What trash?”
“Under that little bed in the cell. I saw a couple of empty water bottles and some wax paper. From a sandwich, maybe.” She lifted a brow and went on. “I guess it could be old stuff, but I doubt it. I think they’ve been keeping Kinsey there.”
“Me too,” I said, pulse spiking as I switched on the ignition. “That hair I found on the floor—it’s hers. I just know it.”
“I think so too. We were just too late to get to her,” Erin said, looking down at her lap. She let out a weary sigh and raked a hand through her long hair. Then she looked over at me. “What do you think we should do now?”
“We need to check out the rest of the locations on our list, starting with Mr. Blythe’s house,” I said, glancing at the rearview mirror as I pulled out of the driveway. “What was the address again?”
Erin fished a piece of paper out of her pocket and looked at it. “802 Bournemouth Crescent. It’s on the north end of town, near the national park.”
Outside, the light afternoon shower had turned to heavy rain and hail, battering the windshield and roof overhead. I turned the wipers onto full force and gripped the steering wheel tightly, keeping a careful eye on the road ahead.
When the GPS finally informed me that we’d arrived at our destination, I pulled the car to a stop and peered out the window. “Surely this can’t be it,” I said, frowning up at the house in front of me. It was two stories of white-washed brick with a red-tiled roof and multiple terraces with wrought iron railings.
“It’s definitely the right address,” Erin replied, looking down at her phone.
“How can he afford a place like this on a teacher’s salary?” I asked. “It must be worth at least two million.”
“He’s a Blythe, remember?” she said, lifting her brows. “That whole family is super wealthy. Also, CPA teaching positions are really prestigious. They pay a lot more than most other teaching jobs in the country.”
“Right,” I said, nodding slowly. I pulled the key out of the ignition and opened my door. “Let’s go and talk to him.”
“Wait.” Erin reached over and yanked on the hem of my shirt to keep me in the car. “We can’t just knock on his door for no reason. It’ll make him suspicious, and considering what just happened with Nora, we’re lucky he isn’t already suspicious of us.”
I rubbed my chin. “We’ll tell him we found his phone at school and came to return it,” I said. “We can make a big show of being cold and wet from the rain. Get him to invite us in. Then you can ask him for advice on your next English paper while I excuse myself to the bathroom. I’ll hunt around the house then.”
“All right.” Erin gave me a tight smile. “Let’s do it.”
We headed up to the front entrance and pressed the doorbell button above the lock. No one answered.
“Try again,” Erin said, glancing over at the driveway. “There’s a car here, so I’m pretty sure he’s home. He probably just can’t hear the bell over the storm.”
I pressed the button again. Then a third and fourth time. There was still no answer.
“Maybe he went out with a friend and they picked him up from here,” Erin said, brows dipping in a frown. “That would explain why his car is still in the driveway.”
I jiggled the door handle. It was locked. “Let’s check around the back and sides,” I said. “We might be able to find a way in.”
Erin’s brows shot up. “You seriously want to break in?”
“We might as well try if he’s not here, right?” I said, voice tinged with the same urgency that was making my heart hammer against my ribs. I knew Kinsey was close. I had no tangible evidence to prove it, but I could feel the truth of it deep in my bones. She was somewhere on this property. I just needed to find her.
Erin nodded. “All right. Let’s go take a look.”
We headed around to the right side of the mansion, trying all the doors and windows as we went. All of them were locked.
“Holy shit,” Erin said breathlessly as we arrived at the back of the house. “Check out that view. Mr. Blythe is seriously loaded.”
I followed her gaze to the ocean. Thick white fog hung over the dark expanse of churning water in a hauntingly beautiful display. The cliffs before it were a tower of gray rock, standing sentinel over the murky depths as they stretched all the way up the winding coastline.
