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Thalia had visited the former office of Dr. Wells many times during her investigation of her sister’s disappearance. This was the last place Kay was reportedly seen. She’d gone for an appointment with Dr. Wells in the morning and then just vanished.
That day also happened to be Dr. Well’s last day at the office before leaving Minas. Thoughshehadn’t disappeared. She’d told the other doctors at her practice that she would be leaving months in advance. But it did mean that Thalia never got the chance to talk with the last person who’d seen Kay.
She walked in through the automatic glass doors into a reception area, mostly empty at this time of day. She pictured Kay sitting on one of the benches in the waiting room, probably reading some legal documents on her comm to prepare for her new job. Had she been taken here at her doctor’s office? A place where she must have assumed she was safe?
Thalia had already looked at the layout during her initial investigation to figure out where would have been a good place to take her. The truth was itdidn’tlook ideal for a kidnapping. Between the receptionists, the other patients waiting, and the bright hospital lighting, there was nowhere for an attacker to hide. Most likely, if it had happened here, it would have been outside.
But shehadbeen here. Thalia was sure of that even without talking to the doctor. She had signed in at the reception desk.
From the way the man at reception rolled his eyes when he saw Thalia walk in, she knew he remembered her very well from the last time she’d interrogated him.
She pinned him with a look that would make most criminals uneasy.
“How can I help you?” he asked.
“I need to speak with Dr. Wells.”
He sighed, but with restraint, probably because of her glare.
“I’ve told you before, Dr. Wells left three months ago.”
“She’s back on Minas,” Thalia said, observing his face for signs of lack of surprise.
He looked mostly bored and a little scared.
“Well, she’s not here.”
“Could I talk to one of the doctors of the practice? Maybe she’s been in contact with one of them.”
“Only Dr. Grant is here at this time, but he’s seeing a patient. You’ll have to wait.”
Thalia nodded her agreement and stood back to wait. The clinic had five doctors, four now that Dr. Wells had left, and Thalia had already interviewed two of them. Dr. Grant was not one of the doctors she’d seen before.
Any chance you can hack into the clinic’s records? she messaged Lily.
It took a few minutes for her to get back a sarcastic, Sure, if I were there with you.
Thalia shrugged, though Lily couldn’t see it. She preferred being on her own. She hadn’t always felt that way, but since Kay was taken she felt like a giant hole of despair, incapable of talking or even thinking about anything else, and she’d noticed the pitying looks she got from others. She didn’t need those when she finally had something new to pursue.
“Dr. Grant will see you,” the receptionist said after a good twenty minutes.
She gave the guy a tight smile and walked into the back area where the doctors had their offices.
Dr. Grant was a seventy-year-old man who was half her size, which really put a damper on her plans to be intimidating. She loved putting arrogant jerks in their place, which was what she’d hoped Dr. Grant would turn out to be, but she hated being a bully.
Kay liked telling people that Thalia had become a cop because of her need to defend the innocents, but really that was just a perk. She’d actually gone into law enforcement for the job benefits.
She hadn’t been a good student. And unlike her sister who’d spent her teen years with her nose in her books, Thalia had spent them rebelling and enjoying life. She had married her high school boyfriend the moment she’d been of legal age.
Just thinking about it made her want to shake her younger self, but she’d been in love. Her husband had loved spending money they didn’t have, and five years into their marriage, he left her for someone else. He left Minas and a pile of debt for Thalia to repay. That was when she’d entered the police academy. She’d wanted something dependable. She managed to pay her debt and learned to be self-sufficient.
She’d learned to defend herself too. She’d never admitted it to Kay but there had been a few incidents when he’d held her arm a little too tight or pushed her a little too rough. It was hard to believe now looking back that she’d let someone treat her that way. But again, she’d been in love.
She knew better now than to ever let love blind her. She gave her love to the people who deserved it. Her parents. Her sister.
They’d fought a lot as teenagers but got over it as they got older. The three-year age difference had seemed like a lot when they were kids but it became insignificant as adults, and there had even been stages in their lives when Thalia had been the one advising her older sister.
