“Are you having any luck?” he asked.
I grimaced. “Luck seems to be in short supply at the moment.”
“I’m sorry. I know this must be so hard for you right now.”
I steered the conversation elsewhere. “Forget about me. This is about Gavin. And Angela.”
“Sabrina, I know this is about more than that,” David said. “The emotions you must be grappling with now—”
“Have to be pushed aside,” I said. “Gavin needs us now. So let’s focus on him.”
“All right. But if you need to talk, you know I’m here for you.”
“Thanks.”
“Of course.”
“I hope you’re ready for a difficult case. I have a feeling this one is going to push us to the limit,” I said.
“I hope you’re wrong,” David said.
“So do I. But when does that ever happen?”
“There’s a first time for everything.”
“I suppose.”
“We’ll find out soon enough.”
“Theoretically, yes. But what if it takes years to find her?”
“Why don’t we refrain from speculation?” David asked.
I ignored his suggestion and continued fretting. “I don’t think I could handle this case stretching on for years. I mean, after what happened to…”
“I thought you were trying not to bring up your sister,” David said.
“Just because I’m trying doesn’t mean I’m succeeding.”
“When we get to Angela’s house, do you want to stay in the car?”
I shook my head. “No.”
“Are you sure?” David asked.
“Honey, I know you’re just looking out for me, but my instincts are telling me that you’re going to need all the help you can get,” I said.
Chapter Eight
When we turned right onto Birch Drive, we saw Gavin sitting on the front steps of Angela’s ranch-style house. Since there were already two cars in the driveway, David was forced to park on the side of the road.
I recognized both of the cars that were in the driveway. The blue sedan belonged to Gavin while the white sport-utility-vehicle belonged to Angela.
As I got out of David’s car, I could hear the sound of birds cheerfully chirping in a nearby oak tree, which stood in huge contrast to the heavy tension that permeated the air.
David and I approached Gavin, who was bouncing his knee nervously.
“What took you so long?” Gavin asked.
“We came as quickly as we could,” I said.
Gavin stood up and began to tremble. “I can’t believe this is happening.”
“I’m so sorry. But we’re going to do everything in our power to find her,” I said.
“I know. What if you don’t, though?” Gavin asked. “What if—?”
“Don’t think like that,” I said.
“It’s hard not to. I mean, for her to just disappear like this. It’s just a total nightmare,” Gavin said.
David replied calmly, “Gavin, I know this is an awful time for you, but you need to hold yourself together. If we’re going to find Angela, we’ll need some information from you.”
Gavin took a deep breath. “Okay. I’ll do my best.”
“Good,” David said.
“What do you want to know?” Gavin asked.
“To start, how can you be so sure that Angela is missing?” David asked.
“She was supposed to meet me for breakfast at Zelda’s Diner an hour ago, but she never showed up,” Gavin said.
“Did you call her?”
Gavin nodded. “Ten times. And she hasn’t answered her phone once.”
“How about her work place? Did you call the advertising agency?” David asked.
Gavin nodded. “She isn’t there.” He stared at Angela’s front door. “Nor is she here. I checked every inch of her house.”
“Wait a minute. Was the front door unlocked when you arrived?” I asked.
“No,” Gavin said.
My nose scrunched. “Then how were you able to get inside her house?”
“She gave me her spare key about a week ago. We were talking about moving in together. And now she’s gone.” Gavin got choked up again.
David bit the corner of his lip. “Gavin, you have to hold yourself together.”
Gavin took a few deep breaths.
David continued. “When you were inside her house, did you see any sign of a struggle?”
Gavin shook his head. “No.”
David’s nose scrunched. “How strange.”
“Don’t you mean terrifying?” Gavin asked.
“That too,” David said.
I looked back at the driveway. “How about her car? If she’s not here, then why is her SUV in the driveway?”
“She always takes a jog along the beach in the morning,” Gavin said. “Whatever happened to her—I think it occurred while she was out on her run.”
“That’s a possibility,” I said.
“In my mind, that’s the only explanation for this,” Gavin said.
“I think it’s too early to draw any definitive conclusions,” David said. “Have you called her family?”
“She doesn’t have any family. Angela is an only child and her mother and father both passed away a number of years ago,” Gavin said.
“Oh,” David said. “How about her friends?”
“I’ve called everyone I can think of. No one has heard from her,” Gavin said.
David scratched his chin. “When was the last time you spoke with her?”
“She texted me good morning. I then confirmed our breakfast. From there, she replied that she was heading out for her morning run,” Gavin said.
David held his pointer finger up. “These jogs she takes—what can you tell us about them?”
“A lot, actually. She usually leaves here about six-fifteen and heads over to Treasure Cove Smoothies. Apparently, she loves their green smoothie,” Gavin said. “Once she finishes her drink, she jogs on the pathway that runs parallel to Treasure Cove Beach. When she’s done with that, she comes back home.”
“So in your mind, she went missing somewhere along her usual route,” David said.
“That makes the most sense to me,” Gavin said. “But you’re the detective. What do you think?”
“Based on the information you’ve provided, that is the most likely scenario.” David turned to me. “Sabrina. What’s your take?”
Instead of being my usual sharp self, my head drifted into the clouds. The more I thought about Angela’s morning jogging routine, the more I was reminded of my sister.
While I remained deep in thought, David called out to me.
“Sabrina,” he said.
I snapped out of my haze. “Uh…”
“Do you have a different opinion?” David asked.
I shook my head.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
“I’m positive,” I said.
“So there’s nothing else on your mind?” David asked.
As David stared deep into my eyes, he could tell that I was juggling a number of different thoughts.
Instead of keeping the spotlight on me, he decided to direct his attention to Gavin again.
“Has Angela been having problems with anyone?” David asked.
Gavin’s nose crinkled. “Do you think someone she knows might be behind her disappearance?”
“We can’t rule it out. Now, what’s the answer?” David said.
“She broke up with her boyfriend in Oak Ridge shortly before moving to Treasure Cove,” Gavin said.
“An unhappy ex,” David said. “There’s a good place to start.”
“How about her work situation? Was she having problems with anyone at the ad agency?” I asked.
Gavin shook his head. “Not as far as I know.”
I squinted. “She didn’t complain about anyone from work then?”
“Nope,” Gavin said. “But she did complain about her ne
ighbor.”
“Which one?” David asked.
Gavin nudged his head to the left. “The one that lives in the blue house right there.”
“What was her complaint exactly?” David asked.
“There were a bunch of shady characters coming and going from his place at odd hours of the night. Not to mention, the guy just looks like trouble. Wait until you speak with him. You’ll see what I’m talking about,” Gavin said.
“Well, unless you can think of anyone else who was having problems with Angela, we can go speak to her neighbor right now,” David said.
“I think you’ll have to come back later. It doesn’t look like Griffin is home,” Gavin said.
“What makes you say that?” David asked.
“His pickup truck isn’t in the driveway,” Gavin said.
“I’ll go over and knock on his door anyway,” David said.
***
It turned out Gavin was right. David knocked on Griffin’s door a number of times, but he didn’t answer. After the third set of knocks, David gave up and walked back over to Angela’s place.
“See. He’s not home,” Gavin said.
“Don’t worry. We’ll catch up with him eventually. In the meantime, I’d like to take a look inside Angela’s place,” David said.
“Of course.” Gavin handed David the key to the house. He then pleaded with him. “David, you and Sabrina have to find Angela.”
“We’re going to do our best,” David said.
“Good,” Gavin said.
Chapter Nine
Unfortunately, David wasn’t able to find any clues inside Angela’s house. I kept speaking with Gavin a little while longer while David made a few calls. He started by radioing dispatch back at the police station to see if there had been any recent 9-1-1 activity. According to the dispatcher, it had been a very quiet morning.
After taking a deep breath, David put his radio away and phoned the emergency room at Treasure Cove Hospital. He gave Angela’s name to the intake clerk. The clerk checked the hospital’s records and informed David that there was no patient by that name currently admitted at the medical center. David also had the clerk search for any recent Jane Doe’s. That query produced no results.
David thanked the clerk for his time, hung up the phone, and walked over to his car. With the call to dispatch and to the hospital producing no results, a trip to Treasure Cove Smoothies was now in order. But first, David assigned a deputy to keep an eye on Birch Drive. When Angela’s neighbor finally did arrive home, we would immediately be notified.
***
Since it would take a number of minutes to get to Treasure Cove Smoothies, David and I decided to call Angela’s best friend, Claire Thorpe, from the car. As expected, Claire was really shaken up by the news. It was a shame that we were talking with her over speaker phone, because she sounded like she could use a hug.
Her soft voice cracked as she spoke. “You never think something like this is going to happen to one of your friends.”
“You sure don’t. It’s terrible,” I said.
“So you have no clue where Angela is or if she’s even alive?” Claire asked.
“We’re trying to figure that out,” David said. “And we could really use your help.”
“Me?” Claire said.
“Of course. You’re her best friend,” David said.
“Don’t get me wrong. I’ll do everything I can to assist you. I just don’t know how much help I’ll be. After all, this news is a complete shock to me.”
“True. But you still might have plenty of useful information.”
“How do you figure?”
“It’s not going to be easy to hear this, but there’s a good chance that Angela knew the person who is responsible for her disappearance.”
Claire gasped. “Please tell me you aren’t serious.”
“Unfortunately, I am.”
“That’s hard to wrap my head around.”
“I’m sure it is. That said, it’s pretty common in a missing-persons case for the victim to be acquainted with their abductor,” David said.
Disgust was in Claire’s voice as she replied, “What a sick world we’re living in.”
“All the more reason to track down whoever did this,” David said. “Speaking of, can you think of anyone who was having problems with Angela?”
Claire responded without hesitation. “Have you talked to her ex-boyfriend, Henry Moore?”
“Not yet, but we certainly will.”
“Good. Henry would be right at the top of my list.”
“Is there anyone else on that list?”
The phone line went silent for a few moments.
When ten seconds went by without an answer, David spoke up. “Claire.”
“I’m sorry. I can’t think of anyone else.”
“Are you sure?”
“To the best of my knowledge,” Claire said. “No one is coming to mind.”
David sighed. “All right.”
“You sound disappointed.”
“It’s not that.”
“I’m confused. Isn’t it a good thing when a person doesn’t have a lot of enemies?”
“Yes. Normally. But there’s nothing normal about this situation,” David said.
“That’s so true,” Claire said.
“With a case like this, you want to have as many leads as possible.”
“I suppose you’re right.”
“The last time you spoke with Angela, was she stressed out about anything?”
“Just the usual stuff. Money and bills,” Claire said. “There was certainly no indication that something like this would happen.”
“Did she mention Henry during that last call?”
“Nope. She is long over him. He’s the one who is still hung up on her.”
“Right. So Angela was pretty happy the last time you spoke with her?”
“Like I already told you. Yes,” Claire said.
“I’m sorry for going over the same territory again. I just want to cover all the bases. It’s important to be as thorough as possible,” David said.
“I understand. And I wish I had more to tell you. But I don’t know what else to say.”
“Fair enough,” David said.
The conversation went quiet again.
As the silence continued, it seemed like a good time to get off the phone.
Apparently, Claire had other ideas. She suddenly floated a question of her own.
“How about Gavin?” Claire asked.
My muscles tensed up. “What about him?”
“Have you talked to him?” Claire said.
I squinted. “You don’t mean as a suspect, do you?”
“No.”
I breathed a huge sigh of relief. “Good. I was worried you were going to say that Angela and Gavin were having problems.”
“No. As far as I can tell, things were going great with them,” Claire said.
“That’s good to hear.”
“I brought Gavin up because I was wondering if he knew of anyone else who was having problems with Angela.”
“He gave us a couple of names, but Angela’s ex-boyfriend is the best lead we have so far,” I said.
“Maybe Henry is the key to all of this,” Claire said.
“We’ll find out,” I said.
“Please keep me updated,” Claire said.
“We will,” I said.
“And if anything else comes to your mind, please call us immediately,” David said.
“I will,” Claire said.
Chapter Ten
When we arrived at Treasure Cove Smoothies, there was a muscular goateed man behind the counter. I looked at the name tag on his green polo shirt. It shouldn’t have surprised me that his name was Brock. I had only known one other guy named Brock in my entire life, and he too had been quite health-conscious.
The brown-haired thirty-one-year-old greeted us with a sales pitch before David was able to pull his police badge out.
“Man, it’s your lucky day. I have a smoothie that will blow your mind,” Brock said.
David held his hand out. “You can lay off the hard sell—”
Brock didn’t relent. “Bro, trust me. You’re going to want to hear me out. Our green smoothie is the quickest, most effective, and tastiest way to rev up your system. One sip and your taste buds will thank you.”
David flashed his badge. “We’re here about other business.”
The excitement disappeared from Brock’s voice as he tensed up. “What kind of business?”
David explained the situation. Brock grimaced as he heard the news. When David was done speaking, I pulled up a photo of Angela on my phone.
“Did this woman come in here this morning?” I asked.
Brock took one look at the photo and replied, “Yes.”
“About what time?” David asked.
Brock searched his mind. “Six-thirty. Maybe six-forty-five.”
“How long was she here?” David asked.
“Just a minute or two. She got her usual green smoothie and then went outside,” Brock said.
“Was she alone?” David asked.
Brock nodded. “When she came into the shop, yeah. But when she went outside with her smoothie, a man started arguing with her.”
My eyes widened. “Are you serious?”
“Yeah. It looked pretty heated,” Brock said.
“Since they were outside, I don’t suppose you were able to hear what they were arguing about,” I said.
Brock shook his head. “No.”
“Can you describe this man?”
“Late forties. Black hair. Tall. He looked like a complete tool,” Brock said.
David’s eyes scanned the smoothie shop. “Do you have a security system here?”
Brock’s eyes bulged. “Do you know how much one of those costs? Besides, who is going to rob me?”
“I was asking about a security system because I wanted to know if you might have gotten a recording of the man,” David said.
“Right. Sorry. I can’t help you with that,” Brock said.
David groaned. “That’s a shame.”
“But I can give you his name,” Brock said.
Mysteries of Treasure Cove Cozy Mystery Boxed Set Page 39