“Where?”
“At the Timberbeast. I met Annika and Isabelle for a drink and Hayden was working. We almost called you, actually, but I thought you might be busy. Anyway, it’s just so odd. He’s always seemed so nice. He was talking to us last night. But maybe he just freaked out when he hit me. Some people don’t deal with sudden stress very well.”
“I’m so sorry that happened to you. Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah, I’ll be fine. What about you?”
“Honestly, I had a very shocking conversation with my mother, but I’ll tell you in person. Don’t worry about me, deal with your car situation.”
“Okay. Take care and I’ll talk to you soon.”
“You too, Mari.”
I ended the call and slipped my phone in my back pocket. The feeling of being watched was back, so I moved closer to the house to make sure I was within range of the cameras. Without really thinking about it, I picked up Max’s ball.
“Max?” My voice came out like a squeak, so I cleared my throat. “Max, come!”
He didn’t appear, which jogged my frozen brain back into action. He’d been right by the house just a second ago.
“Max, come here.”
I jogged around the side of the house, hoping he hadn’t found another dead animal or something equally stinky to roll in.
No Max.
Oh, no.
“Max?”
I looked up the hill. There was one thing that would ruin his mostly reliable recall. A scent he couldn’t resist. It had certainly happened before.
I did a lap around the house and checked around Josiah’s remodel next door. No dog. No humans, either.
A bark carried on the breeze. I ran behind the house again and looked up the hill. “Max?”
Nothing.
Then I heard a yelp, a distinct cry of pain. The last time I’d heard that sound, my mom’s cat had swiped her claws across Max’s nose.
Whatever Max had found, it was no pampered cat.
I took off up the hill at a run.
CHAPTER 36
Josiah
Seeing Audrey’s car in the driveway took my sense of panic down a few notches. At least she hadn’t gone anywhere.
I went to the front door and steeled myself to tell her the truth about confronting Colin. I just hoped she wouldn’t be too furious with me.
The door opened. It was unlocked.
Why was the door unlocked?
That wasn’t good. We’d been keeping it locked in case the stalker decided he didn’t care about being on camera.
More alarming than the door, Max didn’t come running to greet me.
He always came running.
“Audrey?”
No answer.
I shut the door behind me.
“Max?”
Still nothing.
She might have been in the shower or something, although that didn’t explain Max. The bedroom door was open and no one was there. The bathroom was empty.
Where the hell was she?
“Audrey?” I called again, although the house wasn’t that big. There wasn’t anywhere for her to go where she wouldn’t hear me.
I checked the garage. Dark and empty.
There was no sign of them outside. A couple of Max’s balls were in the front yard, but that wasn’t unusual. And it told me nothing.
I ran next door to see if she’d gone in to get a sneak peek of the kitchen cabinets, but the house was dark and quiet.
I took a deep breath. I didn’t need to lose my shit. I just needed to call her. I got out my phone and called, but it went straight to voicemail.
Damn it. Either her phone was off or she was in a dead spot. I swiped to my messages to make sure I hadn’t missed a text from her, telling me where she was. Nothing.
She had plans with Marigold. That meant they’d probably gone out to get food somewhere and she’d simply forgotten to lock the door behind her. Surprising that she’d forget something like that with everything that had happened, but it was possible.
I didn’t have Marigold’s number. I was about to call my sister to ask for it when I realized I was being an idiot.
The cameras.
There wasn’t an inch of ground around her house that wasn’t being recorded. I’d turned off the notifications because the damn squirrels kept setting them off, but it kept a recording of every incident of movement. However she’d left, she’d have been on camera. If Marigold had picked her up, there’d be footage of her leaving.
I flipped through the footage. Squirrel. Another squirrel. More fucking squirrels.
Then Max. One of the front cameras had recorded him going out to pee. Normal enough. Audrey was outside with him. She got on her phone and I could see her talking to someone. She wandered a little, pausing to toss the ball for Max a couple of times while she talked.