captain said, we’ll ask around at the local motels and hotels, see if anyone remembers her.”
“Why didn’t you do that before?”
A reasonable question from someone to whom the missing person was one of the most important people on earth. “I don’t want to sound callous,” he said, “but with no sign of foul play and no one pressing us on the matter, your sister’s whereabouts weren’t a high priority. We’ve had murders and drug cases and even suspected terrorism to deal with. We only have so many people and so many hours in the day.”
“Then I guess it’s a good thing I came down here,” she said.
“Don’t think no one cares about your sister,” he said. “Remember, that reporter has been trying to find out what happened to her. But she hasn’t come up with any new information, either.”
“How do you know she hasn’t come up with any new information? Maybe she didn’t bother telling you because she thought you wouldn’t pay attention.”
“Oh, she knows we’d pay attention. She’s engaged to the captain. If she found out anything important, she wouldn’t give him any peace until he followed up on it.” He glanced at her. “So you see, we’re on the same side here. And maybe we’ll find out something useful today—provided your sister wasn’t staying with a friend, or camping out.”
“Lauren definitely isn’t the camping type, and I couldn’t find that she knew anyone here in town— except Mr. Prentice.”
“We’ve been watching his place pretty closely and we haven’t seen any sign of your sister there.”
She tensed, and leaned toward him. “Why are you watching Mr. Prentice? Is it because he’s...what was the word the other officer used—an agitator?”
Prentice liked to agitate all right, but Rand didn’t care so much about that. Part of wearing a uniform was knowing some people didn’t like you on principle. “Mr. Prentice’s estate is an inholding, completely surrounded by public land. It makes sense for us to keep an eye on his place.” He hoped that was enough to satisfy Sophie’s curiosity. He couldn’t tell her they suspected the billionaire was using his wealth for more than investing in real estate and businesses. Their investigations had linked him, albeit tenuously, to everything from drug runners to foreign terrorists. Sooner or later, the Rangers were going to find the evidence they needed to make him pay for his crimes.
“How many motels and hotels are there in the area?” Sophie’s question pulled Rand’s attention back to her, and today’s search for her missing sister.
“A bunch,” he said. “But we can narrow the field by focusing on the most likely places for your sister to stay. She strikes me as a classy woman, so we can move the obvious roach motels to the bottom of the list. Where do you think she’d be?”
She considered the question for a moment, brow furrowed and lips pursed. “She’d probably pick the first nice-looking place she came to when she drove into town. She wasn’t the type to spend a lot of time driving around, looking.”
“That would be either the Country Inn or the Mountain View.”
“No chains?” she asked.
“Would your sister prefer a chain? There’s a Holiday Inn and a Ramada closer to the center of town.”
“No, she wouldn’t care about that, as long as the place looked clean.”
He drove to the Country Inn first. Red geraniums bloomed in window boxes against rows of white-framed windows trimmed in white shutters. A water wheel turned in a flower-lined pond near the entrance, splashing water that sparkled in the sun. “Lauren would have liked this,” Sophie said.
Rand parked, but left the car running, with the air-conditioning on, to avoid overheating the dog. “Lotte, wait here,” he said. “We’ll be back in a minute.”
“You talk to her as if she understands you,” Sophie said as they crossed the parking lot.
“Of course she understands me. Do you have a picture of your sister with you?”
“Yes.” She took her phone from her purse and flipped to a shot of Lauren Starling seated in a restaurant booth, smiling at the camera and holding up a colorful cocktail. “I took this when she visited Wisconsin for my birthday last year.”
He didn’t miss the sadness in her voice. “It’s a great picture,” he said. “We’ll need it to show to the clerk.”
The lobby of the motel was busy, with a couple flipping through brochures at one end of the counter, a pair of tweens choosing sodas from a machine and a businessman checking in. The clerk behind the counter was probably a college student from the local university, Rand decided. She had long blond hair, dyed bright pink at the ends, and half a dozen earrings in each ear. When she was done with the businessmen, she smiled at them. “May I help you?”
He showed his badge and the clerk’s eyes widened. “We’re looking for a missing woman,” he said. “Lauren Starling. She may have stayed here about a month ago.” He nodded to Sophie and she held out the phone to show Lauren’s picture.
“I’m her sister,” Sophie said. “This is Lauren.”
The clerk’s eyes widened. “You say she’s missing?”
“Yes. Do you remember her, or could you check your records?”
“I don’t have to check the records. She was here. I remember.”
* * *
SOPHIE FUMBLED WITH the phone, almost dropping it. “Lauren was here? Are you sure?” Her voice shook. Rand put his hand on her shoulder, steadying her.
The clerk nodded. “I recognized her from the TV, but she was obviously trying to hide her identity. I mean, she registered as Jane Smith or something like that, and paid cash for the room.”
“You didn’t think that was suspicious?” Rand asked.
“Well, yeah, but people do weird things all the time, and you learn not to ask questions.” She tucked a strand of cotton-candy-colored hair behind one ear. “Then she met up with a guy, and I figured they were having an affair.” She shrugged. “It happens.”
“A guy?” Sophie leaned across the counter. “Who was the guy? What did he look like?”
Rand squeezed her shoulder to quiet her. She was going to scare off the clerk, who looked alarmed. He double-checked the girl’s name badge. “I promise you won’t get into any trouble, Marlee. Just tell us what you remember.”
She shrugged again. “He was just a real ordinary-looking guy—early forties, maybe. Light brown hair cut short, not too tall, not too big.”
“Did he register also?”
She shook her head. “And that’s really the only reason I remember him. I was getting off my shift and I saw him standing with Jane Smith outside her room. Then he took a suitcase—one of those little overnight bags—from his car and went inside with her. That’s against the rules—to have someone staying in the room who isn’t registered, but it was no skin off my nose, you know? I
