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She and Molly stepped down the stairs and began walking quickly down to the end of the row of town homes.
“Corey,” Molly muttered.
“And Bobby, it sounds like. He’s big enough to carry a woman like that.”
Molly slanted her a look of concern as they started up the narrow alley behind the row of town homes. “You okay with this?”
Val knew Molly was referring to the fact that men Bobby’s size often triggered her fear. “I’m fine.” She really was. “I’m far more worried about Allyson Meyer. “
They opened the gate into Allyson’s back courtyard and immediately saw that a window had been broken and the door was ajar. They shared a quick look before pulling on gloves and drawing their weapons. Val pulled her phone from her pocket.
“Call 911,” she whispered to Kaj.
“Already done,” he replied. “Be careful.”
He didn’t urge her not to go in, which was a surprise. She wouldn’t have listened, so maybe he knew her well enough already not to bother trying.
Molly pointed to herself, then down. She’ll go low, I’ll go high.
They crept into the house and found all the interior doors open, but no one was there. They cleared each room, then went on to the next, then climbed the stairs. Again, they found the doors open. There was a spare room with a monitor, but no computer.
They finally got to the primary bedroom. They’d seen nothing out of place anywhere.
“You think they drugged her?” Val murmured.
“Don’t know. It’s possible. Allyson was army. She knew how to defend herself, but there’s no sign of a struggle. I’d have thought that if she was able, she’d have fought. Closet’s empty.”
“So are the drawers,” Val said, checking the dresser. “Allyson was planning to leave. But the kid next door didn’t say anything about the guys carrying suitcases. Just a woman.”
Molly nodded. “I was thinking the same thing. I’ll check the bathroom.”
Val looked over the rest of the bedroom, immediately noticing that the bedspread was rumpled in only one small area. It was the only thing out of place in the entire house. “Someone sat on the bed. Everything here is perfectly placed and Allyson was army. I think she would have smoothed it over. At least I would have.”
“I agree,” Molly said, coming out of the bathroom. “I couldn’t have walked away from a rumpled bedspread, either. There are dirty shoe prints in the tub. Someone was wearing heels. She must have been hiding.”
“There’s nothing else here.” Val had started for the door when a flash of color caught her eye. “Hold on.” She crouched down to check it out. “It’s a coat, all balled up.”
“That’s different. Hurry. We need to be out of here before the cops get here, which will be any minute.”
“Will do. I don’t want André to have to rescue me twice in one night.” Val winced when her back protested her position, but the pain was worth it. “There’s an ID badge on the carpet. It fell out of the pocket.” Reaching her phone under the bed, she snapped a photo of the badge, then showed it to Molly, zooming in on the image. “Oh my God. This is why Noni didn’t answer when we knocked on her door.”
Molly blew out a breath. “She was here. What do you want to bet that Allyson was already gone and Noni came to check up on her source?”
“Yeah. Let’s go.”
They hurried down the stairs and out the back door, jogging down to the end of the row as the police pulled up in front of Allyson’s house.
Molly pointed to the direction from which they’d come. “We asked our boss to call you. We came to check on Allyson Meyer because she didn’t show up to work today. Signs of forced entry at the back.”
The cop stared at them. “And you are?”
Molly smiled at him sweetly. “Private investigators. We work for Burke Broussard.”
The cop just nodded. “Please wait on the sidewalk. I’ll have someone take your statement.” He narrowed his eyes. “Did you go inside?”
“Only to see if anyone needed help,” Molly said. “When we saw that no one was home, we left immediately.”
Kind of true. It seemed good enough for the cop. “All right. Please wait.”
