Page 13 of Undertow

Tom pushed back from his desk. He caught Cara’s eye and motioned to his screen. “So far, there’s no report in the NCIC database.”

Gabe's instinct was not to know. The answer came anyway. “I have friends,” Tom said.

Gabe set down his mug. “It’s only been three days. It’s certainly possible the reporting agency hasn’t seen the need to involve NCIC yet.”

“Why not?” Piper asked.

“There may be no report filed. All we have so far is this Voss’s word the woman even disappeared.” He began ticking the reasons off on his fingers. “Or they figure they can investigate on their own first before they kick the case up to the feds.” He shrugged. “There are a lot of possible reasons. All I know is, you’re not going to get any answers from this hospital. No way they’ll divulge patient info.”

“Right.” Cara bit her lower lip. “But I can’t help wondering if Elena’s out there somewhere. What if she’s in trouble and no one’s coming?”

She looked so worried and determined. He wanted to hug her, smooth the worry lines from her brow. Instead, he shoved his hands in his pockets and nodded slowly. “It probably wouldn’t hurt to poke around a little. Figure out if she’s even in trouble. If there’s nothing here, then you can back away. No harm, no foul.”

Reagan pointed at him. “I like your thinking, cowboy.”

“Let’s go through what we’ve got so far then,” Cara said.

Tom filled in the edges. Elena's name in Derek's startup founding documents — seed investor, her personal money. Funding round stalled eight months ago, just after she entered Pacific Crest. “Could be coincidence,” Tom said. “But I wouldn’t be on that.”

“Pacific Crest is private, isolated, restricted access.” Wade hadn't moved from the wall. “I've seen three operations like it. Two were legitimate. One was not. Either way, Gabe’s right. No way we’re getting any info out of them.”

“That they know of,” Tom muttered.

Gabe chose to pretend he didn’t hear that.

“Derek's socials are interesting,” Piper said. “Heavy posting, then it drops off and gets careful. The shift happens three months before Elena entered the facility. Whatever changed, it changed for him first.”

Gabe looked at Cara. She gave him a slight nod.

Reagan set her pen down. “So. Are we doing this?”

The room went briefly, specifically quiet. Not the quiet of people who didn't have opinions — the quiet of people waiting to see who said theirs first.

“According to the story so far, a woman left a medical facility in a January storm,” Cara said. “She chose hypothermia over staying. Nobody official is looking for her.” She looked around the table. “We're doing this. The question is what this is, exactly — because we don't work for Derek Voss. We work for the problem.”

“The problem being Elena,” Reagan said.

“That distinction's going to matter,” Gabe warned.

“It's going to matter a lot,” Cara agreed. “Which is also why you're here.”

That was the moment something else happened — fast, and from the direction nobody was watching.

A sound came from the corner near the stairs. Something between a chirp and a professional opinion. Wade turned toward it with an expression Gabe had never seen on him before. Focused. Assessing. Genuinely concerned.

Agent had appeared at the bottom of the stairs.

The cat surveyed the basement with the air of something conducting a formal inspection. Orange, sleek, carrying himself with the confidence of a creature who knew his rank in every room. He walked to the center of the basement and sat down.

Everyone looked at the cat. The cat looked at everyone.

“Is that the cat?” Wade asked.

“Agent,” Piper said. “He lives in the mudroom.”

The big man frowned down at the creature. Agent frowned back. “What's he eating?”

The question landed in a small silence. Wade was studying the animal with the same focus he'd given Pacific Crest.