They were only beginning to breach the surface of who this new faction was, but small players didn’t try to come in and overturn an established drug operation unless they were either well prepared or batshit crazy. It was a relief to make it out another day without any bullet holes or a coroner escort.
“Wilson, my office,” the Captain called out when he spotted him crossing the station floor.
“What’s up, Cap?” Wilson replied wearily as he approached his office door.
“Just get in here,” Cap barked.
Whatever was up didn’t sound friendly and he was already exhausted from chasing some crackhead through several parking lots and across a city park, where he disappeared into the trees. Ryan knew better than to follow him without more than a small army of backup. That grove of trees was a death sentence for a cop caught out in it alone. It was full of unhinged folks who lived off the grid and had no use or regard for the police or strangers.
“Wilson, you know Peters and Lark from over at missing persons, right?”
“Yes,” Ryan replied, wondering if this had something to do with what he had asked Kate to run for him.
“These guys have a few questions for you. Have a seat,” Cap told him.
“You know a woman named Lucy Jameson?” Lark asked.
Ryan’s heart all but stopped. Had she gone so far as to complain about him investigating folks without proper authority or something? He knew she was mad, but he hadn’t thought she’d do something like that to him. It didn’t seem like her, at all.
“Yes, I know Lucy.”
“What is your relationship with her? Lark continued.
“We’ve been seeing one another since just after the first of the year.”
“How did you meet?”
“A dating site.”
“Which one?”
“Alpha Meets Omega.”
Ryan wasn’t the first person to have to name the app in some sort of questioning scenario. It was always best to be honest and, to the naked eye, it looked like any other site to anyone glancing through it. They’d just think that the guys listed themselves as Alpha and the women Beta or Omega based on some sort of personality traits. It wasn’t really that far off when you considered how each segment of their populace behaved
“Is that some sort of BDSM type thing or something,” Peters interjected.
“What? No. It’s just a dating site.”
“Weird thing to name a dating app.”
“The beginning and the end,” Lark observed, translating the meaning behind the words. Peters raised an eyebrow at that and began to make a note on his pad.
“Okay,” Ryan replied with a scowl. “What is this about? Is Lucy okay?”
“We’re asking questions here, Wilson,” Peters snarled at him.
“You’re asking questions of a fellow cop, not a suspect. Try treating a fellow officer with a bit more respect,” Cap said, giving him a hard glance from behind his desk.
“Suspect?” Ryan gasped. Now, he was bothered. “What’s going on here? Tell me if something has happened to Lucy,” he demanded, jumping to his feet.
Lark and Peters exchanged a glance and seemed to calm down a little, but said nothing for a moment. Cap quietly motioned for him to sit back down and he did so, but was still leaning forth, now on pins and needles.
“Miss Jameson’s former roommate reported her missing this morning after she failed to show up for a night out on Friday and again for glass this morning. She said she’d been calling her all weekend and getting no answer. When did you last see her?”
Ryan felt like all of the wind had been knocked out of him. He collapsed back in his chair, his mind whirling with his own thoughts. Had she been missing all this time he had been trying to contact her? The thought of what might have happened to her in just this brief amount of time made him sick to his stomach. He should be out looking for her instead of sitting here answering stupid questions.
“Um, Thursday.”
“How did she seem? Do you have any reason to believe she would harm herself?”
“Harm? Has she done something to herself?” he said, his heart now in his feet.
“We’re asking you what you know. We’re not answering questions right now,” Peters said, ignoring what the Captain had said previously.
“Enough,” the Captain said, obviously noting how upset Kevin seemed. “Kevin, we haven’t located her at this time. All we know is that she is missing. She could have just taken off for the weekend and not be thinking about how it might look. People take a break. People skip class. She could walk into her house tomorrow and be shocked that anyone noticed she was gone. In the meantime, we only have a report that she didn’t show up as expected and isn’t answering her phone. You are not a suspect, but we need to know if you have any information that might help us ensure she is safe and sound.”