“The Bradley place?”

“Yeah. That’s up there.”

The sheriff told me earlier that everyone in the houses on the Bradleys’ road was questioned the day after Annalise’s disappearance. No one was home at the Bradley place, but the sheriff had placed a call to Dr. Bradley, who said that he and his guests had all left early and that they had all been at the house and didn’t hear or see anything out of the ordinary. That sent the sheriff and his department in other directions. They literally had a lot of ground to cover. Anyone driving the busy main road could’ve picked her up, and that became their focus. But now, with the discovery of the necklace in Dr. Bradley’s filing cabinet, that has all changed. And it also means that Dr. Bradley knew about the missing woman; either he had something to do with her disappearance, or the sheriff’s call informed him of the fact. Either way, he knew.

The sheriff comes to a stop in a nondescript section of road, slides the gearshift into PARK, and we jump out. “This is where her cell phone was found,” he says, “by those two pine trees.”

“Anything on her phone helpful?”

“Nothing. Except a text to her mother saying she’d be home soon that we figure she placed right as she left the bar. There was also a small amount of blood on the road here and fibers that probably came from her jeans.” He lifts his hat and scratches his head. “We think he knocked her down, then dragged her into his vehicle. That’s our theory anyway.”

“Sounds reasonable.”

I glance at the trees standing silently in the snow, close my eyes, and try to get a sense of Annalise. But I feel nothing but a cold emptiness.

Chase walks past us and heads up the road, turns. “Her house up this way then?”

“Yeah. Over that rise, there’s a gravel driveway on the left.”

Chase cranes his neck looking through the trees.

“You can’t see it from here,” the sheriff says. “Sits pretty far back.”

The sheriff is standing still as if this is the end of the line. It doesn’t seem like there’s much else to see up this way.

“You want to head back and go through all this?” I ask.

“That’d be good,” he says, and leads us back to his vehicle.

CHAPTER 28 - Molly

CHAPTER 28

Molly

ELISE DROPPED ME AND SADIE OFF AT HOME ON HER WAY TO WORK. The house is still, quiet. I flip through my security screens and then carry my laptop up to the master bathroom and set it on the sink while I shower and dress for the day.