“Is her car there?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

“I was able to open the man door and take a peek into the garage. It’s empty. I looked around the house as best I could without actually going in, too. Nothing seems to be disturbed from what I could tell.”

“Maybe the neighbor you spoke to can provide a list of places to look. Her hairdresser. Nail salon. Kids’ houses. What have you.”

“I asked for those things. She didn’t have any answers and neither did anyone else.”

“Can someone put us in touch with her family?”

“The neighbor on the other side just moved in a few months ago. He didn’t even know her name. The others seem more familiar with her routine but not especially close to her. They knew her husband better. I guess he was the more outgoing of the two. But he died six months ago.”

“Shit.”

“So … what do you want me to do?”

Amarok looked out the clouded window, not seeing much. “It’s only six thirty your time. Stay there in case she shows up tonight and call me if she does. Failing that, maybe the neighbor across the street will come home and be able to tell us more. We need her cell number, at the very least.”

“Hate to tell you this, Amarok, but she doesn’t have a cell. Doesn’t care for technology. The lady three doors down told me that.”

Amarok pinched his bottom lip as he searched his mind for a fresh angle. He couldn’t be stymied after getting this far.…

“You still there?” Phil prodded.

He dropped his hand. “Yeah. Just find some way to reach her, okay? Do whatever you have to.” He was about to hang up when Phil caught him with a question.

“You don’t think something’s happened to her, do you? I mean, it’s kind of weird that Emmett is connected to Evelyn’s disappearance and now this lady goes missing, too. The neighbor who told me she doesn’t have a cell phone also said that since her husband died she’s been pretty depressed. Hasn’t gone hardly anywhere.”

“She could be out of town.”

“Without stopping her mail?”

“Her mail is piling up?”

“I checked the mailbox out front. She hasn’t gotten it for a few days.”

Amarok hoped nothing had happened to her. Without the link she inadvertently provided to Emmett Virtanen, he might never find Evelyn. “Maybe it slipped her mind. Anything’s possible,” he insisted.

But that was the terrifying part. When dealing with someone such as Lyman Bishop—even an ex-con like Virtanen—there were no assurances.

Anchorage, AK—Tuesday, 7:30 p.m. AKDT

Ada called her husband in Seattle as soon as she got home from the police station. She’d filled out a missing person report, but she didn’t get the feeling anyone on the force was very gung ho to find out what’d happened to her mother. The officer she’d spoken to kept assuring her he’d look into it. But he was so casual in his approach. Since she could attest to the fact that there hadn’t been a break-in—she’d been at the house for the better part of the day and hadn’t noticed anything out of place—they seemed to believe she was getting worked up for nothing, that Edna had merely gone on a trip and neglected to tell her.