“See anyone?” she asked.

“No,” he breathed. “Is there a way in where I don’t have to break anything?”

“Yes.” She pulled a key from her pocket.

“You have a key?” he said in surprise.

“I took it from my mother’s house.”

He gaped at her. “You were going to go in by yourself?”

“I don’t know. I brought it just in case.”

She could easily have landed right in Lyman’s lap, which wouldn’t have been a good place to find herself. But he didn’t say anything. He was glad he’d bumped into her out here. Thanks to her, he was finally catching a break.

The front door opened almost silently, no jingle to announce their arrival. He supposed all of that, if it had once existed, had been disabled when the chicken ranch went out of business.

“You know the layout of the building?” he asked, keeping his voice low.

Her eyes were round and watchful as she nodded.

The light from the hallway filtered in well enough that he didn’t need his flashlight to see the garbage at their feet. It didn’t smell good in here, but at least he didn’t catch the nauseating stench of decomposition. “What’s up ahead?” He motioned to the doorway leading to the rest of the plant.

“There’s a cooler and a bathroom to the right and a staff room with a small kitchenette to the left.”

Bishop and Evelyn, if they were here, would probably be in the staff room, or so he thought until he saw the heavy chain dangling from the handle of the cooler.

He nudged Ada to get her attention and pointed toward it.

When she realized what he was trying to show her she covered her mouth and turned in that direction, but he shook his head. He had to clear the rest of the building first.

Fortunately, the place was small enough that wasn’t a difficult task. He didn’t find Bishop, Evelyn or Edna. But after seeing that ominous chain hanging from the handle of the cooler, and the slot that had been cut into the door, he knew she hadn’t been kept in the staff room.

“He’s gone,” Ada said.

Yes. They were too late. Bishop wasn’t just gone, he wasn’t coming back. The place had been cleaned out.

“You’d better stay here,” he told Ada as he moved toward the cooler.

Her throat worked as she struggled to swallow. “You think my mother’s in there.”

“I’m not sure who or what I’ll find, but, knowing Bishop, it won’t be pretty.”

Her face creased with worry as she stopped at the end of the hall and hugged herself while he continued. He tried to think of her and how devastated she’d be if her mother was dead. But Evelyn could be inside the cooler, too. Maybe Bishop had decided to take his revenge and hit the road. It would be so much easier to travel without someone he had to care for or restrain, especially a woman who was about to have a baby in a few months.