She’d caught him and Maverick walking into a Paige Lauffer task force meeting. So much for repeat sex. She hung up, reached for her running shoes, and set out to release endorphins through the less preferable act of jogging.

She’d gone two miles before her phone rang in the middle of Dunn’s Woods, a grove of forested sanctuary in the southwest corner of campus. She didn’t recognize the number but knew the voice.

Doris Chapman sounded agitated. “I can’t get a hold of Lakshmi. Have you heard from her today?”

“Not since last night,” Caitlin said, biting back her next thought. When I ran away crying.

“Me either. Maybe she’s ignoring me.”

Caitlin heard the tinkle of ice cubes in a glass. Maybe Doris was more than agitated at ten in the morning.

“Why would you think that?” The pause lasted long enough for Caitlin to check that her phone was still connected. “Doris?”

“I got jealous.”

“What do you mean?”

“I checked with her yesterday to see if you’d found anything new, and she said she couldn’t tell me. You see, now that you’re involved—”

“I’ll call her, make sure everything’s okay.”

“I can’t afford to have her stop talking to me. Angie and I stopped talking. Well, not talking, but she stopped telling me real things about her life.”

“Doris—”

“My daughter, my husband … I can’t lose Lakshmi.”

Caitlin couldn’t let the woman spiral. “Doris, everything’s fine. We might have something.”

“Something new?”

“Please don’t take it personally, but we can’t afford to let anything slip. I’ll have Lakshmi call you, okay?”

“I’m so sorry.”

“Nothing to apologize about.”

Five apologies later, Doris Chapman let her off the phone. She sent Lakshmi a text: Any luck last night? Give me a call when you can.

A gentle breeze rustled the leaves of the tall trees. Caitlin closed her eyes and counted to sixty, her body swaying with the wind.

She opened her eyes, checked her phone. No reply.

She ran another quarter mile, then stopped and checked again. Still nothing.

In the nine days she’d been in Bloomington, six had started with some sort of communication with Lakshmi. Maybe it was nothing, but Caitlin changed her route, aiming instead for the girl’s apartment.

What if something had happened? The last time Caitlin had seen her, she’d told the girl to handle her business. Lakshmi could have gone out to the farm and gotten herself in real trouble.

She got to Lakshmi’s building, caught her breath, and knocked on the apartment door.

No answer. Caitlin sent another text: You around? I’m at your place.

No sounds of activity in the apartment, no sign of an imminent reply. She checked the parking lot. No Chapman-mobile either.

“Shit,” Caitlin said out loud, pacing. “She could be studying, or seeing a movie, or hanging out with friends.”