My lips pinched together. “Or perhaps it wasn’t a logical decision. They might have been angry and wanted to hurt me.” I felt a ring of truth in the words, so I continued. “From what we know, it seems like the stalker wants Kennedy to himself. I’m getting in the way of that. Perhaps the note was a type of petty revenge. He knew we wouldn’t believe it long term, but maybe he had hoped to fuck with my head in the meantime?”

“It’s possible,” Nate agreed.

But even if Blair hadn’t managed to summon help, brilliant Kennedy had made sure I’d know something was up. My heart expanded. God, I loved her so much.

Footsteps marched into the room behind me, and I spun. It was Constable Mehrtens, her eyes alive with the thrill of finally seeing some proper police action.

“Sir, we made contact with the resort. They reported that Aiden Waldron isn’t answering his door, and his rental vehicle isn’t in the parking lot. His business colleagues are also absent, and none of them are picking up their phones.”

“Thanks, Constable. Good work. Any other leads?”

“We haven’t been able to get a hold of Tyler Johnson. He told Blair Carter he was going on an ATV tour, but he didn’t mention with whom. We’re calling around the local adventure tour companies at the moment to find out where he’s supposed to be.”

“Keep it up.” Nate dismissed her with a nod, then called out, “Anderson, any leads on the names Kennedy’s security guy sent us?”

“Not yet, sir, but I just received confirmation that the photographer who’d been bothering her departed Queenstown airport yesterday. He flew to Auckland, where he stayed overnight, and his boarding pass was scanned at the gates of a direct flight to LAX.”

“I guess that’s something.” Nate gritted his teeth. “Patton, have you managed to track down any witnesses who saw vehicles in and around the site of the abduction at approximately 11:00 a.m.?”

A young constable with a wisp of a mustache snapped to attention. “The neighbor across the road reports seeing no unusual vehicles or activity and says that she’s usually very alert to comings and goings. Nobody else seems to have seen anything, including the homeowner, but Cross and Moore are still knocking on doors.”

“We need to get out and look for her,” I muttered to Nate. “This isn’t getting anywhere. Do you have boots on the ground, doing a search?”

Nate gave me a look that said I was pushing all of his buttons but that he’d let me get away with it in the circumstances. “Yes, Liam, we do. But we can’t send everyone out willy-nilly with no trail to follow. We need to be smart about this.”

I fought the urge to hit something. “What can I do to help?”

Chapter Forty-Seven

KENNEDY