Time seemed to crawl while Nate and his fellow officers came up with a plan. I knew they had people out looking for Kennedy, and that thanks to Mum’s communication skills, most of Destiny Falls had closed shop for the day to help with the search, but it didn’t feel like enough. I’d briefly joined in but had returned to the police station when I couldn’t still my frantic mind. I needed to be in the center of the action and up-to-date with any developments, which meant I was better off here. Based on the looks some of the cops had given me, I was lucky they’d allowed me to stay, so I tried to make myself unobtrusive, hovering in a corner and using an online group chat to help coordinate the community search.

We’d heard from the hospital that Blair had been drugged with ketamine. I’d instantly gone down a rabbit hole on the internet to find out what that meant. Apparently ketamine was an animal tranquilizer, often used as an anesthetic, but some people took it recreationally, which must have been how the stalker got his hands on it.

The phone company had confirmed that Kennedy’s phone was within the vicinity of Destiny Falls, but due to the patchy coverage up here, they couldn’t pin down a precise location. According to Nate, they thought she was most likely in the area between the township and the ski resort.

“Sergeant Braddock,” Officer Mehrtens called as she strode into the room with a phone in her hand. “I think I’ve got something.”

Nate cocked a brow. “What is it?”

“I’ve called all adventure activity providers within fifty kilometers, and none of them have any record of Tyler Johnson participating in a tour today. He isn’t answering his phone and, if you’ll recall, Miss Carter mentioned she thought Johnson previously had a romantic interest in her. What if he’s the stalker?”

“You might be onto something,” Nate replied.

I strained to make sure I didn’t miss any of their conversation, my coordination role temporarily forgotten.

“That would explain how the perp knew the alarm code,” he continued. “Johnson would have had plenty of opportunity to find it out. But he and Blair were together when the stalker called Kennedy while she was in our interview room.”

“Calls can be faked,” Mehrtens said.