“What about tomorrow morning?” She hadn’t packed a suit before coming out from the city, but she thought she could find something appropriate in Hope’s closet.

“You’ll be good to enter by then.”

Scott had started the engine by the time she hung up. “That didn’t sound good.”

“It’s not.” She had missed the chance to end this nightmare tonight. She leaned back against the headrest, a growl of frustration escaping from her throat. “I need to get back to the hotel and prepare for court tomorrow. Maybe I can at least patch together a half-decent bail motion.” She had wanted to prevent charges altogether, but now she was lowering the bar to getting Hope released from custody.

When they reached the hotel, Scott bypassed the parking lot and pulled directly in front of the lobby’s entrance. “You do what you need to do.”

“Where are you going?”

“I’ll head back to Montauk and keep trying.”

“You’ve already done so much. You must be exhausted.”

“Nah, I’m in full investigator mode now. Besides, you’ll work better if I’m not here.”

Two hours later, she jerked awake at the sudden sensation of motion next to the bed.

“Just me,” Scott whispered.

The hotel room was pitch-black except for the red glow of the nightstand clock. It was nearly one in the morning. “I didn’t even hear the door open. Is everything okay?”

She squinted as he clicked on the bedside lamp.

“Oh, it’s better than okay. Remember that dive bar at the marina? The one that was locked up?”

A simple Closed sign had hung on a heavy black door on a brick building under a red awning. It could have been a hardware store or a tackle shop except for the one other sign to the left of the door: Beer and Booze.

“It was open when I went back. It’s called Pier Bar, by the way, but apparently everyone calls it B&B because of the Beer and Booze sign. Anyway, I showed the bartender the photos, and he immediately asked if I was a cop. Let’s just say he didn’t seem like he was real interested in talking to cops.”

Lindsay sat up in bed and leaned against the padded headboard. The bar he was talking about was directly across from the parking lot where Alex’s pickup truck had been found.