Kennedy didn’t want to be an alarmist, but he was worried. “Mr. Johnson, I think you should call the cops. I don’t think Jen would walk off the job like this, and if she didn’t, something else went down.”

“Oh, God. That damned kid, Rob Sorensen. He’s big trouble. I’ll call the cops, all right.”

Kennedy’s stomach was still tied in knots. He had a really bad feeling about this. If those kids had returned, they could have overpowered Jen and forced her into a car. “Hurry, Mr. Johnson. Tell them you think Rob Sorensen kidnapped her. It may not be true, but given what he did the other night, I don’t think he deserves any benefit of the doubt.”

“I agree.”

Kennedy started to say something else but realized Jen’s father had ended the call. At a loss as to what to do next, Kennedy decided that messing with the camera footage would be a wasted effort. The county deputies would arrive soon. They would know all about surveillance systems. Kennedy’s time might be better spent looking around outside. He remembered how the food tray had been knocked from Jen’s hands that night Rob shoved his driver door open. Was there a tray and cold food lying on the ground outside that the owner hadn’t noticed?

Kennedy exited the building and scanned the parking area. There were so many vehicles under the overhang that he wouldn’t see a tray lying on the asphalt. Kennedy walked along the concrete median that the servers skated on to deliver orders. He accidentally stepped into the path of a waitress and made her spill a soda.

“Damn it!” the owner yelled. “Get the hell off the runway! Can’t you see how busy we are?”

What Kennedy saw was that Jen’s boss was so angry at her for leaving him in the lurch that he didn’t care what had happened to her. But Kennedy wasn’t going to let that stop him from looking around. What was the guy going to do, kick his ass and throw him off the property? Kennedy didn’t think so.

After walking the full length of the median, Kennedy cut a wide circle around the parking area, and as he finished the loop, which took him near the back of the building where a big green dumpster sat, he finally saw a tray. It lay on the ground with one of its legs broken, but no food was around it, only an empty hamburger wrapper, a smashed drink cup, and crumpled napkins. Kennedy closed the distance, anyway, just to get a better look. He saw nothing alarming. No blood or anything.

The thought of blood sent a weird feeling through his chest, not exactly a pain, but more like an ache. He’d come to care about Jen. She was a sweet girl, and he didn’t know what he’d do if something bad had happened to her.

Just then he heard a shrill sound. For an instant, he thought it was a distant cop siren wailing, but he only heard it once. Sirens usually kept blowing. His feet suddenly felt as if they were stuck to the ground, and his heart started to pound.