“I drove over there, and Carol has an assigned parking space, and her car wasn’t there. But then I thought, maybe she had some kind of car trouble, and came home in a taxi and—”

“Did you try her landline?” Maureen asked.

“She doesn’t have one,” Trevor said. “Just her cell. So anyway, I hang around in the lobby and managed to get into the building when someone else was going in, and I go up to her door and bang on it, and there’s no answer.”

Duckworth asked, “When was the last time you tried her cell?”

“One minute before I came into your room,” Trevor said. “I waited in the parking lot of her place all night. When the sun came up, I came home.” He looked to be on the verge of tears. “I don’t know what to do.”

“Where’s she work again?” his father asked.

“She works at the town hall.”

“That’s right.”

Maureen’s eyebrows went up a notch. “For Randall Finley?”

Trevor shook his head. “No, she doesn’t work in the mayor’s office. She’s, like, in the town planning department. She’s got some kind of degree in how to organize cities, that kind of thing.”

“How’d you meet her?” Duckworth asked.

“Does that matter?” Trevor asked.

“Probably not,” he said. “Just curious.”

“I went in there to drop off a résumé, and she recognized me. We were in a couple high-school classes together. We met up later for a coffee—this was about a month ago—and we started seeing each other.”

“When were you planning to bring her around her so we could meet her?” Maureen asked.

Trevor looked at her. “Seriously? That’s what you’re concerned about right now?”

Maureen frowned. “Sorry.”

Duckworth said, “I’m sure she’s fine. I’ll bet there’s a simple explanation. A family emergency, maybe. Something that called her out of town.” He glanced at his watch. “The town hall opens up in another hour or so. We’ll drop by, see if she’s there.”

Trevor nodded very slowly, licked his lips as though there was something he still had to say.

“There’s more,” he said quietly.

“What’s that?” Duckworth asked.

“We weren’t . . . we weren’t entirely honest with you yesterday, when you talked to us at Starbucks.”

Duckworth waited.

“I mean, it wasn’t my place to say anything. If anyone was going to say anything, it was going to be Carol.”

“Why’s that?”

“She’s the one who saw something.”

“Saw something at Knight’s? When you were leaving?”

“Not something, exactly. Just someone. And she didn’t see anyone doing anything. In fact, it’s probably nothing.”

“I don’t understand.”