She was seriously considering jerking the phone away and demanding the information herself when Hal suddenly reached out and grabbed a piece of paper, flipped it over, and scribbled something on the back, and then recited his email address. ‘I’ll check my inbox right now and let you know when I get it. Do you mind holding? Great.’

His fingers flew over his laptop keyboard, and a few seconds later, he shouted out, ‘Bingo! Thanks for your help. APD surely appreciates it. Yes, your direct line would be great. Okay, got it. We’ll be in touch if we need anything else.’

Alyssa moved in behind Hal as he clicked on the map and zeroed in on the image the cell tower had tracked Rachel’s phone to. It took her only a second to recognize the general location as the university area and another to realize… ‘Fraternity Row,’ she breathed out. ‘Get Tony and Joe on the phone and have them meet me there!’ She whirled around and smacked into Cord. ‘I didn’t hear you come in. When did you get here?’

He ignored her question in favor of one of his own. ‘Meet you where?’

‘Never mind about Tony and Joe.’ She rushed through the door, expecting her partner would follow. ‘Nick Otis called his sister’s phone this morning, and someone answered. When he told the person who answered that Rachel was missing, the guy powered the phone off. Judge Rosario issued a ping warrant, and the location tracked back to Fraternity Row.’ By the time she hit the precinct doors, she was running.

And a few minutes later, she was stuck in construction traffic on Central, cursing and banging on her steering wheel, just barely managing not to lay on her horn. ‘Who in the hell ever thought it was a good idea to narrow Central down to one lane when it was already a traffic nightmare? Oh, that’s right, the mayor.’

‘You realize breaking your steering wheel off in your impatient frustration isn’t really going to get you any further any faster?’

The withering look she shot him would have had most men – and women – cowering in a corner. Not Cord, though. He was used to it and knew her anger wasn’t really directed at him anyway. Taking several deep breaths – in through the nose, out through the mouth – Alyssa tried to calm her nerves. When that didn’t work, she asked Cord about Sara. ‘It’s not like you to go with Sara to a doctor’s appointment, seeing as how she’s a nurse and all. Is everything okay?’

To her surprise, he cut his eyes away from her and out the passenger window. ‘Yes, everything’s fine. Looks like traffic’s finally moving.’

His observation was clearly a dismissal, but as he was also correct, Alyssa dropped the subject and hit the gas, taking the first right turn she could so that, even though it was a longer route, it would still take less time because they wouldn’t be fighting construction. As she weaved in and out of slow-moving cars, shooting down the road at fifteen miles per hour over the posted speed limit, she wondered if she needed to be worried about Sara. About Cord.