Holly chuckled. ‘You know that day Sophie and I wanted to stop by and see you?’

‘Yeah.’ Alyssa drew the one-syllable word into two.

‘Well, we saw him coming out of the precinct, and long story short, he had a flat tire, so we helped him change it.’ This time the laughter hit her eyes. ‘He didn’t have a clue; couldn’t even find the jack.’

Alyssa snickered. ‘Oh, your dad will love that.’

‘Your dad will love what?’ Brock said, rounding the corner into the kitchen and dropping a kiss on the top of Holly’s head. ‘My two favorite girls.’ He waved his hand toward the counter. ‘Great minds, huh? I’ll just take over from here.’

‘Thanks, Dad. And I helped a guy change a tire.’

Even though her daughter played it off, Alyssa knew from the smug look on her face that, internally, she must be feeling the tiniest bit superior.

‘Hmm. Your mom’s right: Dad does love that.’

The conversation died out while Brock made the omelets, slid them onto plates and set them on the table. The three of them ate in companionable silence, and when they finished, Alyssa carried her dishes to the dishwasher. ‘Thanks for breakfast, but I really need to get going.’ After she grabbed her gun from the safe, she paused in the doorway to the garage. ‘When are you going to see Jersey today?’

‘I’m going to swing by Sophie’s around eight so we can go together.’ She bit her bottom lip.

‘What’s wrong?’

Holly sighed. ‘I’m not looking forward to telling Sophie that Leigh Ann sent me a text around midnight saying she was sorry and she was ready to visit Jersey.’

Alyssa’s forehead furrowed in confusion. ‘What do you mean? Didn’t she visit her yesterday with you?’

‘Nope. Said she wasn’t ready yet. Plus, to be honest, Soph and I were still pretty pissed at her for waiting so long to tell you about Beau being at the frat party.’ A mask dropped into place, so she was clearly not over it yet. ‘Her reason for waiting – she was afraid of getting in trouble – just makes me want to scream. Especially since Beau apparently knew both Rachel and Jersey, and both of them disappeared after being with him.’ She huffed out a breath of air. ‘But how I feel about her right now doesn’t matter. Jersey was obviously upset when Leigh Ann wasn’t with us, so Sophie and I are just going to have to deal with it.’

‘You’re a good friend, Holly Wyatt,’ Alyssa said before heading out, that tickle in the back of her mind returning full force.

Chapter Fifty-One

Monday, May 27

Alyssa was focused on trying to locate the common link between the seven girls when Cord walked into the conference room a couple of hours after her. She shot him a startled glance. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘Same as you, I imagine.’ He tipped his head to the whiteboard where she had written the names of every player, real or suspected, and the girls. Then she’d drawn a line connecting the ones who went together. A red line traced from Beau Cambridge to Jersey and Rachel, and a dotted line from Meghan and Katelyn, and yet another to Chance Williams. ‘Want to talk it out, see if I can help connect the dots?’