Page 149 of Cruel Abandon (Fallen Royals 5)

“Listen, Detective, I’ll be back there in two minutes. Can you not get ahold of her?”

I can think of a number of reasons why Sky would want to dodge McAdams’s phone calls, but I can’t think of any reason she actually wouldn’t answer the phone. She’s a rule follower like that… and I think she secretly feels guilty about not being able to contribute more.

“Her phone is going straight to voicemail.”

I shake my head. “No, that’s not right. Maybe she’s in the shower or something…” She already showered today, but who knows? Anything is possible. “She had met with Detective Jim Masters from Rose Hill, maybe they’re still talking?”

McAdams is quiet. “Masters, you said?”

“Yes.”

Eli glances at me. We’re only a block away from my apartment, but we both pick up speed.

“Call me back when you get home,” she says firmly, then hangs up on me.

“Skylar?” Eli asks me.

“I don’t know where she is.”

We’re both openly running now, shoulder to shoulder down the sidewalk. I try to dial her number, but like McAdams said: straight to voicemail.

“Where the fuck are you, Sky?”

We get to my apartment door, and I struggle to put the key in the lock. My hands are shaking, and I don’t even know why. It’s not like anything bad’s happened.

There’s a perfectly reasonable answer for the questions plummeting around in my mind.

“I’ve got it,” Eli says, taking the keys from me and unlocking the door. He follows me up the stairs to my apartment door and repeats the process.

It’s still locked. The bolt gives an audible scraping noise when it turns.

He goes to the alarm pad while I scour the apartment. Every room, while my chest tightens and tightens. She’s not here, and I am going to go mad.

My phone rings again. McAdams.

“She’s not here,” I say.

There’s a commotion in the background. “Normally, we wouldn’t be telling you this. However… I think you’re her best shot.”

I rush back to Eli, putting the call on speaker. “I’m her best shot at what, Detective?”

She hesitates, then says, “Finding her.”

I almost drop the phone, but Eli steadies my hand. “How do you know—?”

“Jim Masters was asked to leave the Rose Hill department six months ago for drinking on the job.”

My heart drops… then stops.

Eli stares at me. “So… he’s been pretending to still be a detective? Why the hell would he do that?”

“He’s had a singular focus,” McAdams replies. “This case.”

“The missing girls,” I say. “And Sky…”

Quickly, I fill in McAdams on what she probably already knew: that Skylar was abducted when she was thirteen years old. Kept for something like thirty-five or thirty-six days until I found her in the woods. The ransom.

“These girls are looking more and more like a serial killer figuring out his signature. The ransom on Whitney is the first true deviation we’ve seen… and that leads me to believe that she might still be alive.” McAdams clears her throat. “I can’t say much more than that, but if you learn of anything, call me.”