Page 97 of Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad World

Harry and Logan followed him in. “Rochelle sent us to secure the windows,” Harris said.

Logan nodded. “We’re locking everything down for the duration.”

“Should have got in snacks first,” Harris complained.

“Annabelle?” Noah called as he hurried to the panic room.

There was no one inside. His heart racing, he walked straight through to check the guest rooms and bathroom. She wasn’t there either. He rushed back into the loft.

“Have either of you seen Annabelle?”

“Wasn’t she in the office downstairs?” Harris locked one of the window’s shutters.

“No.” An icy chill crept up Noah’s spine.

Without another word, he ran back downstairs and into the open-plan office space. No Annabelle. His stomach performed somersaults as his mind raced over possibilities. He didn’t like any of them.

“Has anybody seen Annabelle?” he asked Katrina, Evan, and Rochelle.

“She hasn’t been in here.” Rochelle frowned. “Did you check upstairs?”

“She isn’t there, and Harris and Logan haven’t seen her either.” Sharp talons of panic pierced his mind. “I don’t know where she is.”

“I’ll check the bathrooms.” Katrina hurried from the room.

Evan turned to his beloved computer. “I’ll go over the camera feeds for the last few minutes and see if we can find her that way.”

“I’ll get the rest of the team, and we’ll comb the building.” Rochelle strode out the door.

A second later, she shouted Annabelle’s name in the stairwell.

There was no reply.

Noah tuned out the rushing footsteps and raised voices in the corridor and crossed the room to look over Evan’s shoulder. There were no cameras inside the small office the ADA had been using, but there was one in the hallway right outside it, pointing down the stairs.

“That’s her going in and you shutting the door behind her,” Evan narrated unnecessarily. “Then we’ve got a whole lot of Violet standing guard. There’s the ADA coming in here for a couple of mugs of coffee, leaving Annabelle in the room with the tech. Nice guy. Knows his stuff.” He was rambling, worried.

“Did we run a background on the tech guy?”

“Aye. He’s clean. No connections to Hanson or his gang.” Evan pointed at the screen. “That’s the detectives arriving and the ADA stepping into the hallway to take a phone call before briefly going back into the room and then coming in here. There’s the tech guy moving the secure equipment back out of the room and Violet telling him he can carry it downstairs on his own. The detective helping because you can’t thump thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment down a flight of stairs.” He ran a hand through his hair, making it stand on end. “The ADA goes back into the small office, gets her stuff, then stops in here again before going downstairs and straight into her car, which is parked right out front. Then the other detective leaves.” He cast Noah a fearful glance. “No sign of Annabelle. I’ll check a different angle.”

He tapped the keyboard to zoom in on the footage from the camera covering the front door and the street beyond it. They watched, in silence this time, as Johnson helped the technician load his large black wheeled case into his van before going back to shout through the door for his partner. Ms. Grant dashed past Johnson and into her own car. The tech and the ADA drove away at the same time, heading in different directions before the detectives got into their vehicle.

No Annabelle.

Rochelle stalked back into the office. One glance at her expression, and Noah knew what she was going to say.

She said it anyway. “She isn’t in the building, Noah.”

It was as though all the air had been sucked from the room. The walls tilted, and the floor rolled beneath his feet. He staggered backward until a chair hit the back of his knees, and he sat with a thud. For a second, it was impossible to breathe. He bent over, closed his eyes and focused on getting control of himself. Annabelle needed him. He’d panic later.

A moment later, he looked up at his boss. “How?”

Her expression flitted between worry and fury. “I don’t know. Evan, you got anything?”

“There’s nothing on the cameras. She didn’t leave the building.” He was scared. It was in his voice. “She has to be here somewhere. Has anyone checked the roof? She went up there that night. She might have gone again.”

“The roof’s clear.” Abasi strode in to join them. “I just came from there.”