No Return

56

Two squad cars sped into the parking lot, lights blazing but sirens off. As soon as he saw them, Wes stepped out from between the cars and waved them down.

“What the hell are the police doing here?” Monroe asked.

“Tony’s missing,” Dione said. “All his stuff is here and he’s not. Something happened to him.”

“Oh,” seemed to be all Monroe could muster.

The two police cars pulled to a stop, and the officers got out-one from the lead car and two from the trailing. Wes walked quickly over.

“Are you the one who placed the call?” the lead officer asked. His nametag read “Rockwell.”

“Yes,” Wes said.

“I understand someone’s missing?”

“Our PA.”

The officer’s brow furrowed. “PA?”

“Production assistant,” Wes explained. “We’re working on a TV show.”

Rockwell nodded. “What’s the missing person’s name?”

Wes spent two minutes giving him details.

Once he was finished, Rockwell said, “Can you show us where his room is?”

“Of course.”

Wes and Alison led the officers to the room. Barber was still there, standing guard at the door. At Rockwell’s direction, he opened it again. The officer and his two colleagues stepped over the threshold and looked in.

“Have any of you been inside?” Rockwell asked.

“A couple of us,” Wes said. “Seeing if he was here.”

“Anyone touch anything?”

“Only me. I used the phone to call you.”

“Okay. We need to secure the scene until the detectives and the techs get here. Stay around, though. They’re going to want to talk to you.”

“We shouldn’t have stopped looking for him yesterday,” Alison said as she and Wes headed back to where the rest of the crew was waiting.

“We wouldn’t have found him,” Wes said. “He was hiking, remember? Maybe he’s lost. Once they find out exactly where he went, they’ll send people to look for him.” As soon as they reached the walkway next to the parking lot, Wes looked around. “Where’s Anna?”

“Shouldn’t you be the one who knows the answer to that?” Alison couldn’t quite keep the sarcasm out of her voice.

“Tell Dione what’s happening,” he told her. “I’ll be right back.”

He went over to Anna’s room, but didn’t have her spare keycard on him, so he knocked.

He could hear something inside, but no one answered. The noise was faint.

“Anna?” he said, knocking again. The door remained closed.

He walked quickly back to his room, retrieved the spare keycard, and returned to her door. He knocked one more time, then slipped the card into the lock.

After he pushed the door open, he froze.

The room reminded him in nearly every detail of Tony’s.

Clean.

Bed not slept in.

The only difference was the clock radio on the nightstand playing low in the background.

There was no one there.

Anna was gone.