Dangerous Attraction Romantic Suspense Boxed Set (177 page)

She sat down across from him and relayed everything she knew, from what Suki had told her. “It’s all there in the report,” she said, pointing to the papers he held in his hand.

“That’s not much to go on, Miss McAllister. But I assure you we’ll do everything we can to try to find your sister.”

Kate agreed that the information Suki had given her was sparse, but it just had to be enough. It had
to. Whitney was all the family Kate had left. Trying not to panic, she focused again on Detective Patel.

“I’m kind of curious, though,” he said. “If she’s been missing since Saturday, why did you wait until today to report it?”

Kate told the detective the situation.

“I thought Suki would have come here yesterday to file the report, and I’m not really sure why she didn’t. She gave me some lame excuse that she was waiting for me. I thought that was really odd.”

“Yeah, it is,” the detective agreed, writing a note on the form.

“Maybe she
was
waiting for me to do it—I don’t know. I couldn’t really get a straight answer out of her.”

“It’s a shame we’ve lost a whole day that we could have been working this case,” Patel remarked.

“I know,” Kate responded, clenching her teeth. “I was furious with Suki when she told me she hadn’t filed a report yet. That’s why I made her drive me down here right away.”

“She didn’t come in with you?” he asked.

“She did, for a little while. She helped me fill out the report. Then, all of a sudden, she claimed she had to leave to go to work.”

“Sounds like you don’t believe her.”

“I don’t really know her well enough to know for sure, but it just seemed out of the blue. Nothing makes sense.” Kate worried her hands in her lap.

“I see. Hmmm. We’ll definitely want to talk to her.” He made another note on the report.

“If you let me borrow your pen, I can give you her number,” Kate offered.

Kate jotted down Suki’s phone number from the call records on her cell phone.

“Thanks, I’ll give her a call,” he said, looking at the pad. “Well, if you have nothing more, Miss McAllister, I think we’re done here. We’ll keep you posted.”

Kate stood up, thanked him and shook his hand once more.

“Oh, wait. Before you go,” Patel said, almost as an afterthought, “let me introduce you to Will Porter.” Patel motioned to an African-American man to come over to them. Porter was tall and thin and looked to be about forty years old. He was standing across the room speaking with another detective. “He’s my senior partner.”

“Senior partner? Does that mean you’re new at being a detective?” Kate asked Patel, her confidence in him waning a bit.
I need somebody who knows what they’re doing
.

“Well, yes, but Detective Porter will be on this case with me. He’s been doing this for about ten years, so between the two of us, we’ll get the job done. Don’t you worry.”

How could she not worry? Her sister was missing. She bit down on her lips to keep those thoughts to herself.

“Miss McAllister, this is Detective Will Porter.” As Patel introduced them, the senior detective reached out and shook hands with Kate, a serious look on his face.

“Will,” Patel said, “Miss McAllister has just filed a missing person report for her sister. I told her we’ll do everything we can to find her.” Patel handed the file to Porter.

“Miss McAllister,” Porter started, glancing over the forms she filled out.

“Call me Kate, please.”

“Okay, Kate. Detective Patel and I will read over the report. We’ll be in touch. Oh, and make sure we have your cell number so we can reach you.”

“It’s on the top form, there,” she told him, pointing at the file. “I’d appreciate being kept in the loop.”

“Certainly,” Porter promised, opening the folder. “I don’t see a photo of your sister in here.”

“Oh, sorry, I forgot to ask about that,” Patel apologized. Kate frowned at the critical oversight.

“We’ll need one we can use to get the word out, Kate. We’ll send it to our network of law enforcement agencies, the news media as well,” Porter told her. “Do you have one with you?”

“Yes, I think I have a couple in my wallet,” Kate replied, opening her bulky leather handbag and rummaging around inside. She pulled two different photos out of her wallet and handed them to Porter. He clipped them inside the file.

“Do you know if your sister has a computer or iPad or anything?” Porter asked.

Kate rolled her eyes up, searching her memory. “Oh, yes, I remember seeing a laptop in her bedroom.”

“We’ll need that. I always like to start with checking the subject’s calendar and e-mails. Can we come with you right now and pick it up?” Porter asked.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Patel interrupted sheepishly, “I, uh, have a lunch appointment in a few minutes. I won’t be long.”

Porter frowned at him. “I’ll take care of it.”

“Let me walk out with you guys,” Patel offered.

Once outside the station, Kate paused at the bottom of the front steps. She wanted to thank the detectives for their help, but before she could utter a word, she heard a man’s voice calling her name.

She turned, to find out who it was, and was stunned to see it was the man from her flight.

“Kate, what a surprise!” Ryan’s pleasure in seeing her was evident on his face.

“Ryan? What are you doing here?” Kate asked.

“You know each other?” Detective Patel questioned.

“Yes, we met on the plane from Boise this morning,” she answered.

“Small world. Ryan is my lunch appointment,” Patel said. “He’s helping me buy a condo.”

“It
is
a small world,” Kate commented.

“I missed you at the baggage claim area…I wanted to get your phone number so we could have that coffee you promised me.” He winked at her.

Kate pulled one of her business cards out of her purse and handed it to him.

Ryan’s expression quickly changed, as if it had just dawned on him that she was coming out of the police station with a couple of detectives. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt anything.”

“You didn’t,” she replied.

“Is everything okay?” Ryan asked.

Kate looked at Patel, then at Porter, wondering how much she should divulge. She didn’t find the answer in their faces, so she went ahead and told Ryan.

“Not really. My sister is missing. That’s the real reason I came to Seattle.”

“Oh, Kate. I had no idea. I thought you were just here to visit her.”

“I wish—but no.”

“If there’s anything I can do to help, anything at all, just ask.” Ryan pulled his business card out of his shirt pocket too and handed it to her. “My cell phone’s on there.”

“We’ve gotta go,” Porter spoke up, tapping his wristwatch. “Time’s a-wasting. I’ll see you back here in about an hour, Raj. Take it easy, Ryan.”

Chapter Four

Back at the apartment, Kate turned Suki’s key in the door, letting herself and Detective Porter into the loft.

“Nice place,” he said, glancing around the main living area and open kitchen of the small loft. “Where’s the laptop?”

“It’s in Whitney’s bedroom. Wait here and I’ll get it for you.” She started off down the hallway.

“Do you mind if I take a look?” Porter asked. “Maybe I can see if there’s anything that would give us a clue to where she went.”

Kate stopped mid-way and spun around. “Sure, it’s right this way.”

Porter followed her down the short hallway and stepped in behind her. He stood still for a moment, surveying the room.

Queen-sized bed, neatly made, with a couple pieces of luggage on it, a chair with a coat thrown over it, a dresser with a plant and some framed photos—nothing out of place, as far as Kate could see.

“Have you moved anything since you arrived?” he asked.

“No. We just put the suitcases on the bed,” she answered. “Well…that’s not totally true. I did make the bed and put a few of her clothes and shoes away.”

“Hmmm. Hopefully that won’t matter,” he said.

The open laptop sat on a small desk, a few sticky notes adhered to the desktop and a couple of pens next to it. Porter seemed to be reading one of the sticky notes. He frowned and tilted his head.

Kate wondered if that meant something.

“Who’s Suki?”

“My sister’s roommate,” Kate replied. “Why?”

He pointed to one of the notes. On it was written ‘Suki & guy (?)’. “I ask because your sister wrote her name on this sticky note with a question mark. It’s probably nothing, but I’m going to take the note with me.” He put on a thin latex glove, gently pulled the sticky note free and placed it in a small plastic evidence bag that he took from his jacket’s breast pocket. After sliding the bag back into his pocket, he closed the laptop and picked it up.

“I hope you can find something—anything—in that computer that’ll tell us where she is.” Kate was desperate for any clue, no matter how small.

“I’ll get one of our forensic techs on it as soon as I get back to the station. And if you think of anything else, let us know right away.” The detective began to walk toward the door, and then he stopped and turned back to Kate.

“Do you know the roommate’s full name?”

“Suki Gorman is all my sister ever told me.”

“What can you tell me about her?” he asked.

“Not much. Whitney didn’t talk about her very often, and I’d never met her until I arrived today. Why do you ask?”

“We just want to be thorough and cover all the bases. She was the last one that we know of to see Whitney—I’ll run a background check on her, just to be safe.”

Kate walked Detective Porter to the door and said good-bye as he walked out. She closed the door, and rested her back against it, wondering if Suki could have been somehow involved in Whitney’s disappearance. It didn’t seem likely, but at this point, she couldn’t rule anyone out.

* * *

Suki worked the afternoon shift at Seattle’s Underground Tour. It was a tourist attraction sitting about twenty feet below a portion of the current downtown area, known as Pioneer Square. The tour of the underground gives visitors a look at parts of the original city of Seattle.

Her final tour of the day was over, and she watched the last of her group go into the basement-level souvenir shop. She looked around to make sure no one was watching her, then ducked back into the tunnel and returned to the underground city.

Making her way through the web of corridors, she came to a locked door that she had blocked with an old diner’s sign, a remnant from an historic café. The word
Dino’s
in broken blue light bulbs outlined the marquee.

As a tour guide, Suki was familiar with all the tunnels and boarded-up areas not open to the public. However, a tour guide did not get a set of keys to the buildings and locked areas. So, in order to carry out her part of the scheme, she needed to get her hands on the keys. She and her brother, Ethan, had spent a long time setting up their revenge on Kate—those keys were an important step in that plan.

Thinking back on how she had had to flirt with surly old Gus, the forty-something head maintenance man, to get his keys, she felt a little sick to her stomach, but it had to be done. Once she had him sufficiently interested, she invited him to have drinks at the nearby Lucky Shamrock Tavern, a bar she knew he frequented. After snuggling with him in a booth and plying him with liquor, she actually found it rather easy to lift his set of keys.

She had heard through the grapevine that when Gus showed up for work the next day without them, and confessed he didn’t know where they were, he was put on suspension.
Too bad for Gus
, Suki thought. He was nothing more than collateral damage to her.

She dragged the heavy, metal sign out of the way and unlocked the door. Pulling a small flashlight out of her jacket pocket, she switched it on and crept into the dark, hidden storage room.

The place ran about thirty feet deep and half as wide. Originally, it had been a shop of some sort in Seattle’s early days. The room now held mostly old equipment and discarded boards. But back in the farthest rear corner, was an old metal twin bed covered with a thin, dirty mattress. A large rusty bucket sat beside it.

“Whitney?” Suki sang her name softly as she stroked her cold hand against her captive’s cheek. The girl flinched from the icy touch, but it didn’t seem to wake her. Suki gently shook Whitney’s shoulder. Still she didn’t rouse. She swept her flashlight over Whitney’s body, and she shook her again.

“Whitney, wake up!” Suki said, forcing her voice through clenched teeth.

The woman on the bed stirred. Her hands and feet were bound with rope, which was then tied to the bed frame at both ends. A piece of duct tape covered her mouth. Her blue jeans and black sweater were rumpled, likely from writhing against her restraints. Her gray hooded sweatshirt was folded under her head into a makeshift pillow.

Suki yanked the tape off.

Whitney yelped. “Ouch!” She woke with a start and tried to sit up, seeming unaware that her hands and feet were tethered.

“Where am I?” Whitney questioned, struggling to pull an arm in front of her face to shield her eyes until they adjusted to the harsh and sudden light. Her short blonde hair was mussed, her mascara smudged. Whitney went limp against the mattress, trembling.

This was not the first day Suki had come to check on her and tend to her
needs
, yet the total darkness and drugs continued to cause the confusion that Suki had intended. “It doesn’t matter,” she answered.

“How long…have I…been…here?” Her words came slow and slurred, as if she was drunk. She appeared to be struggling to wake up.

“That doesn’t matter either,” Suki said.

“I don’t understand. Why am I here?” Squinting, she once again tried to shade her eyes from the light, directing her gaze toward her captor. “And what is that awful smell?” Whitney grumbled.

“I’d say peanut butter,” Suki replied, trying to redirect her attention, not wanting to give away where she was being held. Anyone who had been to the Underground Tour knew there was always a damp, musty smell in the underground city.

“I assumed you must be hungry, so I brought you another peanut butter sandwich. I can’t have you dying on me.”