Page 32 of Rancher to the Rescue

“Oh no,” she said. “I never leave this open.”

“The perp might have checked to see where you would be next since you weren’t home,” Lawler offered.

“I thought I was off for a while but according to my schedule, I took a job starting tomorrow. I have to call my clients. There’s no way I can work right now. Not with everything going on,” she said.

“I’ll send someone over to explain the situation,” Lawler said.

Adam’s silence was deafening.

“I need to call them personally.” She realized that would be impossible without her phone. The walls suddenly felt like they were closing in around her and she couldn’t breathe. Anxiety pressed against her chest like a boulder. She couldn’t allow it to win.

Breathe, she reminded.

Slowly, she took in a deep breath and then exhaled for the same length of time. She could do this. She could get through this. This seemed like a good time to remind herself how far she’d come. She’d been through so much worse and survived.

“Don’t you have a password to protect your laptop?” Adam finally asked, his voice a study in calm.

“Do you leave your keys in your truck when you run into the feed store?” she countered.

“Good point,” he admitted.

“I live alone. Didn’t think I’d need one,” she said by way of explanation. “I need to send the Ramseys an e-mail. I’ll let them know that I’m okay but a deputy will be stopping by. I don’t want them to have something like this dropped on them out of the blue.”

Lawler nodded as Adam walked into the adjacent living room. What? Now he couldn’t be in the same room with her?

As damning as the handwriting situation was, she had no doubt about her innocence. Didn’t mean she could explain any of this, but she knew in her heart she could never hurt another person.

Did he doubt her?

Fingers dancing across the keyboard, she took in another deep breath. At least the computer located her cell.

“Here, we go,” she said. “I found it.”

She blew up the map and pinpointed the location. “That’s my address. But there’s no way it’s here.” Wouldn’t she have seen it by now? Plus, her car wasn’t parked out front and her purse was nowhere to be found.” She glanced at the sheriff and then Adam. “Quick. Someone call me.” She rattled off her number as the sheriff obliged.

Walking from room to room, she listened for her ringtones.

Nothing.

“Well, we know it has to be around here somewhere.” Panic squeezed her chest. How could this be? How could her phone be right under their noses? “This won’t help finding my car.”

“I can help with that,” Lawler said. “What’s the make and model and license plate?”

She rattled them off and he immediately spelled them out on his radio along with a few acronyms she didn’t understand.

“We’ll see if anything turns up,” Lawler said.

He had resources around the county. If her vehicle was ditched somewhere, maybe they could find it and that could give them another hint as to where she’d been.

Something had to have happened in the three lost days that would connect the dots. There had to be an explanation. Would she ever regain those memories and be able to explain? Having information locked inside her brain, inaccessible, was one of the most frustrating things she’d ever experienced.

“Maybe it’s outside somewhere,” Adam finally piped in. “The perp might have ditched it on his way out when we surprised him.”

“You two check the perimeter. I’ll nose around in here if it’s okay with you, Prudence,” Lawler said.

“Be my guest.” She couldn’t imagine he’d find anything inside her place. She’d already gone room to room, and nothing looked out of place. Another shiver raced down her back at the thought of someone being inside her home.

She followed Adam outside but headed in the opposite direction as him.