Page 51 of In Her Path

“Mr. Doyle,” she said, offering a quick smile. “It’s good to see you.”

“You too,” Frank replied. “I’m looking for Meredith Soll. Have you seen her?”

The woman shifted the files in her arms. “Not since a little while ago. The last time I saw her, she said she was worried that the Mayor hadn’t arrived.” She frowned slightly. “Is everything okay?”

“Just need to ask her a few questions,” Frank said. “If you see her, would you let her know I’m looking for her?”

“Of course.” The woman continued on her way, glancing back at him once before turning the corner.

Frank watched her go, his mind already turning to the two sisters back in the Mayor’s office. He’d agreed to bring Piper into this investigation—her abilities were proving too valuable to ignore—but he still wondered if he’d made the right call. Piper was still finding her footing, still reconnecting with a life that had moved on without her. And now she was seeing grotesque visions, finding boxes of severed tongues.

And Jenna—Jenna was carrying too much weight already. The pressure of being sheriff, the twenty-year search for her twin, and now this case, with its implications reaching into the highest levels of Trentville’s government. Both sisters had that same look in their eyes sometimes—the hollow-eyed stare of people who’d seen things they couldn’t unsee.

The front entrance of City Hall opened into a small lobby with a security desk near the doors. The guard—a man in his fifties with a closely trimmed gray beard—looked up as Frank approached.

“I’m looking for Meredith Soll,” Frank said to him. “Have you seen her?”

The guard’s expression shifted. “Yes, sir. About ten minutes ago. She came through here in quite a rush.” He paused. “She looked pale. Said she wasn’t feeling well and said she was going home for the day.”

“Did she say anything else?” Frank asked. “Anything about when she’d be back?”

The guard shook his head. “No, sir. Just that she felt sick and needed to go home. She seemed really upset—not just sick, but shaken up. I watched her get into her car and drive away.”

“Her car?”

“Green Toyota, couple years old.”

Frank filed this away. “Thanks. If she comes back, will you let me know right away? I’m with Sheriff Graves in the Mayor’s office.”

“Yes, sir.”

Frank turned and headed back the way he’d come, his pace quicker now. He needed to get back to the Mayor’s office, needed to tell Jenna what he’d learned.

*

Jenna paced the length of the Mayor’s office. “It doesn’t fit,” she said. “Claire Simmons is ambitious, not stupid. Why leave the ice pick on her own desk? Why keep the tongues in her filing cabinet?” She stopped at the window, staring out at Trentville’s main street. “It’s more like someone else wants us to find her guilty.”

“Maybe she snapped,” Jake suggested. “People break under pressure. The conflicts with Paige and Holt had been building for months. Add in the stress of the job, and—”

“And she suddenly develops surgical skills and a taste for tongue removal?” Jenna shook her head. “No. This is calculated. Planned. The timing, the locations, the staging—it’s all deliberate.” She turned from the window. “And now she’s missing.”

The office door opened, and Frank stepped inside. “Meredith’s gone,” he said without preamble. “Security guard says she left about ten minutes ago. Told him she wasn’t feeling well and was going home.”

Jenna exchanged a glance with Jake. “Did she say anything else?”

“Just that she felt sick.” Frank closed the door behind him. “The guard watched her get into her car and drive away.”

Jenna frowned. “She’s worked for Claire for years. This must be hitting her hard. I just wish …” Jenna shook her head. “I just wish she’d told us before she took off on h like this. We could have sent someone with her.”

A cold feeling settled in Jenna’s stomach. “We need to check on her. If Claire Simmons is our killer—or if someone’s trying to make it look like she is—Meredith might be in danger.” She reached for her phone. “I’ll call Clancy, have him send a unit to her house.”

She’d barely pulled her phone from her pocket when movement from the outer office caught her attention. Piper had risen from Meredith’s desk, her posture suddenly alert. She turned toward them, eyes wide and slightly unfocused—the look Jenna had come to recognize.

“I hear a voice,” Piper said, her tone flat and distant.

Jenna lowered her phone. “What is it saying?”

Piper’s gaze remained fixed on some middle distance, as if she were listening to something only she could hear. The words came out measured, deliberate. “You need to go to Meredith’s house. Now. All of you.”