The A List by J.A. Jance

Author:J.A. Jance [Jance, J.A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Mystery
ISBN: 9781501151033
Publisher: Gallery Books
Published: 2019-04-01T13:00:00+00:00

27

Mill City, Oregon, December 2016

Back home in Mill City, Jack Holmes watched the clock and the weather reports and worried. By nine the temperatures were falling and the snow had turned to freezing rain. Soon every road in the county would be covered by a layer of treacherous ice.

Kaitlyn had called him from the grocery store in Salem around seven. He estimated it would take at least an hour for her to get from there back to her dad’s place above Lyons, depending on traffic and on whether or not she’d had to stop and put on chains. Then it would take time to arrive at Rex’s place and get him offloaded and settled in. By Jack’s estimate Kaitlyn should have been on her way home from there by around eight thirty, and certainly no later than nine. On a good day, the seven-and-a-half-mile drive took around fifteen minutes. On a night like this, it would be longer, but still, by nine thirty he was pacing the floor.

Jack could have tried calling, but he didn’t. The roads were too iffy tonight for Kaitlyn to be talking on the phone and driving at the same time. “And if she’s stuck somewhere and needs help, she’ll call.”

That’s what Jack told himself, but by ten o’clock he was having a hard time believing it. Where the hell was she? By ten fifteen he lifted his temporary call ban and tried dialing her number. Naturally the call went straight to voice mail. There were spots along McCully Mountain Road where you could get a cell signal, but Rex’s place didn’t happen to be one of them. At ten thirty and frantic with worry, Jack dialed Rex’s landline. His father-in-law’s muffled answer said he’d been awakened out of a sound sleep.

“Did Kaitlyn decide to stay over with you?” Jack asked.

“Stay over?” Rex responded, instantly awake. “No, not at all. Isn’t she home yet?”

“She’s not, and I’m worried sick. What time did she leave?”

“A little after nine,” Rex replied. “What time is it now?”

“Ten thirty.”

“You’ve tried her phone?”

“She doesn’t answer. It goes straight to voice mail.”

“Have you called the cops?” Rex asked.

“Not yet,” Jack said, “but I will now.”

Wanting to calm himself before dialing 911, Jack sank into Kaitlyn’s chair and was astonished to discover that she’d left her iPad at home, on the charger and almost out of sight, tucked between the seat cushion and the arm of the chair. By the time he finished dialing, he had the device in hand with Kaitlyn’s Find My Phone app up and running.

“911,” a woman responded. “What are you reporting?”

“It’s my wife,” he said. “Her name is Kaitlyn Holmes. I think she might have been in a wreck. She left her father’s house on McCully Mountain Road outside Lyons an hour and a half ago. It’s not quite eight miles from his house to ours in Mill City. I’ve used her iPad to locate her phone. It appears to be a little over a mile or so from her dad’s place.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.