“No, it looks the same as it always does.” Holt went pale, looking down at the plastic bag that had a cell phone inside. “Where’d you find that?”
“On the end table, next to the couch. It was sitting next to the remote.”
“I didn’t see it.” Holt’s skin went grayer.
“You were wanting to find Jessie. It was easy to overlook. My deputies are here.”
Dustin looked over the railing to see four police cruisers pulling into the parking lot as Knox continued to talk to Holt and Asher.
“I’d tell you to go home and let me handle this, but I know you won’t. And to tell you the truth, we don’t know how long Jessie’s been missing, so I can use all the help I can get.
“Greer, tell the deputies to spread out, search the grounds, and start knocking on the first-floor apartments’ doors. Asher and Holt can take this floor. Dustin, you want to chip in and help, you can take the third floor. Most of the tenants will be at work, so make a note of each apartment you talk to, so we can check the list off that Ned is driving here to give me.
“You all get started. I’ll call the state police and get them to send some lab technicians to dust her apartment. Holt? You have a recent picture of Jessie?”
“We don’t need flyers. Everyone in town knows Jessie.”
“The picture is for me to put out a BOLO and for the state police.”
“I’ve got one on my phone,” he rasped out before gathering his composure. “I’ll call the family and get them here looking, too.”
“Do that. But keep in the mind that Greer is my deputy, and I asked Dustin for his help. I won’t have any fighting going on when I’m trying to do my job,” Knox warned.
“I’ll take any help I can get to find Jessie, even if it’s a Porter,” Holt said, going to the apartment next to Jessie’s and knocking.
“Me, too,” Asher reluctantly agreed when Knox shot him a hard look.
Dustin left them knocking on doors, running up the steps to the third floor. He knocked on three doors before he could get someone to answer, moving on to the next one when the older woman couldn’t remember when she had last seen Jessie. Only one other person answered his knock, a woman he had gone to high school with before he dropped out. She said she hadn’t seen Jessie since she passed her on the steps as she was going out to Mick’s bar.
“Kaley, was she going up the steps to her apartment or down to the parking lot?” Dustin’s voice rose when he realized she was the last one to see Jessie.
“Down. We both took the steps down. I went to my car, and she went around the corner toward the office and laundry room.”
“What time was that?” Dustin pulled his notes up on his cell phone, wanting to keep track of Jessie last movements before she disappeared.
“Had to be around nine thirty or a quarter till ten. I know for sure it had to be before ten because Mick’s happy hour is from ten to eleven, and I had to wait ten minutes before he would give me the dollar beer.”
“Do you remember what she was wearing?”
“Not particularly. Knowing Jessie, sweatpants and a T-shirt. You want to come in? I can fix us some coffee and try to remember better,” she coaxed, opening her door wider.
“No thanks. I’m in a hurry.”
Dustin walked away, hurriedly texting Willa that he wouldn’t be able to keep their appointment. Going down the steps, he saw Knox talking to the lab techs and the state police outside Jessie’s apartment. Going down the next flight of stairs, he made a beeline for the sign that was out front, pointing toward the office and laundry room.
Stopping at the office door, he saw the hours that were stenciled onto the door. It would have been closed at the time Kaley said she had seen Jessie, so he followed the arrow underneath the laundry room sign, opening the closed door and going inside.
His hand gripped the door handle as a wave of dizziness struck him like a sledge hammer. Falling against the door, it took him a couple of seconds to regain his equilibrium. He felt as if he had been plunged into an ice bath.
Each step took him farther inside the room. Fumbling for his phone, he called Greer.
“Yeah?”
“Both you and Knox come to the laundry room.”
“On my way.”
Dustin stared around the spotless, clean room, catching a faint hint of bleach. “And, Greer, tell Knox to bring the lab techs.”
7
Dustin went outside to wait for Greer and Knox. Leaning against the brick wall, he watched the two men go inside after giving him a searching glance. Greer immediately came back outside.