When he walked into Jade’s office, there was a couple sitting in the waiting area, looking worried. He knocked on Jade’s door and stepped inside, making a point to shut the door behind him.
Jade was on the phone with Diane standing over her.
“I’ll keep you posted,” Jade said and hung up. “Diane, could you give us a moment then let Mr. and Mrs. Evans in.”
Diane nodded and left quickly.
“What’s going on?” he asked, taking a seat across from her.
“Megan Evans. Her parents are outside. She left the birthday party early, claiming she wasn’t feeling well. One of the teens thinks she saw her heading towards the beach around ten. She didn’t return to her room and her parents are concerned.”
“Have you checked with all the other kids?” he asked.
“We’re doing that now. I just wanted you in the loop. I have employees out scouring the grounds and the beach. I’m waiting to hear back from a few of the parents to make sure she didn’t end up crashing in a friend’s room. Now I have to calm the parents down.”
“I’ll go join the search,” he said, standing up.
“Josie is trying to get the employees together. They’re meeting at the tiki bar,” she said as Diane showed the parents in.
“Do you have a picture of your daughter? It will help us look around for her,” he asked the couple.
“Here.” The girl’s mother held up her phone. “This is Megan.”
He glanced back at Jade.
“I’ll blast it out to all the employee’s phones,” Jade said, holding her hand out for the phone.
“I’ll keep you posted,” he said and disappeared.
He found Josie talking to a small group of employees at the bar. When he joined them, she motioned towards him. “Is there anything else you can add to the search?” Josie asked, and Wyatt wondered if Jade had told her what he was really doing there.
“No, Jade is going to blast everyone a picture of Megan.” Just then a bunch of phones chimed. “Ask everyone you come in contact with if they have seen her.”
Everyone separated into several groups. He and Josie headed down the beach, asking all of the people they saw. Almost a full hour later, everyone returned to the tiki bar without any more information. Jade had called him more than half a dozen times for updates. There was even a chat group going between all the employees.
All of the other kids at the party confirmed that Megan wasn’t with any of them. Jade was gathering all the parents together in the ballroom until they found something. He bypassed the meeting and went back to his bungalow. He’d arranged ahead of time to have access to all the security systems.
Logging in, he scanned all the footage from when Megan had last been seen. Since she supposedly left the party around nine-thirty, he started there.
He had to go back almost fifteen minutes before he spotted her leaving the ballroom. She was holding her stomach and rushed to the nearest bathroom. From there, she went back into the party for a few moments, then left again almost five minutes later.
She made her way to the elevators, and he followed her up to her floor, where she went into a room and a few moments later, came back out. She had changed out of the party dress into a pair of cotton shorts and a T-shirt and flip-flops.
He followed her back through the lobby and out the doors that led to the beach.
She walked across the pool area, but he couldn’t follow her any further since there weren’t cameras out by the tiki bar. Why the hell weren’t there cameras out there?
He banged his fist on the table as he forwarded the footage, looking for any signs of the girl again. There was nothing. She had gone out to the beach and just… disappeared.
Then he went back and watched the footage of everyone coming and going. There must have been close to a hundred people. Families, vacationers, even staff members. Too many to count.
Still, he saved the file and sent it along with an update to his supervisor, knowing she would have a team of people scour through the footage. He would have a short list by the end of the day.
When he was done with that, he went to find Jade.
CHAPTERTHIRTEEN
Jade’s stomach was in knots. She was pacing back and forth in her office when Wyatt knocked on the opened door and stepped inside and then closed the door behind him.