THE HIDEOUT
Kaela Morgan had been missing for six days.
Her cat was in a shelter. Her apartment was still sealed. Her phone was still on her kitchen table.
But she was alive.
Maya was sure of it.
She had spent the last six days going through Kaela’s life — her social media, her emails, her text messages. There was nothing unusual. No secret boyfriend. No hidden debt. No history of mental illness.
Just a woman who had started seeing a therapist and then disappeared.
“Maybe she ran away,” Danny said.
“Maybe. But why? What was she running from?”
“Your therapist guy. Vance.”
“Then where did she run? She didn’t take her car. Her phone. Her purse. She walked away from everything.”
“People do that.”
“People in crisis do that. People who are being hunted do that.” Maya pulled up a map of Barrow Falls. “If I were running from someone, where would I go?”
“Somewhere they wouldn’t think to look.”
“Like where?”
Danny studied the map. “There are abandoned buildings. Old factories. The train depot.”
“That’s where the homeless go. Kaela had money. She could afford a hotel.”
“Hotels have cameras. Credit card records. Someone would find her.”
“Not if she paid cash. Used a fake name.”
Maya searched for hotels in Barrow Falls that accepted cash. There were three. All of them on the south side, near the highway.
She called each one.
“Hi, I’m looking for a friend. She might have checked in a few days ago. Her name is Kaela Morgan.”
No at the first. No at the second.
At the third, a pause.
“Let me check.”
Maya held her breath.
“I’m sorry, we don’t have anyone by that name.”
“Can you check under something else? Maybe she used a different last name?”
“I’m not allowed—”
“Please. Her family is worried. Her cat misses her.”
Another pause.
“We have a guest who paid cash. Signed in as ‘M. Hale.’ Does that mean anything?”
Maya’s heart stopped.
M. Hale.
The fake name she had used at her first appointment with Vance.
Kaela knew.
Kaela had been watching her.
“Yes,” Maya said. “That’s her. What room?”
“I’m not allowed to give out room numbers.”
“I understand. Thank you.”
She hung up.
She looked at Danny.
“We found her.”