“Clarissa and I just left your place,” Raptor said. “There’s no sign of her. Ghost went over to her office.”
“Good idea.”
“It’s locked up though and looks fine.”
“Shit,” Troy muttered. “What about the hospitals?”
“Jackson and Taryn called several. They wouldn’t tell them much, citing patient privacy laws, but they did say no one from the fire on the freeway had come in.”
“Damn it. Did we ever get the name of the missing gunman? I know the PD was reviewing footage from the pier. They had to ID some of those guys. She said a couple had been outside her office, a man and a woman. I’ve got a gut feeling the missing gunman is the one we want.”
“I don’t know if they ID’d him, but I pulled Ace in on this. The investigators who are at the scene of the vehicle fire found her purse and some other personal belongings on the ground. Whoever took her was going through her things, looking for something.”
“I’ll say. They trashed her entire apartment.”
“They pulled some prints from her cell phone and purse,” Raptor continued.
“Those could be Caitlyn’s fingerprints,” Troy said. “God damn it.”
“Nope. There are two distinct sets. Don’t ask me how they know this shit, but Ace is running them through AFIS. If this guy was picked up for anything or in trouble with the law, we’ll have his identification.”
“Why the hell didn’t they do that on the yacht?” Troy asked.
“Dunno. I’m sure they dusted some things for prints, but there were fifty guests and at least twenty catering staff and crew. Plus the gunmen. That’s a hell of a lot to go through. Most of the gunmen were killed.”
“Jesus,” Troy muttered, walking back and forth again. The team of investigators going in and out of Caitlyn’s apartment was making him sick. Someone had been in there touching her things—destroying them. When they found her—because they would—she’d likely never feel safe there again. Never mind that the two of them had just begun dating. Troy would bring her back to his place. Hell, his townhouse was more than big enough. If she thought it was too soon to move in together, she could stay in the guest room. Not that he didn’t want her in his bed. He’d do things at her pace though. Knowing she was safe and secure would be enough.
“Shouldn’t the police be running the prints?” he asked.
“Yep. I’m sure they are, but I figured you wouldn’t want to sit around after we ID the guy.”
“Damn right I don’t. If we get a name, we’re hunting him down. What were they looking for anyway? The missing military IDs?”
“Probably so. They didn’t turn up on the yacht, and I have a feeling they stashed them on someone. Or in someone’s personal belongings. You took Caitlyn’s purse with you that night. Wasn’t it separate from the others on the deck of the yacht?”
Fear washed over him. It had been found separately. Most of the other guests’ belongings had been tossed into bins and shoved off to the side. He thought he’d been doing her a big favor—plus, he’d wanted to see her. If everything in it had been catalogued, maybe this would’ve never happened.
“You’re right,” Troy said. “I took it that night and gave it back to her. The question is, how’d the gunmen know the IDs were still missing? Even if they stashed them in someone’s purse, you think they’d assume they were returned to base. They must have someone on the inside.”
“Yep,” Raptor muttered. “And that’s how they knew the admiral’s address and the names of his kids.”
“So it’s someone active duty who has insider access to this. Or possibly a reservist. It can’t be someone already discharged, because they wouldn’t know about the missing identification cards. Holy shit. What do they have a beef with the admiral over?”
“It’s a good question. I’ll go talk to the CO. You okay over there at Caitlyn’s? I can send someone over. Logan’s at our place and is trying to get a hold of her friend Harper. Or Clarissa and I can come.”
“I’m fine. Not fine,” he hastily amended. “Caitlyn is missing. I’m just waiting here to see if the police have any updates for me. Hell, maybe she’ll turn up and this was all some big misunderstanding.”
Raptor didn’t answer, and Troy knew how absurd that sounded. He hoped like hell she was okay, but all the evidence was pointing to foul play. The car fire. The trashed apartment. The fact that she was missing.
“Damn it! Call me the second Ace finds something.”
“Will do,” Raptor assured him.
An hour later, several of his teammates showed up at Caitlyn’s apartment complex. Troy was relieved as hell to see them, but the fact of the matter was, he wanted Caitlyn. He needed to go to her, to rescue her. Just imagining what she was going through was gut-wrenching. It was dark out now, and she’d presumably been missing for several hours. The last contact he’d had with her had been the text saying she’d be late.
“Yo, T-Rex,” Raptor called out as several of the guys walked toward him.
Logan shoved a coffee in his hand, and Troy took it without a word. The adrenaline coursing through his body had kept him alert, but it was already twenty-one hundred. Nine o’clock. The car fire had been more than an hour ago, and they were no closer to finding Caitlyn.
The police were still combing through Caitlyn’s things, carting away bags of evidence with bright lights shining around the entrance to her apartment. An investigator was dusting the
