Maybe Kate was staying with friends. He tried to remember if Kate had mentioned anyone and came up empty. He was running out of other options too damn fast.
“What do you want to do?” Smoke asked, looking at the house.
“Let’s do another drive around, see if anything shakes out.”
As they approached Handelmann’s, he saw a familiar figure going in the front door. Unfortunately, it was not the one he wanted to see.
“Who’s that?” Smoke asked.
“Luther Renninger.”
“Why does he have a set of keys to Kate’s store?”
“He’s supposed to be helping out while her dad’s recovering.”
Smoke made a low sound in the back of his throat. “Looks like a douche.”
Good man, Smoke.
Mad Dog pulled over and went inside with Smoke at his six. Renninger was no happier to see him than he was to see Renninger.
“What the fuck do you want?” he challenged, puffing himself up while positioning himself behind the counter.
Brave words from a weasel.
“Where’s Kate?”
The scowl on Renninger’s face deepened. He looked at Mad Dog, then at Smoke, and then smirked. “Oh. You don’t know, which must mean Kate finally came to her senses.”
Fucker. “Do you know where she is?”
“I tried to warn you. Kate’s not like the others. She—”
I heard Smoke’s warning growl. “Choose your next words very carefully.”
Renninger smiled coldly from behind the perceived safety of the counter. “Kate knows where she belongs.”
The smug fucker actually thought she belonged with him. Mad Dog could see it in his eyes.
It was time to correct that erroneous assumption. Mad Dog got up real close and personal. “I’m going to ask one last time. Do you know where Kate is?”
That was when he saw it. A brief flash of something in Renninger’s eyes before he hid it away again.
“No.” He side-eyed a glance at Smoke and shifted his weight. “But she takes off sometimes when she’s upset.”
“Takes off where?” Mad Dog pressed.
“How the fuck should I know?” Renninger spat. “She drives around. Says it helps her work through things. Hey, do us all a favor and stay the fuck away from Kate.”
“Funny, I was just about to say the same thing to you,” Mad Dog replied, offering a chilly smile of his own.
“Yep. Complete douche,” Smoke commented as they stepped outside.
“He knows more than he’s telling.”
“No question,” Smoke agreed, “but I don’t think he’s going to confide in you anytime soon. Not willingly anyway.”
Mad Dog allowed himself a moment to enjoy an image of his hand around Renninger’s throat, applying pressure until his eyes bulged and he started talking. It wouldn’t take much. He’d probably piss himself first though.
“No,” he agreed. He shelved that image for later and checked his phone again. If he didn’t locate Kate soon, he would be paying the weasel another visit.
Did something upset Kate? And if so, where would she go?
He must have spoken his thoughts aloud because Smoke said, “Honestly? My first thought is that she’d go to you.”
Yeah, that was Mad Dog’s, too, but clearly, she hadn’t done that. That bad feeling in his gut turned into a sharp ache.
He drove back to Kate’s parents’ place, out of ideas. Smoke hung back in the truck while he went up and rang the bell. It was Kate’s sister Kylie, who answered, looking as if she’d just woken up.
Her eyes went wide when she saw Mad Dog. “What are you doing here?”
“Looking for Kate. Is she here?”
“No.” Her brows furrowed. “She should be at the store.”
“She should be, but she’s not. Can we talk for a minute?”
Kylie looked over her shoulder toward a set of stairs and then nodded. “Sure. My mom’s still sleeping and probably will be for a while. I think I’m going to need coffee for this conversation though.”
He followed her to the kitchen. His initial impression was that the place looked like a model home, the kind developers used to entice potential buyers with pricey upgrades and a professionally designed interior. Nothing was out of place, and everything matched. He had a hard time picturing Kate here. She was too ... real.
Mad Dog declined Kylie’s offer of coffee and got right to it. “I’m worried about Kate. When’s the last time you heard from her?”
Kylie thought about that as she poured unsweetened almond milk and emptied a packet of no-calorie sweetener into her mug. “Last night, around seven-ish, I guess. She was at the hospital, visiting with my dad. She didn’t stay long since he was out of it. Why are you worried?”
“She’s not answering her phone or responding to texts.”
Kylie shrugged. “That’s not unusual for Kate. She gets involved in something and forgets to check her phone for hours at a time.”
He thought about the night the puppies had been born and how worried he’d been then, too. “Do you know where she went after she left the hospital?”
“She mentioned going to the grocery store, something about a surprise. She seemed pretty excited.” Kylie brought her coffee mug to her lips and peered over the rim. “Did you guys have a fight or something?”
He shook his head.
Kylie set her mug down and picked up her phone. She scrolled through a couple of screens and then pressed a button and held it to her ear. “Kate, it’s Kylie. Give me a call when you get this.” She put the phone back down. “Voice mail.”
Her eyes turned calculating. “She might be with Luther. They used to be together, you know.”
“Yes, I know, and no, she’s not. I spoke with him at the store before I came here.”
She frowned. “Are you sure she just didn’t sleep in? Sometimes, she stays up late, cooking. Knowing her, she’s revamping Dad’s favorite recipes to be heart-healthy.”
Yes, that sounded exactly like something Kate would do, except ... “Her Jeep’s not at the house, and based on the lack of tracks, it hasn’t been all night.”
Kylie’s frown deepened.
“Renninger said she takes off sometimes when she’s upset. Do you have any idea where she might go?”
She shook her head. “No.”
“Thanks, Kylie.”
“You’re really worried about her, aren’t you?”
That was an understatement. What he couldn’t understand was, why wasn’t anyone else?
Mad Dog pulled a sheet from the magnetic notepad on the fridge and scratched out his number. “If you hear from her, will you let me know?”
“Sure. I’ll give Jerry Petraski a call at the police station, too, see if he’s heard anything.”
The name chapped his ass, but if it helped find Kate ... “Thanks.”
He gave Smoke a rundown of the convo when he got back in the truck and drove away.
“What about the mines?” Smoke asked. “You said she used to go there as a kid.”
“I thought about that, but that doesn’t explain what happened to her Jeep. The woods reclaimed the area around the Paxton entrance. No way to get a full-sized vehicle through there.”