Vicious Valentine by Patti Benning (best fiction novels to read txt) 📗

have something to do with this,” Hannah said. “We have a plan for this, remember? We spent all morning coming up with it before Vanessa threw a wrench in it. We’ll call Ben and have him come over and talk to Helena. She doesn’t know him well, so she won’t be as on guard around him. He can ask all the leading questions we need to figure out if she knows what’s going on.”

“Fine,” Caroline said. “Let’s get in the car first. It’s freezing.”

They sat in the vehicle and ran the engine while Hannah pulled out her phone and called Ben. When he answered, she quickly explained what was going on.

“Sorry to drag you into all of this, but do you have time to come down here and see if you can chat with Helena? The same plan as before, just try to bring Rory, Corbin, and Vanessa up into the conversation. It’s more important now, though; Vanessa is missing. We’re going to go keep looking for her.”

“Of course,” Ben said. “I’m on my way now. You should’ve told me that she was missing sooner. I would have come to help look for her.”

“Thanks,” Hannah said. “You’re the best.”

They waited, keeping their eyes on the bar’s front door, neither of them wanting to let the building out of their sight in case Helena left. Hannah knew that they might be barking up the wrong tree completely, but Vanessa had been so certain Helena had something to do with the attacks that Hannah was willing to bet she decided to confront her on her own at some point today. Vanessa wasn’t exactly the sort to let sleeping dogs lie.

“There he is,” Hannah said when she finally spotted Ben’s car. He waved and pulled into another spot a few feet away, coming up to the window to talk to them.

“You still just want me to go in and start up a conversation with her?”

“Just like we planned before,” Hannah said. “She works here as a bartender, so she is probably pretty used to chatting with people. I don’t think she knows who you are and she has no reason to link you to Vanessa. Just keep an eye on her responses, and see if any of them seem off. I don’t know one way or the other whether she has anything to do with any of this, but Vanessa seemed pretty certain.”

“I’ll do my best,” he said. “I’ll give you a call once I’m done.”

Caroline pulled away from the curb as Ben walked into the building, heading down the street toward Vanessa’s apartment building.

It was a short drive, less than a minute, but by the time Caroline started hunting for a space in front of the building, Hannah’s phone was already ringing with Ben’s caller ID on the screen.

“Is everything okay?” she asked.

“I can’t find her,” he said.

Chapter Ten

Hannah frowned. “What do you mean you can’t find her? We watched the doors the entire time. She couldn’t have left.”

“The front, maybe, but she could have gone out the employee entrance,” he said. “I think that’s out back.”

“Maybe she’s just in the kitchen or something. Did you ask?”

“I asked the guy behind the counter. He was kind of grumpy, but he said she’s not here.”

“That’s not good,” Hannah said. At Caroline’s raised eyebrows, she quickly explained the situation to her friend. “Can you just look around a little bit more, Ben? We’re going to check Vanessa’s apartment.”

“All right. Be careful. I don’t like any of this.”

“We will be. I’ll let you know if we find her.”

As soon as she was off the phone, Caroline opened the car door and Hannah had to scurry to keep up with her.

“Right, we’ll just go up and see if she’s at the apartment. If she’s not, we’ll –” She broke off and nudged Hannah, nodding further down the road. “That’s her motorbike, isn’t it?”

“You’re right.” The vehicle was parked in a curbside spot, draped hastily with a cover to protect it from the elements. “She must be here.”

“Hopefully the police told her she could return and she just lost her phone or misplaced her charger or something before she could tell us,” Caroline said as they started toward the door. “I don’t know what else could have happened. It’s not like her to avoid me like this. I just saw her a few hours ago and she never mentioned a thing about planning a disappearing act.”

“It’s been a hard couple of days for her,” Hannah pointed out. “Maybe she needed some time to herself.”

“Yeah, well, she should have told us regardless. She had to have known we were going to worry about her.”

Caroline pressed the buzzer for the door, but no answering buzz came back to let them in. Sighing, she tried the handle and pulled the door open easily.

“Great security. Let’s go,” Caroline said, making her way into the building. “I’m not sure if I’m going to yell at her or hug her when I see her.”

Hannah followed Caroline up the stairs to Vanessa’s apartment door. The crime scene tape was gone, though Hannah didn’t know whether that was because the police had removed it, or if Vanessa had torn off herself. She hoped it was the former; she didn’t want her friend to get into trouble if she wasn’t supposed to be here.

Caroline pounded on the door. “I know you’re in there,” she called out. “Just come talk to us. We’re not mad.”

There was no response. With a sigh, Caroline tried the handle, but their luck didn’t hold twice. She knocked again.

“Seriously, open up. We just want to make sure you’re okay. You don’t even have to talk to us, just open the door enough that we can see you and we’ll go. You can’t go missing like this and expect us not to worry.”

Once again, there was no answer. This time, Hannah stepped forward and knocked on the door herself, probably a bit too hard, judging from the sting of her knuckles. “Come