39

When Lucas showed up at Amanda’s building the next morning, she didn’t buzz him up. He was already worried because his calls hadn’t gone through when he called her after he woke up.

Apprehensive, he punched in her code, which he was familiar with, but he quickly realised she had changed it. It was after a couple more unsuccessful calls that he thought to check her car in the parking basement. After a couple minutes of checking and double checking, he realised it wasn’t there. Which meant she wasn’t at the apartment.

Where could she have gone? The office? To see her father?

A quick call to the office revealed she hadn’t showed up there. He drove straight to the headquarters, meaning to go check whether she was at her father’s office. But when he got there, Charles’s secretary informed him that Charles was in a meeting, and no, Amanda hadn’t showed up there either.

He called up people he never thought he