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Joe’s Copy Store, Morgantown, West Virginia.” He swiveled the chair abruptly. “Do you know anybody there?”
    Eyes wide and haunted, she shook her head. “No. I’ve never been there.”
    Clay came down the stairs, a frown on his face. “You find anything?”
    Randi wrung her hands. “It came from West Virginia. They have Alec up there.”
    Clay’s frown deepened. “They’re on the move.”
    Ethan shut down his laptop. “I need to get to Morgantown. Can you stay here in case they call with ransom demands? Did you bring that case from my office?”
    “It’s in my car.”
    “Good. I’ll set up the tracing equipment on the phone line before I go.”
    He stood up and Clay grabbed his arm, his dark eyes worried. Clay darted a look at Randi, then looked back at Ethan. “You’ve been working eighteen-hour days. I’ll go.”
    Ethan tried not to let annoyance flare. For all his tough-guy image, Clay Maynard worried about him like a mother. “Thanks, but I’m fine.”
    Clay let go of his arm. “Fine,” he muttered. “Have an episode behind the wheel.”
    Ethan kept his tone mild. “I haven’t had one in months, and you know it.”
    Randi was watching them warily. “What’s wrong?”
    Ethan patted her hand. “Nothing. Now I want you to listen to me. While I’m gone I want you to eat, even if you’re not hungry. I want you to sleep, even if you have to take a pill to do it, because Alec needs you to be strong, not exhausted. Okay?”
    She’d seemed to shrink as he talked. Solemnly, she nodded. “Ethan, will you find him?”
    Statistics raced through his mind, none of them good. The first few days were critical in tracking prey and those days were already gone. But Randi was looking up at him with trust and tears in her eyes and he found himself nodding back. Saying words he hoped wouldn’t be a lie. “I’ll find him.”

    Chapter Three
    Chicago, Saturday, July 31, 5:45 P.M.
    “You’re going to break your neck.”
    Startled out of her thoughts, Dana’s grip tightened on the sides of the ladder and she glanced down from her perch even though she knew full well who was down there. David Hunter stared up, hands on his hips, a look of annoyance on a face that had most women instantly falling in love. Dana had often questioned her own sanity at not being one of those women. Instead, David was a treasured friend, one of a few who knew what she did here, lending his hands to the effort whenever he could. “I will if you keep scaring me like that,” she responded, turning back to her inspection of the shingles. “We have a leak.”
    “Dammit, Dana, I told you I’d be by in a few days to check that for you.”
    “You’ve been busy working. I didn’t know when you’d get a chance to come by.” But the truth was, she was on the roof because she couldn’t sit still. She’d been fidgety since her argument with Evie, wondering if she could do more. If she should.
    “Well, I’m here now,” David countered. “Come down and let me fix it right.”
    Dana pursed her lips. “I was fixing things right long before you came along, big boy.”
    “True,” he acknowledged. There was a short pause, then slyly, “I can see up your skirt.” Dana snorted a laugh and pulled at the loose shingle. “Not that I’m complaining,” David continued helpfully. “Just thought you’d want to know.”
    “Go away or I’ll tell your mother you go around looking up girls’ skirts.”
    “Go ahead. Ma’s just going to lecture you not to climb a ladder in a skirt.”
    He was right there. But Phoebe Hunter wouldn’t stop there, going on to cluck her tongue at the fact that Dana was too independent. If she had a man in her life she wouldn’t have to do her own repairs. Which would be followed by a meaningful glance at David, her only unmarried son. Which both Dana and David would just ignore with a smile.
    They were friends. David had his own life, his own girlfriends. And she had her life and Hanover House was the