Secrets of the Lynx by Aimée Thurlo Page B

wouldn’t have wasted the opportunity to take him out. More details—Paul was closer, and I was moving away from the shooter’s location. If Paul was the target, I certainly wasn’t in the way, blocking his line of fire. If anything, it was the other way around.”
    “I agree with your conclusions,” Daniel said.
    “So here’s what I think we should do, though admittedly, it carries some risk,” she said. “I want to gather up photos of local criminals with the right weapons training and background, then take those to Annie. Let’s see if she can ID any of them as ‘Chuck.’ If she can’t, then we go back to searching for Miller.”
    “That’s a good idea,” Paul said.
    “Why don’t you access the photos from my computer here?” Daniel asked Preston.
    “Yeah, might as well. It’ll save time,” he said.
    “I’m going to call the rehab center and get an update on Annie,” Paul said, reaching for his cell phone and moving away.
    Kendra remained with Preston and Daniel, and a few minutes later, Paul rejoined them, a somber look on his face. “Bad news.”
    Something in his tone made Kendra’s blood turn to ice. “What’s wrong?”
    “Annie’s gone.”

Chapter Nine
    Kendra swallowed hard. “What do you mean ‘gone’?”
    “It looks like she just split,” Paul said. “She was at a group counseling session when she excused herself. They never saw her after that, so they think she may have slipped out the side door.”
    “That wouldn’t have been hard to do,” Preston said. “She was in protective custody—she wasn’t a prisoner. A street-wise person like Annie Crenshaw would have found it easy to give them the slip.”
    “The center reported her absence to the P.D. about an hour ago. The D.A. was notified since Annie is a material witness to a crime,” Paul said. “Officers checked out the gym where she’d been crashing, but they didn’t find her.”
    “What about her cell phone?” Kendra asked. “Let me call her, or better yet, Paul, you do it. You had more of a connection with her.”
    He dialed, but no one answered. “All I’m getting is her voice mail. Let’s stop by the alley where we first found her. Maybe she’s working the streets again. Or maybe we can find somebody who’s seen her and pick up a fresh lead.”
    “Good idea,” Kendra said. “Let’s go.”
    “I’ll put a BOLO out on her,” Preston said.
    Daniel was the last to speak. “Wait a minute, guys. I’ve got an idea. Give me her cell number, Paul. If her phone’s still on, I may be able to track the signal.”
    “You’ve got equipment that can do that?” Kendra looked over, eyebrows raised.
    Daniel shrugged.
    “Don’t ask,” Paul said, leading Kendra to the door. “Let’s go. If he gets something, he’ll let us know.”
    They were on their way a short time later. “We’ll be getting there while people are still out on the streets so that’ll help. If she’s not there, we can ask around,” she said.
    They arrived a short time later and walked the alley from Third to Fourth Street, but couldn’t locate Annie. Although they searched the area themselves and talked to the working girls, no one had seen her.
    Soon they began cruising the neighboring streets in Paul’s truck. There was heavy traffic around a city park sheltered on all four sides by multiple-story buildings.
    “This is a good place for the street people to hang out away from the cold,” he said.
    “This park is more sheltered than the area around Fourth Street. With those scanty outfits, the women must be freezing this evening,” she said. “I just don’t understand what makes them choose the life.”
    “They tell themselves it’s temporary, and that things are going to change for them real soon. That hope is sometimes all they’ve got to hold on to. Remember the movie Pretty Woman? The little girl who dares to dream of bigger and better things is still inside these women. That’s what gets them through the