Chapter 20

Dustin follows him across the street. The alley goes down along the length of the diner, which is next door to a nail salon, separated by the alley. But Dustin sees as soon as he gets into the alley that at the other end there is a parking lot—it’s on the other side of a wire fence, with barbed wire, but Dustin still thinks it’s more likely Lisa was taken that way, and not out onto the street.

“The blood was up here, near the diner’s back door,” Ronan tells him, walking farther into the alley.

“When her boss went looking for her, did he say if he found any lit cigarettes? The file said she was a smoker. I was just wondering, if she was still smoking when she was taken, then she was taken sooner and by surprise, not just as she was getting ready to go back inside,” Dustin reasons walking to where Ronan said the blood was.