Maniacal: A Detective Jade Monroe Crime Thriller Book 1 by C.M. Sutter

can’t file a missing person’s report yet, though. It’s too early.”
    Jack nodded.
    The loud buzz of the security door between the bull pen and the reception counter made me look up from my desk. Perry Adams was escorted in at nine fifteen by Jan Seymore, one of the desk deputies that rotated between dispatch and the reception counter. Mr. Adams’s eyes were visibly red and swollen. Jack and I stood and introduced ourselves when he walked in.
    I pointed to a guest chair at my desk. “Mr. Adams, please take a seat. How do you take your coffee?”
    “Black, please.”
    “May we call you Perry?”
    “Sure, that’s fine.”
    “Okay, start from the beginning. I want to tell you up front that I attend your wife’s evening yoga classes. Elise is a wonderful woman.”
    “Then you were there last night?” he asked, hope filling his eyes.
    “No, sorry, I went to Thursday night’s class. What can you tell us, Perry?”
    “Nothing out of the ordinary. She called at nine fifteen. Class just ended, and she was packing up. She wanted to know if we had enough milk for the kids’ breakfast cereal. I checked and said we had plenty. That was it.” He paused to compose himself and wipe a tear that rolled down his cheek. “Our kids were already tucked into bed and sleeping. I went to bed myself and clicked on the TV. I intended to wait up for her to get home, but I must have fallen asleep.”
    “How long does it usually take Elise to get home from the yoga studio if she doesn’t stop anywhere?” Jack asked as he flipped the page in his notepad.
    Perry rubbed his forehead as he thought. “I don’t know, twenty minutes, I guess.”
    “So what happened when you woke up earlier?” I asked.
    “The kids ran into our bedroom, wondering where breakfast was, around seven o’clock. I looked to Elise’s side of the bed, and it hadn’t been slept in. I knew right away something was wrong.”
    Clayton was thoughtful enough to grab the carafe and fill our coffee cups. I nodded a thank-you. “Go ahead,” I said.
    “I ran downstairs and searched the house. I called out her name, but she didn’t answer. That’s when I opened the garage door and saw her side of the garage was empty. I started calling her cell phone right away, but it went straight to voice mail like it was turned off.”
    “What time was that?”
    “Um… I don’t know… around seven fifteen, I guess.”
    “How many times did you try her phone?”
    “Six or ten… I don’t remember. A lot.”
    Jack glanced at his notes. “You called here and spoke to me at 8:05.”
    “Yeah, that sounds right. Now what? We have to find her. You’ll start searching, right? Elise doesn’t do this type of thing. She’s a responsible woman and a good mom.”
    Jack flipped the page in his notepad again. “We need to know the make and model of your wife’s car and the route she takes home. A person has to be gone for twenty-four hours before we can file an official missing person’s report, but we can do some looking around. We’ll have a few deputies check her usual route home. Would you mind drawing us a map from the yoga studio to your house with the street names she takes? Maybe she just broke down somewhere.”
    “Sure, but that wouldn’t explain why she didn’t call home or answer her cell.”
    I handed Perry a sheet of printer paper so he could get started. I sensed Elise was in some kind of trouble, but saying she could have had car problems and keeping him busy might relieve his anxiety for the time being.
    “Clayton.”
    “Yeah, Sergeant.”
    “Head to the strip mall and check every business that has camera surveillance facing the parking lot. I want to see Elise get into her car and leave. We may be able to get other footage along her route home, if that’s indeed where she was heading.”
    “What is that supposed to mean?” Perry asked indignantly.
    I put my hand up as if to pump the brakes. “Give me just a second, Perry. Clayton, get video