A/N: Please forgive all my mistakes, and no I don't own any of this. Even more mysteries ahead. .
55
"Thanks for allowing Ricky to stay the night, Mom."
"Have you checked on him this morning?"
"Yes. He is still asleep with the covers everywhere."
"He must have had nightmares or was uncomfortable sleeping in a strange bed."
"I just wished he would have gotten a good night's rest."
"I think we need to look at the painkillers the doctors gave him."
"When I checked on him earlier, he told me he flushed them down the toilet."
"Well, if his pain becomes unbearable, I have Aleve, Motrin, and Extra Strength Tylenol.
"Don't worry Cedes and Gina, I will make sure Ricky will be okay today."
Gina ran over for a hug. "Thanks GeeGee. And thanks for the waffles."
"You are very welcome. Have a good day at school."
"I don't know why I have to go. We aren't learning anything."
"But these are the days you'll remember most when you are old and gray. The school parties and the movies and the joking around. You all need a week of enjoying school before summer break, so you will want to return in the fall."
"If you say so, but I really think that I'd rather stay here with Ricky."
"I am sure you think that now, ladybug. In a few more days, you'll have over two months of fun with all your friends." Gina didn't say anything but headed outside to the car.
When Cedes followed behind her, it was only to find April Rhodes readying to knock at the front door. "Mercedes," she said, just as surprised as Cedes.
"April, how are you today?"
"Oh, you know. Hi, Gina Bina."
"Good morning, Ms. April."
"I'll meet you at the car." Cedes told her daughter knowing that whatever April had to say she wouldn't say it around Gina.
"Yes ma'am."
As soon as Gina was out of earshot, she told April, "I have some footage that I'm hoping will be useful, and Jay is having your locks replaced today. Do you need anything else?"
"I just wanted to check in."
"April?" Minnie Jones was surprised to see April Rhodes this early and looking sober.
They both turned to Minnie Jones not saying a word.
"What are you doing here?" Minnie asked.
"I'm here to see you. Thought you might want to go and grab some coffee with me."
"Come on in," she said. "I have to stick around here for a while, but I made waffles and have extra."
"Thanks, you know how I never pass up a free meal."
Her mom laughed. "I really do."
Cedes watched them go inside, then drove Gina to school. When she pulled up to the drop-off, she put her cruiser in park.
Gina turned a worried expression on her. "Why are you parking?"
"I just thought we could have a talk."
"No more talks. Please mom."
"I really want you to stop whatever plans you may have in investigating this case."
"Mom, it's not Electra, so I am no longer investigating." She held out her phone. .
"What?" Cedes took it and scrolled through the new pics Electra put up that morning.
"She posted new pics of her skiing. It's not … I'm sorry. I thought it might have been her. I made such a big deal about it."
"I don't know, ladybug." Cedes zoomed in on some of the images. "I'm not ruling this out completely, but I do hope it's her skiing, and she's really okay."
"Me too, but I feel bad now. What if you had called her mom and worried her for nothing?"
"Which is why I didn't call her yet."
"I just wanted to help."
"Can I ask why?"
"What do you mean?"
"I understand wanting to help, believe you me, but do you know why you want to help?"
"I don't know. I never thought about it. I guess I just like helping people. Like you do."
"And that's great, Gina. I can't tell you how proud I am of that fact, but I don't want you putting yourself in harm's way to help someone else."
"But isn't that exactly what you do?"
"Not if I can help it, and even if I do, I am an adult, and it's part of my job, ladybug."
"Well, I've made an important decision."
"What's your decision, bug?"
"I am going to be a FBI agent and help find missing people."
"In that case, I need to tell you something."
"Okay."
"To get into the FBI, you have to have an excellent vocabulary, top-notch math skills, and an analytical brain. And you have to have the ability to thrive under pressure."
"You don't think I can do it?"
"I am not saying that at all. I know you can do it, but you need to know, just in case you are ever asked, it's not a percussion. It's a concussion. And you didn't have an epidural hemogoblin. You have an epidural hematoma."
"Okay."
"Otherwise, I have to say, you have an excellent vocabulary. But there is one more thing you need to get into the FBI."
"What's that?"
"To stay a virgin."
"Aren't you the one who told me virginity is a social construct aimed to shame and oppress women? That there's no such thing?"
"I don't ever remember telling you that."
"Really? Because it was, like, one week ago when you were yelling at the people who were infringing on women's reproductive health and rights."
"Well if I said it, I was right. It is a social construct. A social one and an FBI one. They check. Trust me. You do not want to get through the whole process only to be rejected because you allowed your hormones to take over and you are a teen mother struggling to balance being an agent and mommy. Unlike my parents, I have a job and can't be taking care of your offspring. You know our family is super fertile. Right."
"I am so out of here. All the sibling you have and I have prove just how fertile we are. Bye mom."
"'Exactly. Goodbye and make good choices!" she yelled as Gina got out of the cruiser.
Three kids had been standing around waiting for her to get out. Young kids dressed like gangsters.
"Yo, Georgina," one of them yelled.
Gina laughed. "My real name is actually Regina," she said before closing the door.
These kids were no more than nine or ten, but Gina treated them like she would anyone else her age or older. She stood and talked to them as they waited for their bus.
Cedes pulled out of the drop-off area and called Hunt.
"How's Ricky?" he asked instead of saying hello.
"Oh, he was still asleep when I left. We think he tossed and turned all night. Do you know what medication the doctor prescribed him?"
"Vicodin."
"No wonder he could barely walk last night. Gina said he flushed the rest of pills down the toilet, and my mom is staying with him today, just to make sure he doesn't have any side effects."
"Your mom? Maybe I should go over and keep her, I mean him company, too."
"Nice try, Cougar Bait. I need you to check Electra's social presence. She posted pics from her trip. I'll be there soon."
"You got it."
By the time she walked into the station, expresso from The Lima Bean in hand, Hunter was already shaking his head.
"What?"
"The so-called new pics on Electra Lynn's Instagram are from over a year ago."
Cedes went to her office to put down her bag and hurried to his desk.
"That was my first clue," he said, pointing to a sign in the background that read Heavenly Mountain Resort. "That place is closed for skiing for the summer."
"Okay."
"And I did some scrolling and discovered a pic that was from different years. You can tell by her hair in this one."
"So, someone probably has her phone. We need to ping it."
"Already on it, boss," Martinez said. "It's been turned off. Whoever's doing this could have her laptop, as well, but I did find out Electra Lynn's college roommate stayed on over the summer break as an RA, so she's still there at UCLA."
"Good job," she said, giving him a thumbs-up. "I need you to find out where those pics came from." She looked at Hunt. "We're going to LA to talk to the roommate."
Hunt stood, but before they could head out, Cedes looked up and watched Mike Chang walk in.
"Are you here to start work already?"
"I'm here to see how serious about the job offer you are."
"Dead."
"Okay, then. Martinez is going to give me the lowdown on the academy, and Dani says she has the paperwork ready for me to fill out. I should start POST classes next month."
"Good to have you on board. By the way, have you seen Sam Menkins lately? I still need to arrest him."
Chang laughed. "Not today."
"But you know where he's staying?"
He shook his head. "Sorry, Sheriff."
"Is this a bros-before-hos thing?"
"Definitely, not," he said, flashing her a wickedly handsome grin. "This is an I-don't-know-where-his-secret-hideout-is thing."
"You both tend to keep that a secret from each other, so I will trust you are telling me the truth. Are you going to be physically ready for the academy that soon?" She gestured toward his torso that had been stabbed multiple times not too long ago.
"I will be if it means a job that I can support my family with."
She stepped closer and looked up at him, only just realizing he was almost as tall as Sam. "Don't push yourself too hard. We can hold off on the academy and put you behind a desk until you're cleared by your doctor to go."
"Do I look like a desk jockey kind of guy?"
"If you are sure. You guys have fun."
"Will do, boss," Martinez said, suddenly frowning at his computer.
She walked over to him. "What's wrong now?"
"Have you been cloned, by chance?"
"Not that I know of, but the way my tenure as sheriff has been going, I wouldn't be surprised. Why do you ask?"
"I could be wrong, but it looks like someone may have stolen your identity."
Gina got Ashlyn's attention from watching the movie they were supposed to be watching. Gina had gotten permission to use her laptop to work on a special project. Because of this, Regina Grace Porter got arrested for hacking into the sheriff's database.
But before that, she and Ashlyn sat against a wall, close to an outlet for her charger, and typed in her mother's username and password.
"Are you sure we won't get caught?"
"Don't worry, I do it all the time."
"Yes, when you are at home where your mom's IP address will show up. But you're using a VPN. Won't they know the access is unauthorized?"
"What's the worst that can happen to me?" she asked.
"You know, every time you say that, something horrible happens."
Gina winced. "You're right. I'll stop. But look. We can access all the reports that were filed. You said that Kourtney said that the girl who was found wounded near Copper Canyon was wearing a prom dress?"
"Yes."
"Okay, if she goes to Lima Springs, then prom would have been near the end of April." She scrolled through the police reports until she came to April of last year. "Here we go. April twenty-third. An unidentified female was brought into urgent care with a head injury and a broken arm and was found on Canyon Highway just before the pass."
"That's it." Ashlyn looked at the laptop screen. "Does it give her name?"
"Not in this report, because they didn't know it yet. Let me see…" She found a second report and clicked on it. "What?" she asked aloud, disappointed. "It just says she was flown to McKinleyville."
"No name?"
"No. What the heck?"
"Maybe your mom can pull it up?"
"Maybe. I kind of promised her I'd quit investigating."
"This case?"
"Pretty much any case."
"Oh."
"Yeah, but don't you think this is kind of strange? I mean, there are no follow-up reports with this case number. It's almost like they didn't even investigate it."
"Wait," Ashlyn said, leaning closer, "what's that?"
Gina clicked on the image of an eye and they both froze. A picture of an injured girl popped onto the screen. She lay unconscious on a gurney in a neck brace, a mass of curly dark hair framing a pretty face with a few scrapes and bruises. But the pièce de résistance was the swollen knot on the right side of her forehead.
"OMG," Ashlyn said.
"Ashlyn," Gina whispered, "I know exactly who that is."
"Who is she?"
It took her a moment, but she recognized the girl who'd played with her when she was a little kid and her grandmother had an appointment with Melva at the beauty salon. Her mother worked at the salon and would bring her daughter to work during the summer. "That's Stephani Sosa."
"The senior?" she asked, leaning in for a closer look.
"Yes."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. The good news is, we can search her name for more information."
"Or," a man said from close by, "someone with actual clearance can."
Gina froze as she spotted a black boot, traveled up a pair of black deputy pants to a holstered sidearm, up further to a black button-down, to finally land on the disappointed face of David Martinez.
"David," she started, then rethought her words. "Deputy Martinez, what are you doing here?"
"Catching a hacker."
"Really?" She looked around, the picture of innocence. "Who would do such a thing?"
"Regina Porter—"
Gina slammed her eyes shut. This was not happening.
"—you are under arrest for cybercrimes under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Turn around and put your hands behind your back."
"Hold that thought," Cedes said to Hunt.
"Okay, but it's really heavy."
She had him call the hospital to check on their Jane Doe. There was no change in her condition and now they were headed to LA when her phone rang from a number in Redding.
She put the phone on speaker. "Sheriff Porter."
A man came on the line. "Hey, Sheriff. My name is Paolo San Pablo. I'm—"
"The chief of police in Redding."
"My reputation precedes me."
"We met a few years ago when I was a detective in Eureka."
"Oh, I knew I recognized your name. Congrats on being voted in as sheriff."
"Thanks."
"I heard you have an unidentified female on your hands."
"We do. You wouldn't happen to have an ID on her?"
"Sorry. It just reminded me to circle back to see if there have been any developments on the Sandoval case."
"The Sandoval case?" She looked at Hunt. He shrugged.
"Missing nineteen-year-old female from Redding. Beatrice McClaine. You don't know it?"
"No, and I studied all the active cases when I took office. I don't remember that name."
"Oh well. I spoke to your former sheriff about it months ago. Sent him copies of the entire file."
"Really?" she asked. Two questions popped into her mind simultaneously. One, why had Chief San Paolo been so intent on getting the file to Schuester? And two, what happened to it? "Can you give me the highlights?"
"She was last seen on her way to Lima Springs to spend the weekend with her new boyfriend. The sheriff was going to look into it."
"If he did, he never filed a report."
"I remember seeing an Amber Alert on the girl," Hunter said. "But I don't remember anything about Lima Springs."
"We kept it out of the news because we didn't know how accurate that information was."
"Who was she supposed to meet?"
"No clue. He used a burner phone. With the internet, it could've been anyone. Her best friend only saw one picture of the guy, but her description wasn't much to go on. And who knows if it was really him?"
"Chief, if our Jane Doe is who we think she is, these cases sound eerily familiar. A female in her late teens comes to Lima Springs from out of town and goes missing."
"That can't be a coincidence."
"No, sir, it cannot. I'll get back with you when we know more. In the meantime, can you send over those files again?"
"Consider it done. Thanks so much, Sheriff. I'd love to give this family some closure."
"I would, too. Let me know if you have any developments." She hung up and turned to Hunt. "Now, what are the odds of that?"
He turned and looked out the window.
"What?" she asked.
"Why didn't I hear about Chief San Pablo's inquiry? Schuester said nothing to us." He looked back at her, astonished. "You don't think he purposely suppressed—"
"I don't think anything yet." She wasn't quite ready to burn Schuester at the stake. They needed a lot more evidence, but first they needed to identify their Jane Doe.
Several hours later they finally arrived on the UCLA campus and entering the dorm where the roommate was a RA.
"Can I help you?" A young woman in a robe and carrying a bathroom caddy stepped out of the very room they were headed for, apparently headed for the showers.
"Hey, we're looking for the RA?"
"My name is Dewanda. I'm the temporary RA."
"Just the girl we're looking for," Hunter said, not sounding creepy at all.
The girl took a wary step back and closed the top of her robe self-consciously.
"Sorry," Cedes said, "he was raised in a barn. I'm Sheriff Porter and this is Chief Deputy Clarington. We're from Lima Springs County and wanted to ask you a couple of questions about your roommate."
She blinked, completely thrown. "Electra? Did something happen?"
"That's what we're trying to find out. Have you spoken to her since she left?"
"Yeah." She lifted a shoulder, unconcerned. "I mean, she texted me a couple of times. Which is weird, but okay."
"Why is that weird?" Hunt asked.
"Well, I mean, we were roommates but it's not like we were besties. She had her crowd, and I had mine."
"Were?"
"Yeah. Next year we'll get new roommates. That's just kind of how it works. Don't get me wrong. I like Electra a lot, but we didn't keep tabs on each other. And we certainly didn't hang."
"Gotcha," Cedes said, taking out her notepad, just in case. "Do you know who she did hang with?"
She pressed her lips together in thought. "Not really. I might recognize a couple of her friends if you showed me a picture, but Electra was super popular. I'm more of a band geek."
"Ah. So her texting you was odd."
"Very."
"Did Electra dye her hair before she left after finals?" Hunt asked.
"Electra? No way." She shook her head, her dark curls bouncing around her head. "She loved her blond hair."
"Even if she really liked purple? Would she have dyed it maybe just for summer break?"
"She definitely loved purple, but … I just don't know. Anything is possible, I guess. She was under a lot of stress with her anthropology final and she ended up acing it. So, maybe?"
"What about her underwear?" Hunter asked as he jotted down some notes. "Do you know what color underwear she was wearing when she left?"
Cedes was going to kill him. Especially when Heather closed her robe again and eyed him with a mixture of horror and revulsion.
Hunter finally noticed. He lowered the notepad. "Sorry. This isn't as creepy as it sounds. It's for an ongoing investigation."
"Oh. Well, like I said, we weren't that close and we damned sure weren't sharing-underwear close."
Cedes stepped in. "Heather, this is really important. This is still all very up in the air, but Electra could be in trouble."
"Oh." She dropped her hands. "I'm sorry."
"It's okay. I know these are odd questions, but do you know if Electra had any bright pink underwear?"
"Yeah, but so does every other girl in this dorm."
She had a point.
"She left a few things, though, if you want to take a look. She knew I'd be here for a few more weeks so, there ya go. Leave your crap with the lesser being."
"Not that you're bitter," Cedes said, grinning warmly at her.
She ducked to hide a sheepish smile. "Sorry, Electra's really nice to me. I shouldn't be so harsh." She opened the door to let them in. "Her stuff is in that wardrobe."
They walked over to a freestanding wardrobe and opened it only to be met with a purple laundry basket stacked high with odds and ends on top of a few articles of clothing.
Cedes knelt to go through it. She hit gold immediately. A brush Electra must've left behind.
"Is this Electra's?" she asked, double checking.
"Yeah. Weird that she'd forget it."
Hunt brought out an evidence bag and Cedes dropped it in. "Do you know who she was going to see in Lima Springs?" Maybe going to see her cousin was simply a cover story for Electra and she was actually meeting someone. Like a new boyfriend similar to the missing woman from Redding.
"Yeah, her cousin. I met her once." She snorted as she scrolled through her phone. "So not impressed."
As Cedes rummaged through the clothes, hoping to find the matching underwear to their Jane Doe's bra, she touched something cold. She wrapped her fingers around it and pulled out a necklace with the name Electra written in cursive. It was the same necklace Electra wore in almost every pic they saw of her.
She held it up to Heather. "Did Electra leave this in the basket?"
"Oh, no, I found that on the floor. I was surprised. Electra never went anywhere without that necklace."
"So, you put it in this basket?"
"Y-yeah." She looked between the two of them. "Is that okay?"
"It's fine."
Hunter took out an evidence bag as she held it up. She dropped it in, then bent for a better look at the carpet. "Was there anything else out of place?"
She looked around as though double checking. "Not really. I had to vacuum her side of the room, but that's about it."
Cedes sat back on her heels. "Did you actually see her leave the building, Dewanda?"
Heather sank onto her bed. "No. She was gone when I got back. Do you think…? Did something happen here?"
"I rather doubt it," Cedes assured her. "Before I ask for a forensics team, are there security cameras in the dorm?"
"On every floor," she said. "But I don't know where the control room is."
"I'll find it. I just want to make sure Electra walked out of this dorm on her own."
After taking one last look around the room, they left Dewanda to find the security office. Two hours later, with the help of campus police, they found the footage of Electra leaving her dorm room. They tracked her carrying two boxes and a stuffed zebra until she got to her car and left the parking garage.
"Well, she wasn't attacked here." She turned to Hunt and added, "If our Jane Doe is even her."
"I'm wondering, too. With Electra seemingly so proud of her blond hair, it's hard to believe she'd dye it."
"People do strange things when finals are over, though," Hunter pointed out. "It's like being released from prison. They go crazy."
"True. I hate to say this, but it's time. We need to talk to Electra's parents even if we're wrong."
"I hate to agree with you, but I do."
Cold metal encircled her wrists as every kid in class watched Gina's downfall. Some watched with glee. Others with unabated shock. She would never live this down. She could only imagine what a kick Lily would get out of this.
"You have the right to remain silent," David said softly. "I suggest you exercise it."
Gina looked at Ashlyn, who only gaped up at her, her mouth opening and closing like a goldfish struggling to breathe. Her reaction only amplified Gina's desire for the earth to open up and swallow her whole as the deputy read her the Miranda rights. He needn't have bothered. She'd been so fascinated with her mother's job, she'd memorized them when she was four.
When he finished, he turned her to face him and put his fingers underneath her chin to reestablish eye contact. Then he winked at her and said softly, "If you want to get out of this relatively unscathed, play along."
"What?"
He cracked up as though he couldn't keep his composure and looked around at all the astonished students. "Good one, Ms. Porter," he said, before turning her back around and unlocking her new fashion accessory. Once the cuffs were off, he gestured toward her and clapped. "Gina Porter, ladies and gentlemen. She'll be here all week." Then, in a hushed voice meant only for her ears, he added, "If she knows what's good for her." And with that, he threw an arm over her shoulders and hugged her playfully.
Gina laughed, hesitantly at first, but she caught on quickly and joined the game. Soon the entire class was laughing with them.
A couple more classmates said things like, "Way to go, Porter," and "That was awesome."
"I thought for sure you were a goner, Ms. Porter, because your mother would kill you if you were really arrested." The teacher told her.
"You're not kidding," she said, forcing a fake chuckle.
David gestured toward the door and she followed, her head hung low. He turned to her before leaving the classroom. "I want you to remember the feeling of me putting cuffs on you in front of all your friends next time you decide to hack a government website."
"I doubt I could forget that if I tried."
After a quick glance at her teacher to get his approval, they stepped outside the classroom and into the hall. "How did you know I'd hacked into the database?"
"Because you used your mother's log-in info while she was standing right in front of me. You know, not logging in."
"So you just assumed it was me without giving me the benefit of the doubt?"
His snort of laughter was answer enough.
"I'm sorry," she said with head bowed. "I was just trying to help with the investigation."
"You're just sorry you got caught. What were you looking for?"
"We heard about another girl who was found hurt on the highway going up to Copper Canyon. That can't be a coincidence, right? Two girls hurt on the same road? It has to mean something."
"What did you find?"
"There's an initial report that doesn't mention her name because they didn't know it yet, but there's a picture, and I recognized her from when I was a kid. She's a student here."
"Go on."
"That's just it. After that, there's nothing. There's no follow-up. Don't you find that strange?"
"Not necessarily. Another agency could've taken over the case."
"I wondered about that, too. Are you going to tell my mom?"
"And give up my only leverage? Never. Blackmail is a beautiful thing."
The relief that flooded her body must've shown on her face because he laughed again, albeit softly and almost sympathetically.
"How about you come to me next time? Just don't get me in trouble with your mom."
"Okay, thanks, David. Deputy Martinez."
"David is fine. Get back to class."
She nodded and watched as he took out his phone and strolled down the hall, then she turned tail and ran to the bathroom. The feeling of nausea she got when she was being cuffed had yet to wane.
Hurrying to dry her face as kids came into her sanctuary, she went to throw away the paper towel only to come face-to-face with a miffed Lily. Then again, when wasn't she miffed?
"Why did you come to my house yesterday?"
"I told you. To check on your cousin."
"I texted her. She's fine. And she doesn't know you, so I'll ask again. Why did you come to my house?"
"Look, I heard she never showed up and the cops found a girl in Copper Canyon yesterday. I was worried it might be her."
"Why would you even think that?" Lily asked, eyeing her like she had two heads.
Gina looked from Lily to her two friends, then back again. "I have to get my things from class. Can we talk about this later?"
"I want an answer, loser. You're as bad as your mom, stay in your lane and out of other people's business."
"That is my mom's lane being in people's business if they are breaking the law."
"Whatever, just stay out of my business and my face."
"That's exactly what I'm trying to do."
Gina walked away from her and into Ashlyn, who told her, "I just saw her, and, you almost got arrested."
"Please don't remind me." She said before asking. "You just saw who?"
"Stephani Sosa. Look." She pointed down the hall to a girl going into the same bathroom Gina had just come out of. A tall girl with curly dark hair went inside.
"Perfect," Gina said. "We need to talk to her."
"But we'll be late for our next class."
She turned to take in Ashlyn's rounded eyes. She couldn't get her friend into any more trouble. "You're right. You go to class and I'll see you and Kourtney at lunch."
"Okay. Are you going to talk to her?"
"Yes, but it's okay. You go."
She pushed her glasses up her nose. "Are you sure?"
"Positive. What's the worst that could happen?"
"Gina, you really have got to quit saying that."
Ashlyn was right. Again. But seriously, she'd simply be tardy to her next class. What could possibly go wrong?
She hurried back to the bathroom before Stephani exited. Thankfully it had cleared out and Stephani was at the sink, fluffing her long dark hair.
Gina eased up to her and cleared her throat.
Stephani raised a brow at her in the mirror.
"Um, you're Stephani, right?"
One corner of her mouth rose. "Who wants to know?"
"Oh, I'm Gina."
"I know exactly who you are. You're the sheriff's daughter."
"I am," Gina said.
"So, what can I do for you?"
"Well, this is going to sound really strange, but I was wondering what happened to you last year at prom."
Stephani stilled, her expression morphing into disbelief. She clutched her bag tighter and looked at the stalls to make sure no one else was in the room. When she looked back at Gina, gone was the sweet upperclassman who'd greeted her so kindly.
Another girl burst through the door, her short locks a wild mess like she'd narrowly escaped a tornado. "Girl, what THE hell are you doing?" she asked Stephani with a giggle right as the tardy bell rang. She looked toward the heavens, her arms open wide as though questioning the universe before throwing Stephani a playful glare. "And now we're late. Come on."
When she turned and left, Stephani looked back at Gina, her gaze boring into her with a combination of fear and guilt.
"I'm sorry, Stephani. I didn't mean to upset—"
"Not here," she said, her voice low and harsh.
"Okay. Should I—"
Before Gina could finish her question, Stephani strode past her and out the door, tossing one last worried expression over her shoulder.