Preston cupped his hands around his face and peered into the glass window of the dimly lit storefront. "I don't see anything." He looked back at Harper as she stood by the curb to make a meal out of her fingernails. "Are you sure this is where Auggie said she went?"
"Yes." Harper spat out a sliver of nail-like it was a sunflower seed hull. "He said she was booking a photographer for Blackbird and borrowed his bike."
"Borrowed his bike." Preston's eyebrow hiked up and the corner of his mouth curved. "Faith's always in stilts. How does she ride a bike?"
Harper shrugged. "When your mom freezes your bank account, you improvise." She looked in the window for herself. "A light is still on...maybe she's signing paperwork." Harper pulled away from the window. "If Giselle didn't cut off her phone we could've called her."
"Instead of playing Columbo." Preston finished her sentence. "Dieter Sanders Gallery." He read the sign hanging over the frost glass door. "Store hours nine a.m. to ten p.m." He looked at his watch. "Maybe she went somewhere else. Wasn't she seeing some new guy?"
"A German Chocolate dude." Harper reached for the door handle.
"Does he sale chocolate or is he a black guy from Germany?" He asked leaning against the meter.
Harper shrugged and yanked the door handle. The force of her pull swung the door into her body and popped her in the chest. "Ow!" She yelped as Preston chuckled. "I thought it was locked."
"Then why did you pull on it?"
"Just because." She rubbed the sting pulsating through her chest. "Hello." She called as they entered the gallery.
Harper's voice echoed through the empty space and bounced off the white walls.
"Are you sure this place didn't go out of business?" Preston inquired standing behind a marble-topped counter. "There's no way she came here."
"Faith!" Harper called storming through the vacant space. She journeyed through the side door and found the office in the back as bare as the space in the front. She ran back to the front of the gallery out of breath as her heart thudded.
"What is it?" She huffed out. She settled next to Preston as she stared at the blank, white wall. "Are you okay?"
He rubbed his hand along a space that was far whiter than the area around it. "Something was hanging here." He dropped her hand off the wall taking a step back. "And do you smell that?"
Harper sniffed the chilled, empty air. "What?" She glared at him with frantic eyes.
"It's that fragrance Faith wore when we went jogging awhile back."
Harper inhaled deeper this time. "Velvet Tender." She whispered. "I'm calling Sheriff Edmonds!" She dashed to the door. "Something feels off."
Preston sprinted behind her.
Where could Faith be?
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