Hold My Hand (Sequel to Saved: Adopted by Brendon Urie)

Chapter 41

By late afternoon, the hotel room no longer looked like a hotel room.

It looked like an evidence room.

Photographs covered the coffee table.

Phones were plugged into every available outlet. Laptops sat open on the desk and the small dining table. Someone had commandeered the television and connected a monitor to it. Printouts were stacked in uneven piles, some marked with handwritten times and locations.

Brendon stood near the window with his arms folded.

He hadn't sat down in almost an hour.

Detective Collins was at the table.

"We've had over six hundred submissions," one of the analysts said.

Brendon looked over.

"Six hundred?"

"Photos, videos, screenshots, dashcam footage. Some are duplicates. Some are completely unrelated."

"People are trying to help."

"I know."

The analyst sounded tired rather than dismissive.

"They are."

She picked up a photograph.

"Which is actually making this harder."

Brendon looked at the image.

It showed him outside a venue.

He recognized the moment immediately.

Him and Zack laughing.

Zack had one hand raised as though he'd just said something ridiculous.

Brendon almost smiled.

Then he didn't.

"That's from three nights ago."

"Correct."

She placed it beside another.

Different venue.

Different day.

Different clothes.

Brendon was walking toward a car.

"Four days earlier."

Another.

Him coming out of a restaurant.

Another.

Him signing something for a fan outside the venue.

Another.

Abby.

Brendon stopped.

The picture was grainy.

Taken from across the street.

Abby was walking beside Bonnie.

She had a backpack over one shoulder.

Her head was turned toward something outside the frame.

Brendon reached for it.

"Where?"

"Camden."

"When?"

"Last Tuesday. Fan says approximately eleven twenty."

Brendon stared at Abby's face.

She looked completely normal.

Bored, almost.

Like any thirteen-year-old being dragged around London by an adult. Abby and Bonnie had come to London a couple of days ahead of Brendon while he performed in Manchester for two nights. They'd stayed one and continued on to London the next.