Chapter 9
TWO WEEKS AGO
Sadie sat at her computer station, looking across the polished wood table where the Keepers had assembled. She cradled her second cup of coffee like a lifeline. The caffeine helped sharpen her focus, but she could feel the familiar pre-briefing energy crackling through the room.
“New assignment, if we agree to take it.” Logan’s voice carried the weight of authority as he settled at the head of the table, his tablet positioned precisely in front of him. Around the room, conversations died and attention focused with laser intensity.
Sadie listened with interest. New assignments meant challenges, puzzles to solve, problems that required their unique combination of skills and experience.
After weeks of routine security installations and preparation for a few security details, the prospect of something more complex sent anticipation humming through her veins.
“I’ve been contacted by Maria Benedetto from Chicago.
She’s concerned about her missing sister-in-law, Natalia Benedetto.
” Logan’s fingers moved across his tablet screen, and the wall monitor came to life, displaying a photograph of an elegant woman in her early fifties with kind eyes and dark hair, cut in a shoulder-length bob, pulled back with a scarf.
“Natalia lives in Italy, came to the United States a month ago, and visited with her sister-in-law, Maria. Then, before going back to Italy, she went to a spa in Arizona.” Logan paused, his gaze sweeping the room to ensure he had everyone’s complete attention.
“The Serenity Dunes Spa Resort. Very exclusive. Very expensive. Very remote.”
Sadie hid her scoff… a ritzy place for ritzy people.
“She was supposed to be there for their ten-day full treatment, and then she left, flew out of Phoenix to New York, and then to Italy. But her sister-in-law, Maria, says she doesn’t know who got on that plane, but she doesn’t think it was Natalia.
” Logan’s voice dropped, becoming more grave.
“Ever since, she can’t find any information about her.
She managed to talk to a friend of Natalia’s in Italy, who claims they haven’t seen her since she first came to the States.
Maria is convinced that something happened at the spa and there was a cover-up. ”
Cory leaned forward, his forearms resting on the table. “What makes her think something happened at the spa? She could’ve met someone, gone somewhere else. She could be in Italy, but just doesn’t want to be found right now.”
Sadie found herself thinking along the same lines. Lots of reasons someone would want to disappear for a while.
Frazier added, “Something could’ve happened to her when she arrived in Italy.”
But even as the logical explanations filled the air around them, something deep in Sadie’s gut was starting to reject them as she stared into the eyes of the woman in the photograph.
Years of investigative work had taught her to trust her instincts, and right now those instincts were screaming that this wasn’t a case of voluntary disappearance or foreign mishap.
“Or she never got on the plane,” she said quietly, the words hanging in the air like a challenge to conventional thinking.
Every head in the room turned toward her, and she felt the familiar weight of their collective attention. Taking a steadying breath, she deflected, “I’m assuming Maria went to the FBI first?”
Landon, their former FBI agent whose insider knowledge had proven invaluable countless times, nodded with the grim expression that meant bureaucratic frustration.
“When this request came in, Logan and I checked with the bureau. They reviewed the airport surveillance video and have evidence that the woman using Natalia Benedetto’s passport, plane tickets, and boarding passes looked like her. They do not have an open case.”
The finality in his voice made Sadie’s teeth clench. She’d worked with federal agencies long enough to know how quickly cases could be dismissed when they didn’t fit neat investigative parameters.
“Yet her sister still believes something happened?” Todd’s question echoed her own thoughts. He was never one to blurt out theories, but always carefully considered ideas before voicing them.
“Yes,” Logan confirmed, and something in his tone suggested there was more to the story.
“To be honest, if it wasn’t for something the FBI supervisor said, I might have dismissed the assignment.
But they admitted that with their backlog, they had not delved deeply to investigate whether facial recognition matched.
At the initial investigation, the person using her passport looked similar to the woman in the passport picture. ”
Similar. The word caused Sadie’s spidey senses to tingle. In her experience, “similar” in a missing person case was never a good sign. It suggested deception, identity theft, or worse.
“What if something had happened at the spa? There would be protocols... hospitals, doctors, records,” she pressed, her analytical mind already working through the logistics of how such a cover-up might work.
Logan’s expression grew darker, if such a thing were possible.
“Maria said her sister-in-law was eccentric. Never married and traveled infrequently. But when she was coming to the United States to visit, she said Natalia had looked into a spa in the Southwest that promised a rejuvenating experience.”
He paused, consulting his tablet before continuing.
“It seems that the resort does not want its guests to keep their phones, tablets, or laptops with them. If there’s an emergency, the spa will handle it.
Maria said her sister-in-law is never without her phone, so she hid one on her person and then in her room.
She hadn’t heard from Natalia for several days, but when Natalia finally called, she said she was enjoying the experience but occasionally felt very lightheaded and dizzy.
She thought it was just because she was unused to the dry heat. ”
That piece of information made Sadie’s gut twist. Isolation from communication. Mysterious physical symptoms. And then…
“That was the last Maria heard from her,” Landon added. “Maria is convinced that something happened at the spa, and to cover their tracks, they had someone impersonate Natalia, leaving the States.”
Dalton leaned back in his chair, the leather creaking under his weight as he shook his head. “That’s some deep-level, conspiracy-theory reasoning.”
“Agreed,” Logan said, but his tone suggested he wasn’t entirely dismissive of the theory. “But I told Maria that we would check into it.”
While the conversation continued around her, Sadie found herself already moving, her fingers flying across her laptop keyboard as she pulled up everything she could find about Serenity Dunes Spa Resort.
The name was perfect. The website that loaded was a masterpiece of sophisticated design and carefully crafted language.
Images of pristine desert landscapes, luxurious treatment rooms, and blissfully relaxed guests filled the screen.
She clicked through pages of testimonials, treatment descriptions, and facility information, her trained eye cataloging details that might prove relevant.
Guest reviews. Staff credentials. Treatment philosophies that relied heavily on buzzwords like transformative transcendence, holistic holiday, and rejuvenating renewal.
Good grief… who came up with their marketing aliteration?
“Sounds like a mental anti-aging focus under the direction of the spa owner, Dr. Marvin Selinski. This spa caters to females seeking regenerative wellness,” she announced, looking up from her screen to find every pair of eyes in the room fixed on her.
The realization had hit her like a physical blow.
If something were happening at Serenity Dunes, if a woman disappeared or had been harmed, then the investigation would require someone who could get inside their carefully controlled environment.
“That means I’m the only one who can get inside. ”
The words had barely left her mouth when Todd’s head swung around, his eyes wide with what looked suspiciously like panic. “That’s not true. One of us could get on as an employee and—”
The protective desperation in his voice sent heat flashing through her chest. It was part gratitude, part irritation, and something deeper that she didn’t want to examine too closely.
“It would take a hell of a lot longer for that to happen than for me to go in as a guest,” she argued, her own voice sharper than she’d intended.
“You don’t do in-the-field work,” Todd snapped back.
She wanted to punch him, but instead, pinned him with a glare that had been known to make CIA operatives reconsider their life choices. “Think I can’t handle it?”
“You know that’s not it!” The words exploded from him. His hands clenched into fists, knuckles white with tension, and for a moment, the careful professional distance they’d maintained for eighteen months threatened to split wide open.
She could see the fear in his eyes, raw and unguarded, and it did something to her carefully constructed emotional defenses. But before she could respond, Logan’s authoritative voice cut through the tension like a blade.
“I agree that Sadie is the only one who can quickly get on the inside of the spa and see if she can find out what may have happened to Natalia, if anything.”
The decision settled over the room like a weight. Sadie felt a complex mixture of vindication and trepidation as she turned back to her laptop, fingers already moving across the keys.