Merrick arrived home just after six, expecting to find Ryan waiting for him when he went up to the studio. He could tell Ryan had been there, but there was no way to know when or for how long.
“It’s obvious he’ll be back,” he muttered when he spotted the drawings on the table. He paused there, looking at them. Such talent. Such feeling in them. He wouldn’t have gone off and left them behind, if he’d changed his mind about…
“He wouldn’t do that,” Merrick said angrily, pounding his fist on the table. “Where the hell is he?”
Then, he remembered what Ryan had said the previous night. “He’s out there, looking for damned homeless people and their interesting faces. What if one of them did something to him?”
Panicked, Merrick raced out of the studio. Just as he got down to the ground floor, t
