I crumpled my brow. “She didn’t show?” I asked, concern lacing my voice.
Jodie shook her head, slowly. “Is everything okay?” she asked.
“Yes, I’m sure she got distracted elsewhere,” I said, offering a hopefully comforting, yet totally fake smile.
“Well, gentleman, if there is anything I can help you with, please ask or feel free to browse,” she said.
Mackenzie and I thanked her but declined the offer to browse. We headed back out to the car instead.
I called Gabriella, and then left a text message asking her to return my call when it went to voicemail again. Mackenzie did the same.
“Where on earth has she gone?” I asked, more to myself.
“Let’s head back to the office, in case she went there,” he said.
By the time we got back, most of the office block was in darkness, only security was on patrol. We asked if Gabriella had returned to be told that she hadn’t.
We decided to try her house hoping to find her in the shower without realising she’d set us off into a panic.
Although there were one or two lights on, the house was mostly in darkness. I opened the front door and called out. Her bag wasn’t in its usual place on a bench in the hallway. We walked around each room knowing she wasn’t there but needing to check. We walked upstairs and into the master bedroom. Something was off.
“There’s been a struggle,” I said.
“Huh?”
My heart began to pound at my chest. “Her perfume bottle is on the floor. That cushion is always on that chair, not the other one. The curtain is off its hook. Trust me, something has happened in this room and someone has tidied up but not well enough.”
Mackenzie pulled out his phone and called Detective Burrows. He gave a report of a potential missing person and detailed what we had done to find her. Burrows finished the conversation by saying he was on his way.
We paced, we called and texted. We argued about whether to call her mother. I had wanted to, just in case there had been an accident at home and Gabriella was mid-flight without being able to tell us she had left.
Mackenzie insisted that wouldn’t have happened. First, Mrs. Collingsworth would never have just called Gabriella to give bad news, she would have called him first so he could be with her when the bad news was delivered. Second, she would have had time to call one of us before getting onto a plane.
I opened the closet, her luggage was on the top shelf, where it normally lived.
I walked around the garden, although not big enough to hide in, I wanted to see if there was any evidence of someone breaking in, for example. Could she have disturbed an intruder and…?
I ran back inside. “Call the local hospitals,” I said.
“Shit, yes,” Mackenzie replied.
While I Googled, he called, asking if a blonde had been brought in, maybe unconscious and unable to give her name. He received a lot of resistance initially, until he said that he had filed a missing persons report. Each hospital either told us they had no one of that description or name or offered to call us back, something I doubted they’d do.
Half an hour later Detective Burrows arrived. I explained how we were meant to meet, where we had gone to look for her, and the items in the bedroom that were displaced. He seemed reluctant to agree there had been a struggle in the bedroom initially.
My voice rose in anger and frustration. “Listen, we’re talking about a southern American woman. She is precise, very house proud to the point of not trusting a cleaner to keep her house the way she wants it. That perfume can only be sourced from one place so she’s very precious about it, and if I left that pillow on thewrongfucking chair, I’d be paying hell for it. Something has happened in this house.”
Burrows held up his hand to stop my flow of anger. “Okay, let’s calm down. I’ve put a call through to see if we can track her phone but I’m going to need some more details. You know I can’t put this in as a missing person, not with her age and the short time she has been missing. But considering what we’ve read in the paper this morning, I am going to take this seriously.”
I deflated, as did Mackenzie. The thought had certainly crossed my mind but I’d pushed it to one side not wanting to voice my concern for fear of being correct.
“You don’t think…” I started but couldn’t finish.
“We don’t know anything just yet. She might have gotten caught up with friends,” Mackenzie replied, unconvincingly.
Detective Burrows asked lots of questions, most of which Mackenzie answered. I showed him a photograph I’d taken on my phone and he asked for a copy of it. She was laughing at something I’d said. I stared at her face and my heart ached.
I love you, please be okay, I thought over and over.
