“Did she call you?”
“Of course. Part of her job is to protect you and that means letting me, the one person who can deal with this shitstorm, do her job. You should have called me.”
“My girlfriend is missing. Calling you was not the top of my list.”
“Tell that to Barry when he gets there.” She sighs. “Just keep your mouth shut and wait for Cherise and Barry. And text me a photo of Daisy. We might need it.”
“Why?”
“Social media. If Ayers has her, we might need the public to help find her by posting sightings. There will be a lot of false leads, but we might just get lucky.”
I send her a photo I took of her just a few days ago. “Done.”
“Sit tight until Barry and Cherese get there. I’m going to go start rounding up my team to come into the office.”
There’s a knock on the window and I roll it down. A man in a suit is standing there. He’s in his fifties and he looks tired.
“Mr. Hutchinson?”
I nod.
“I’m Detective Brian O’Neill. The officer told me you think this has something to do with your girlfriend?”
“Yes, Daisy Canton. She brought her friend, Lucy Gibson, back here before curfew. They were at my game tonight.”
“Can you step out of the car and answer a few questions?”
“I’m being advised to wait for my lawyer and the Raptors owner to arrive. They should be here shortly.”
“If you’ve done nothing wrong, Mr. Hutchinson, then you should have no problem answering questions. The faster we get that done, the faster we can find out what happened here.”
Gloria starts screeching in my ear.
“Look, I was at the Raptors Arena from six to ten, then I was at Barney’s with the entire team until about forty minutes ago. I went straight to Daisy’s when I left Barney’s, then came here when she wasn’t there. Have someone check and then we’ll talk.”
Gloria calmed down. I’m not stupid. If I can give them an alibi, then they’ll pay more attention to asswipe.
“The person you want to look at is Joseph Ayers. He’s the asswipe she has a restraining order against.”
The man’s eyes narrow, but he walks away.
“I thought you were going to let him bait you into talking.” Gloria sounds relieved I didn’t let my panic override my common sense.
“I gave him my alibi. He can’t think I’m involved when he sees exactly where I was all night.”
“You’d be surprised. Just stay put and everyone will come to you.”
She hangs up with that and I close my eyes. All I want is to find my girl. What if she’s over there in one of those ambulances, hurt, and wondering where I am?
“I checked with Mitch who called his coach who called the hospital.” Dylan looks out toward the flashing lights. “They asked him to come to the hospital to meet the ambulance. One of the injured people is Will. Serious head trauma is what he was told.”
We watch as the ambulances pull away and in the opposite direction of us.
“Do we know anyone at the hospital?”
Dylan shakes his head. “Mitch and Hailey are going over to try and snoop.”
The back door opens and Collin gets in. “Sorry. I had to find a way to sneak over here. They now have the place blocked off in all directions. What’s going on? Where’s Red?”
