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“She’ll turn up,” Tobias had kept saying. “She always does.” But the more he said it, the more it became apparent that his words were solely an attempt to comfort himself.
When we had exhausted all of our ideas of places she could potentially be found, we were forced to throw in the towel.
“Maybe she’ll show up for work this week,” I had offered, but my words were just as hollow as Tobias’. I strongly doubted she would just report to the firm after avoiding everyone for a full week.
“Maybe so,” had Tobias said. But we both knew we were kidding ourselves.
Nevertheless, Monday morning, I had managed to fool myself into believing she might actually turn up and that I would walk into the office to find her stepping off the elevator, wearing a pencil skirt with her curly hair pinned on top of her head, grinning at me and saying, “How’d you fair with the latest set of numbers?”
I woke early, deciding that I wanted to get to the office early, just in case…
When I got to the firm, it was mostly empty, just as I had expected. I headed to the break room to make myself a cup of coffee that I didn’t really want. I took a sip, grimacing at how bitter it tasted because I’d been too distracted with my thoughts to make it properly. But I kept it anyway, and then proceeded to Tobias’s office, hoping with bated breath that he had managed to make contact with Joanna at some point over the weekend. I wanted nothing more than for him to look at me and say, “Oh, I forgot to tell you—she came back Sunday evening. She’s fine. In fact, she’ll be here in a little while.”
But the second I stepped foot into his office, I knew that wasn’t going to be the case judging from his tensed expression. He looked up at me expectantly. “Heard anything?”
I sighed and shook my head. “Nope. Was hoping you had,” I said, staring down into my bitter coffee.
“Shit,” Tobias said, flopping down into the chair behind his desk and staring out the window beside it. The day outside was dark and gloomy, the clouds in the sky threatening thunderstorms even though rain hadn’t been in the forecast.
“Look, I’m not feeling good about this at all,” I said. “Don’t you think it’s time to file a missing persons report? It’s been too long now, hasn’t it?”
Tobias bit his bottom lip. “I don’t know,” he said quietly. “I’ve thought about it, believe me I have. But I also know how Joanna is. On one hand, I’m worried sick, but on the other, I get the feeling that she’s just holed up somewhere, wanting to be alone and not wanting to answer to anybody. She can get like that sometimes. She has before. If I file a missing persons report and she isn’t in any real danger, she’ll be pissed. And that will just push her farther away. She’ll accuse me of meddling in her business, like always.”
“Okay, fair point. But what if something really is wrong?” I argued. “Better safe than sorry, right? This just isn’t something we should be risking at this point, especially if there’s even the slightest chance that bastard Zander is on the loose.”
Tobias shook his head. “I don’t think Zander is involved. If Zander was the problem, she would have said something. That’s probably the only thing that would make her say something.”
I sighed in exasperation. “So what are we supposed to do? Just sit here and do nothing?”
“I’m thinking about giving it a few more days. And if we don’t hear anything by then, I’ll be ready to go ahead a file a missing persons report. And if it turns out that she’s all right and she gets pissed off at me—then oh well. She shouldn’t have been acting like this. It’ll be partially her own fault.”
I bit my tongue, refraining from saying that a big part of this was really his fault for throwing such a temper tantrum. If he hadn’t reacted so negatively to finding out about us, I had a strong suspicion we wouldn’t be in this
predicament.
But I remained quiet, knowing that the time for pointing fingers was long gone.
“So you want to wait a few more days?” I said. I wasn’t sure I could stand waiting that much longer, and was just about to say as much when someone knocked on Tobias’s office door.
Tobias and I exchanged glances, each of us silently asking if the other was expecting anyone. It was early in the morning, and the official working hours hadn’t started yet.
I shrugged my shoulders, letting him know that I hadn’t scheduled a meeting with anyone.
“Come in,” Tobias said, eyeing the door curiously.
It slowly creaked open and Libby poked her head through.
“Hey, Libby. What’s up?” Tobias said.
“Hi, Tobias. Anderson. I…I’m glad you’re both here, actually,” she said, her eyes locking with mine. She stepped all the way inside and closed the door behind her. Her face was pale, and she looked worried.
“What is it?” I asked, alarmed.
“I don’t really know where to start,” she said, “so I guess I’ll just get straight to the point.” She locked eyes with me once again. “Was Joanna with you last night?”
“No…” I said.
“Shit,” Libby shook her head.
