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“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 strai
ght to the point.” She locked eyes with me once again. “Was Joanna with you last night?”
“No…” I said.
“Shit,” Libby shook her head.
Tobias stood from his seat. “Libby, do you know something about Joanna?”
She nodded her head. “She’s been staying with me, actually. She just didn’t want me to say anything to you guys about it. When I last saw her, she told me that she was going to call you.” Libby turned her gaze back to me. “She said she was inviting you over to talk. That was last night.”
I shook my head. “She never called me,” I said, the blood in my veins seeming to turn cold right on the spot.
Libby ran a hand through her hair. “Something’s wrong. I’ve been trying to call Joanna for a few hours now, but she’s not answering. I haven’t been back to my place. I stayed out last night with my cousin, and just left for work from there. I thought I was giving you guys some privacy at my place…to talk and…work things out. But now it seems like she’s not there, and hasn’t been there for a while. Not long ago, I saw that I had a message from my alarm system company reporting a broken window at my place…”
“I’m calling the police,” Tobias said, rushing to his office phone.
“Libby, what’s your address?” I asked, grabbing my cell phone and heading for the door.
*
I couldn’t remember ever feeling so afraid in my life as I hurried to Libby’s house. The emotions that had been running through me all morning were too much to handle. First, I’d merely been concerned, although that concern had been steadily rising. Then when Libby admitted Joanna had been staying with her, there had been a brief moment of relief.
But to find out the whole story, that Libby hadn’t been home, a window was broken, and Joanna had become unresponsive to even Libby’s calls, that was when ice cold fear seized me and refused to relent.
