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Boy, had I been wrong. Eight people—yes, I counted—mentioned my hairstyle change before ten in the morning. I might as well have gone into work wearing a hula skirt for all the fuss they made.
Ruby, your hair looks great!
Nice change, Detective Lee.
You look amazing with a ponytail!
Could have knocked me over with a feather.
By ten I hadn’t heard from Ryan, so I called the hospital and found out he had been discharged earlier. He’d said he would call me…
No. I was not going to be that woman—that woman who waits on the edge of her seat for her man to call.
I had work to do.
My phone buzzed, and I picked it up. “Detective Lee.”
“Ms. Lee?”
The voice was female…and familiar.
My pulse quickened. “Shayna?”
“Yeah. It’s me. I’m sorry about the other day.”
“Shayna, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it. Did someone threaten you?”
“I’m at a pay phone. I can’t talk long.”
“I understand. Can you answer my question?”
“I got a phone call.” Her voice shook. “A man said I shouldn’t talk to you. To anyone, really, but specifically to you.”
I wouldn’t bother asking her who the man was. She wouldn’t know, and I had my own suspicions. “Has there been any news on Lisa and Juliet?” I asked.
“Nothing. It’s so terrible. Their parents are beside themselves. I’m so worried that they’re…dead.”
I had the same worry, and in a way, if they weren’t dead, their fate might be worse. “I know. I’m so sorry. I’m going to do all I can to find them.”
I hoped I hadn’t just made an empty promise. Juliet and Lisa had been taken from a resort in Jamaica, most likely to be sold into slavery. I had no ties to the Jamaican authorities and no way to get information. I only knew what my intuition and instinct told me.
My father was somehow involved in this.
“You don’t have to call me again if you don’t think it’s safe,” I told Shayna. “I understand.”
“No. I want to communicate with you. I had to block you on my cell phone. I think”—she cleared her throat—“my phone is tapped.”
“That wouldn’t surprise me. What kind of evidence do you have?”
“Just a…feeling.”
Shayna had just lost her two best friends, and her mind could be playing tricks on her. But I knew better than to tell her not to trust her intuition. “If you truly think someone is following you, tapping your phone, you need to call the police. Screw that. Go straight to the FBI. Call me from a pay phone if you need to until we figure out a better way to communicate. I’m here for you. And Shayna…”
“Yeah?”
“Take care of yourself. This isn’t your fault.”
“I know. I mean, yeah. I know.”
