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Samuel and Garrett grin, knowing how much I hate that part of my job. I’m very much a hands-on guy when it comes to my company and being at the worksites.
Garrett’s phone pings, and he checks the screen. “Mom just texted. You’re supposed to call her once you’re finished here.”
“How does she know where I am?” Given the gossip grapevine in this town, she could have found out from any one of numerous sources.”
“I texted her while you were in radiology. Figured you’d rather she hear from me instead of from a hospital employee.”
“Good thinking.” I’d never hear the end of it if she’d found out via the grapevine.
With the help of an intern, Samuel pops my arm into place. And mother of all fucking hell, that hurts. Even with the pain meds and while thinking again about Jess in the sheet.
By the time I leave the hospital, my arm in the sling, the rain is coming down hard. I check my phone. Still no word from Jess. That’s strange. I’d have thought by now she would’ve responded.
Something twinges in my gut, but I ignore it. The search and rescue must have made me slightly edgy, even though everything turned out all right in the end—other than my dislocated shoulder.
Since she has my truck, Garrett drives me to her house. The truck isn’t parked in her driveway or on the street. I try ringing her doorbell, but no one answers.
Damn, where the heck is she? Maybe she’s visiting a friend. Like Violet Wilson. Or another friend I don’t know about. Jess doesn’t seem to know many people in Maple Ridge, but she could have friends she hasn’t mentioned to me.
Or does this have to do with yet another secret she’s keeping from me?
Back in Garrett’s SUV, I call Jess but end up in voicemail. “Hi, Jess. I’m at home. Call me when you get this message.” I end the call. “You might as well take me to my place,” I tell Garrett.
He drops me off at my house. I jog over to my neighbor’s front door. The wind battles against my body, trying to veer me off course, and the rain switches to hail. Pea-sized ice stones pound me and bounce off the ground, creating a thin layer of white on the grass.
The lights are on in Katherine’s living room, peeking through the slats in the closed wooden blinds. I ring the doorbell.
An answering bark comes from the other side of the door, but it’s not Butterscotch.
The door opens. Katherine’s smile vanishes from her wrinkled face the moment she spots my sling. “What happened?”
“I dislocated my shoulder while rescuing two hikers from a ledge.”
Worry creases her forehead, lifting her gray eyebrows. “Are you going to be okay?”
“I’ll be fine.” Following rest and physical therapy. But Christopher is doing well and is in one piece, so that’s the main thing. “I don’t suppose Butterscotch is here, is he?”
The lines on her forehead deepen. “No. Is he supposed to be?”
“I left my truck and Butterscotch with my girlfriend when I got called in for the search and rescue.” Jess hasn’t agreed yet to us using the girlfriend-boyfriend label, but Katherine doesn’t know that. “They’re not at her house or mine. I thought I’d check to see if she dropped Butterscotch off with you.”
“I haven’t seen her since the last time she was at your house.”
Which was last week.
Unease stirs in my gut, stronger than the twinge I felt there earlier. Stronger and sharper than the hail hammering the ground, the house, the cars on the street.
And this time…this time I can’t ignore it.
If Jess isn’t at her house and she’s not at mine and she’s not answering her phone, where the hell is she?
5
Jessica
June, Present Day
Maple Ridge
