Page 102 of Missing White Woman

I didn’t look back until I’d run all the way to the hotel.

* * *

I’d never been happier to have a hotel lobby on the thirteenth floor. There was not even a security guard at the front entrance to watch me rush into the building and up to my room. I made a call as soon as I got there, immediately recognizing the voice of the man who’d checked me in the night before.

“You’re up early, Ms. Wright.” He paused. “Or late.”

I laughed like he wanted. “Is there a business center?” My voice sounded anxious. I didn’t have a computer with me, but the hotel did.

“Right behind me.”

“What are the hours?” I needed to check the drive. Confirm it was real.

“Usually nine to five, but luckily I know someone with a key.”

“I’ll be right up.”

I got to the room’s door before I thought better of it. Realized what a bad idea it was. Ty—my Ty—had gone out of his way to hide the drive. That meant he knew how dangerous it was.

We hadn’t been dating long. We hadn’t discussed much from our past or even much about our future. I clearly hadn’t known him like I’d thought. But one thing I did know was that he believed in me—even though I didn’t always believe in myself.

I couldn’t risk ruining it all by checking the file in public—especially since I didn’t even know what to check for. It would be better to wait. I called the front desk and claimed I was too tired to come up after all.

I got in bed, but it was impossible to sleep. I was too wired, tossing and turning. Even hugging my pillow didn’t help. I just wished it were Ty.

I eventually passed out from exhaustion, not even bothering to take off my sneakers. I didn’t open my eyes again until a good ten hours later, too tired to even dream.

I kept my eyes closed when I woke up. My eyelids a movie screen showing the replay from last night. The break-in. The crypto drive. The sound of the front door creaking open. It had been close, but I’d done it. And I was confident no one had seen me—even if they knew I had been there.

I was ready for the credits to roll and to finally be able to ride off into the sunset.

I opened my eyes, determined. The first thing I saw was the Muddy Buddies bag lying next to me. I couldn’t check the drive upstairs, but I could at least know what to check for when I found a safe computer. And that research was something I could do on my phone.

As usual, it was playing a game of hide-and-seek. I eventually found it on a table by the front door. Pretty much no one had my new number, but the ones who did were making good use of it. There were a couple of missed calls from my mom to add to the running tally. I was back to promising to call her “soon.” I didn’t have the same thought for the missed call from Adore.

She’d texted as well.

Police called me looking for you.

My heart threatened to stop, but it was momentary. The police had been wanting to ask me questions for days at this point. There was no reason to believe it had to do with last night. I deleted the text immediately, but she popped back up a few seconds later with a new message.

Calloway wanted to know if we were together last night…

That one stayed.

There was only one reason the police would want to know where I was.

I forced myself to breathe in. Then out. In. Out. Of course the break-in would be news. But I’d been careful. The gloves. The hair. The mask. Someone had heard me but not seen me. I was out before they had the door open. And there wasn’t anyone when I ran out into the alley.

I didn’t write Adore back. Just went where I always did for breaking news: Twitter.

“Break-in” was trending, along with “Janelle” and “Little.”

I clicked, though I didn’t have to read it to know what it was about. Someone had broken into Little Street last night. It was the second attempt, but the first to be a success. Hearing something, the next-door neighbor called the police, but the suspect got away before they could arrive.

The fourth tweet down finally shared info I didn’t already know. The police were holding a press conference later today with more details about the robbery and the suspect.

My first inclination was to call Ms. Morgane. See if anyone had theories. If anyone had actually seen anything or if the headline was just clickbait.

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