Page 57 of Byte

“Let’s see if we can put your mind at ease, at least for tonight,” I said and picked up my phone to call Edge.

“Hey, man. How’s it going?” I asked when he answered.

“No sign of either of them so far, but I’m going to hang around until she closes to be sure. I’ll text you when I’m headed back to Gabby’s house.”

“Thanks, man.”

“Any time.”

I ended the call and placed my phone on the table. “Feel better?”

Gabby sighed, but the tension didn’t completely leave her body. “Yes, and no. I feel better now, but what about tomorrow? And the next day?”

“We’ll take the same precautions tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that until we find them. I don’t know how long it will take, but we have more to go on than we did, and the police are helping us,” I told her.

“I can’t wait for all of this to be over.”

“Me, too,” I agreed.

When my phone rang,I didn’t recognize the number but answered anyway.

“Hi, this is Detective Hayes. Is this Byte?”

“Yes, this is Byte.”

“I have a few updates on your case. I tried to call Gabby, but she didn’t answer,” he said.

“She’s at school right now, but I can pass along any information.”

“As expected, our lab confirmed the presence of THC in the brownies. I’ve already sent a copy of the results to Tina’s office,” he said.

“Thank you.”

“As for Lauren, we issued a warrant for her arrest. When we went to the address on file to bring her in, we found someone else living there. I spoke to the landlord, and he confirmed Lauren moved out several months ago. Before you ask, she didn’t leave a forwarding address.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose and fought back the urge to throw my phone across the room. “So, what happens now?”

“Now, we keep looking for her,” he said simply.

“Do you have any leads? Any direction to go in?” I asked.

He exhaled audibly. “We’ve got an APB out with her information, including the make and model of her car and her tag number, but I don’t think it’ll help much since the car from the video you sent was determined to be a rental that was returned early this morning.”

“What about her phone?”

“It’s been disconnected.”

“Her job?”

“She didn’t show up for work Monday, and they haven’t been able to get in touch with her. They have the same contact info we do,” he explained.

“What about an emergency contact? Don’t most places of employment require an emergency contact?” I asked.

“She listed Chad Higgins with the phone number that has since been disconnected.”

“Damn it,” I cursed.

“My sentiments exactly,” he said. “I know this is frustrating, but I assure you, we’re exhausting all avenues and doing everything we can.”

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