Page 62 of Fierce-Zander

They hung up after that and he went back to work. It wasn’t even thirty minutes later that he heard the ding that his door was opened. Normally he would have locked it but no reason to now that Regan was stopping over.

But it wasn’t Regan; it was someone he didn’t know.

“Can I help you?”

“Hi,” he said. “My name is James Rice. I work on the sixth floor and knew you were in the building. I was hoping you were still here.”

“I am,” he said. “Come have a seat. What can I help you with?”

“It’s my sister. She’s missing.”

This was the stuff he’d rather be doing. “Since when?”

“The last anyone heard from her was after work yesterday. So twenty-four hours. I’m so mad that I just got a call from a coworker now about it,” James said.

“Does she live in Durham?”

“Yes,” James said. “She works for a bank downtown. She didn’t show up for work this morning and they called her house a few times and didn’t get a reply. Then they said they got busy and forgot.”

He wanted to grind his teeth over that but knew that shit happened. “And they called you when they realized no one had heard from her?”

“Yes,” James said. “I ran over about an hour ago to her apartment and her car wasn’t there and she wasn’t inside. Her bed was still made, but that doesn’t mean anything either. She could have done it this morning.”

“Have you contacted the police?” he asked.

“I did. They said that they would send someone over to see the footage at her apartment building. It’s possible she left this morning and then it’s not twenty-four hours yet. She could have had an appointment and not told anyone. There were no signs of anything in her place that looked off, but I didn’t touch anything either.”

He sighed. Zander knew how it all worked with the police. He could talk to his father about this too.

“That’s typical,” he said. “Does she have a history of not being in communication?”

James sighed. “Yes. I mean, she could go days without talking to me or even replying to my texts. But she has never not shown up for work. She takes pride in her job. It feels off. What do you charge? I just need to know she is fine and don’t want to wait too long while the police drag their feet if it’s more.”

He went over his fees with James, pulled out a contract that they both signed, and then was getting more information on Sandy Rice when Regan came in.

“Oh,” she said. “I can come back.”

“It’s fine,” he said. “We are almost done.”

James looked between them. “Did you have another appointment?”

“Dinner,” Regan said. “No rush. Please.”

She went and sat in his father’s office at the table and he finished gathering the information he could on Sandy. He’d go to the apartment himself and look for footage and probably still get there before the police did.

“Sorry,” he said when James left. “He just walked in.”

“I get it,” she said. “Don’t apologize. He looked upset.”

“He is. I’ve got to go check a few things out but have time to eat quickly and run some plates and information while we do it, if it’s okay with you?”

“Sure,” she said.

He would run a check on Sandy now and see what he could find on her. Family didn’t always know everything and maybe she was hiding something.

He leaned in and gave Regan a quick kiss that had the smile reaching her eyes, then took the sub out of her hands and walked out to the microwave to heat it up. “Why don’t you go into my office,” he shouted.

She got up and moved in there. “Damn,” she said. “How do you find anything?”

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