Page 17 of Good and Gone

“Hmm.” His radio squawks. He listens to the chatter for a second before lowering the volume. “Have you checked her calendar? Does she keep a calendar?”

“For work. Yes.”

“Did you check it?”

“Um…not yet. It’s on her phone, and she has her phone with her…I think.”

“You think?”

“I don’t think it’s here.”

“Have you tried tracking the location?”

“Not yet.”

He looks at me and sighs. When he speaks, he does so like he’s leveling with me. “Try the things I suggested.”

“I will,” I say. “And then what?”

“Have you contacted any of her colleagues?”

“Um…”

“Start there. I’m sure you’ll locate her. But if not…”

He says something, but I’m not really paying attention. My mind is going in a thousand different directions. Most importantly, though, he goes on to explain that Hailey hasn’t been gone long enough to file a proper missing person’s report.

“Isn’t the first twenty-four hours critical?” I ask.

“There’s been no sign of foul play, Mr.—”

He’s forgotten my name.

“Adams.”

“Yes, of course.” He cocks his head and glances down the lane and then back at me. “Has your wife ever been difficult to reach in the past?”

I think of yesterday and how I tried all day to get a hold of Hailey. When she came home, she told me her phone was dead.

Still, this is different. At least then I knew where she was and roughly what time she would be home. I know my wife. “She always takes the kids to school. This isn’t like her.”

“Perhaps…” he says. “Or perhaps it’s just a bit of miscommunication. We see it all the time.”

I can’t tell if he truly isn’t concerned or if he’s trying to ensure I’m not overly concerned. “When can I file a report? Formally?”

“If I were you,” he says, dancing around my question. “I’d hang tight. Talk to the neighbors. Reach out to her friends. Check her social media. Give her a chance to call. You know how women can be.”

I consider how I might get access to Hailey’s calendar. To her social media. I’ve never tried to log in to her accounts before. We aren’t that kind of couple.

“I have to say, Mr. Adams, I find it rather strange you called us before checking with your wife’s friends or her coworkers.”

Hailey doesn’t really have friends. I mean, not friends that she sees that often. She works a lot, and when she’s not working, she’s with the kids and me. But to explain this would require time and patience I don’t have. I’m supposed to be at work. “My mother-in-law was adamant that I file a report.”

He pulls a card from his pocket and hands it to me. “If you haven’t heard from her by tomorrow morning—orif you find any reason to suspect foul play—give me a call.”

“Tomorrow morning?”

“Yeah,” he says with a nod. “But my guess? You’ll hear from her well before then.”

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