Page 17 of Shortcake
“Good idea!” Enzo grabbed her small purse and emptied it on the table. Not that there was much to dump out. There was only one small Wonder Woman keychain with what looked like two house keys on it. Lip gloss. Her wallet. And her cellphone. “Nope. Nothing.”
I grabbed her cellphone. “I have an idea.”
“What are you doing?” Enzo asked.
“What does it look like I’m doing? I’m looking in her phone. If she’s on vacation, maybe she’s here with friends and I can find some sort of clue within her recent texts.”
Dammit. The phone was locked with a code… Or a fingerprint.
“Isn’t that an invasion of her privacy?”
“I’m not trying to get the pentagon codes here, Enzo. I’m just trying to get the girl home safely.”
“What if she’s on vacation alone?” Keith asked.
“Then, I’ll bring her back home with me and she can sleep it off on my couch.”
Definitely not something I wanted to do. I didn’t know a damn thing about this girl. I didn’t know who she was or if she’d wake up in a panic or if she’d steal my jewelry and slip out before I woke up… not that there was anything of much value to steal. Unless she wanted some vintage bead necklaces, or an antique cameo pendant that had been my mom’s.
Or my signed Ramone’s record.
That shit was probably worth something.
Enzo placed a glass of water down beside her. “We should try to get some fluids into her.”
With my hand on Stephanie’s shoulder, I gave her another little shake. “Stephanie? Hey, Stephanie? Can you open up your phone for me so I can get you back to your hotel?”
“Uhnnnn.” Stephanie groaned her displeasure, but managed to grab the phone from me without even opening her eyes. She pressed her finger to the back, then dropped it on the table as it lit up for me.
Jackpot.
Some texts from a guy named Jake. I tapped on those and winced.
It’s effing over. How the hell can it work with you several hours away?
“Well, I think I can see why she was so sad and had such a chip on her shoulder. Looks like she and her boyfriend just broke up. One of them moved away or something.”
“Okay,” Enzo scolded me, her hands on her hips. “Now it really is an invasion of her privacy. If it can’t help us get her home, move on. Like how the FBI is only allowed to listen to the first 40 seconds of a phone call if it doesn’t pertain to their warrant.”
I paused. “Is that true?”
“Oh yeah,” Keith said. “I saw that on The Sopranos back in the day.”
I clicked on the next set of texts from someone named Conrad - ICE.
ICE. In Case of Emergency.
Boom. Perfect. “Hey, I think I found someone here to call. Her emergency contact. And based on these text messages they live together.”
CONRAD: There’s a frozen pizza with your name on it tonight. My shift is over at two.
And her response…
STEPHANIE: Kk. I’ll just be home watching movies all night.
CONRAD: Love you, sweetie.
“What do you think?” I asked Keith and Enzo, holding up the messages for them to read.
