Nigel! It’s been a very long day. I’ll finish up in the morning. I just need to soak in the tub for a while and get to bed. I will call you first thing tomorrow, I promise.” Kate McAllister clicked off her cell phone and set it on the bathroom vanity, exhausted after her hectic photo shoot in the Hollywood Hills ran late into the evening.
The warm water in the claw-foot tub was beckoning her. She was anticipating being enveloped by its warmth, letting it soothe away the stress of the day. Sticking one painted toe in the water, she checked the temperature before getting in. Perfect, she sighed softly.
As she was about to drop her fluffy white robe to the floor and step into the bath, the cell phone shrilled on the vanity behind her. “Shoot,” she muttered under her breath. “If that’s Nigel again, I’m going to kill him.”
A slight frown creased her brow as she turned and glanced at the Caller ID. She recognized the area code was for Seattle, where her baby sister Whitney lived, but if it were her sister, the phone would have shown her name and not Unknown Caller.
Peering up at the wall clock, she saw the time was ten-forty-five pm. Why would someone I don’t know be calling me this late? Tension began creeping up the back of her neck. No one calls this late just to chat. She reluctantly picked up the phone.
“Hello?”
“Kate, this is Suki. I’m sorry to call you so late.” The woman on the other end of the line rattled on, “But, I, well, I need to—”
“Whoa. Slow down. You said your name is Suki?” Kate questioned, raising an eyebrow.
“Yes, you know, Whitney’s roommate.”
“Oh, yes, sorry. I didn’t recognize your name. Now, slow down and tell me – what’s wrong, Suki?”
“Whitney’s gone missing.”
“What? When?” Panic began to set in. Kate’s thoughts began flying in a thousand different directions, like a flock of sparrows spooked by the threat of danger. Gathering her thoughts, she tried to focus. Ordinarily, she connected with Whitney every day or two, but she had been so busy with work lately that Kate was ashamed to admit she did not notice when she hadn’t heard from her sister recently.
“She’s been missing since last night. Well, no, today. I mean, well, I didn’t realize until this morning that she hadn’t come home last night.”
“Maybe she just stayed overnight at a friend’s house. She is twenty-four years old. She can stay out all night if she wants.” Kate hoped that was all it was. The thought her sister could really be missing made her feel sick in the pit of her stomach.
“No, no, I don’t think so, really. I think she would have told me so. We try to keep each other safe that way, you know. I have such a bad feeling about this, Kate. I think you should come to Seattle right away.”
“You mean, like right now?” This news was all so unexpected. Frantic thoughts swirling in Kate’s mind made it hard to process.
“Well, yeah. I mean, as soon as you can, of course.”
“So, what do the police say?” Kate asked, searching for a voice of reason.
“Police?”
“Yes, Suki. You did call them, didn’t you?” Incredulous that her sister might be in danger and the police had not yet been informed, Kate’s eyes widened as she stared blankly at the phone. Are you kidding me? Her heart began beating hard against her chest, sending pulsing blood painfully racing to her head.
“I’m sorry, Kate, don’t get mad. I think you have to wait twenty-four hours before you can report someone missing, don’t you?”
“How should I know, Suki? I would have called them to find out, not just assumed.” A muscle twitched in Kate’s jaw.
“You’re right, you’re right. I’m sorry.”
“I will call them as soon as we get off the phone. I want to talk to the police myself before I come running up there.” Suki had all day to call me, why did she wait until now? Was she hoping Whitney would eventually show up? Something doesn’t feel right.
Perhaps Whitney was just staying over with a new boyfriend that Suki didn’t know about. Or maybe she went with some girlfriends for a long weekend. Suki is probably just overreacting. Kate clung to that thought to give her a sense of security.
On the other hand, if her sister really were missing, of course she’d drop everything and hop on the first flight to Seattle. She felt uneasy just