parking spots could easily be seen from the window.
Hen’s car wasn’t there.
He checked the rest of the rooms in the house, even peeking into Chelsey’s room. He verified with the clock in the kitchen that it really was after four in the morning, feeling the anxiety blossoming in his gut.
Finally he grabbed his phone and called Hen.
Her phone was offline.
He could think of a simple explanation for all of this. Hen had stayed to work way beyond midnight and hadn’t noticed that her phone had run out of battery power. It had never happened before, but she did occasionally mention that other paralegals in the firm stayed all night working. He called her office number and waited as it rang, counting the seconds. When he reached thirty, he disconnected the call.
He was annoyed with her firm—and with her. She should have texted him. He poured himself a glass of water. His hand trembled as he drank.
He wasn’t really annoyed. He was scared. Hen would never have stayed at work so late without calling or texting him. She would have noticed that her battery had run out.
Something was very, very wrong.
He tried her office and her personal phone again. Nothing.
He found Gina’s number in his contacts. He hesitated, knowing that calling anyone at four a.m. was a breach of every possible protocol. But his heart was thumping so hard it threatened to blow up in his rib cage. He hit send and waited for her to pick up.
She answered after ten seconds. “Hello?” Her voice was sleepy, confused.
“Gina, it’s Bill. I’m sorry to wake you up so late but—”
“Bill Fishburne?”
“Yeah. I’m sorry, but I just woke up, and Henrietta isn’t home. She hasn’t returned from the office yet.” Gina worked in the same office as Hen. In fact, Hen had gotten her the job.
“What time is it? She had to work late.”
“It’s after four in the morning.”
A long pause followed. “Did you try her phone?”
“It’s offline. And she’s not answering in the office either. Do you think she stayed there all night?”
“No! When I left, she said she’d be finishing up in about an hour. And that was at ten thirty.” Gina sounded wide awake as well, and her voice mirrored Bill’s fear. “Hang on. She worked with another paralegal . . . Jeff. I’ll call him, see if he knows what’s going on.”
“Okay, thanks.”
She hung up, and Bill paced the kitchen. The seconds ticked by as he waited for Gina’s call, occasionally picking up the phone, then putting it down again.
A tiny figure padded into the kitchen. Chelsey, blinking in confusion. “Daddy?”
“Hey, pumpkin, it’s the middle of the night—go back to bed.” It took all of his self-control to hide the trembling in his voice, to speak softly.
“I heard voices.”
“I was just talking to myself. Come on—let’s get you back to bed.” He approached her and put an arm around her shoulder, gently turning her around. She obediently shuffled back with him, and he helped her into bed, tucking her in. Her dark curly hair spread on the pillow as she snuggled, hugging her unicorn doll. Bill bent down, kissed her forehead, and stepped out of the room. He returned to the kitchen, setting his phone to vibrate so that its ring wouldn’t wake her up again.
It’d been thirteen minutes since Gina had hung up. What was she—
The phone lit up, vibrating. He slid his finger on the screen, had to do it three times because it trembled so badly.
“Hello?” he whispered.
“Bill, listen, I just talked to Jeff. He said they were both done by twelve thirty. They left the office together. He dropped Henrietta off at the train station and then drove home.” Gina’s voice cracked. She was on the verge of crying. “Are you sure she’s not home? Maybe she was so tired she fell asleep in Chelsey’s room? Or the bathroom? Or . . . or . . .”
“Her car isn’t here,” he said hollowly. His gut had become a heavy, freezing slab of ice.
“Maybe she went somewhere else? Or maybe . . .”
“I have to go, Gina. I’ll call you once I find out where she is.” He hung up the phone.
He wanted to lunge out of the house and look for her. See if her car was in the train station’s parking lot. But of course he couldn’t leave Chelsey alone. He contemplated calling Hen’s mother, telling her to come over and watch over Chelsey while he looked, but he didn’t want to scare her.