Page 169 of Perfect
I know Alex’s phone is at the office, but I call her anyway before I look back at our texts. There’s nothing to indicate something’s wrong. I call the hospital, but no one matches her description. I call the police station, but I get nothing from them. I call the rec center, but no one even answers.
My thumb hovers over the tracking app, but I stop myself. I don’t need to check it. I won’t have it after today, and I can handle this situation without it.
I drive as fast as I can, but it still takes me an hour, and I’m panicking when I run into Alex’s office and see Catherine, Suzie, and Bailey all in the front room, their faces nervous.
“Where the fuck is she?” Suzie startles at my tone, but I can’t help it.
“She never came back,” she says somberly. My mind starts spinning, and for one very brief second, I wonder if she ran from me.
My hand twitches towards my phone.
“Can I look at her desk?” Suzie nods, and I rush over and look closely. There’s a cold cup of coffee, a small stack of cards from the flowers I sent her on Friday, a polaroid of me and the Christmas ham, half a muffin, and her phone with fifty-seven missed calls from me. The heeled boots she wore this morning are under her desk, and her running shoes are gone, but she left her gym bag and purse.
This doesn’t make any goddamn sense.Didshe run from me?
I open her desktop, and fear hits me like a freight train.
There’s a photo of her online.
Danny.
“MOTHERFUCKER!”I scream, hurling the coffee cup across the room. It shatters against the wall, and Suzie flinches, making a terrified whimper. “Sorry! Fuck, I’m so sorry,” I say as I frantically look through Alex’s inbox. I see an outgoing email to the rec center begging them to take down the photo at 11:57 AM.
Alexjustfound out about this, so she probably went down there to ask them to take it down. I look through the website quickly and see it was updated a week ago, and my blood starts boiling. I exhale hard, running my hands through my hair, pacing rapidly as I think.
“Theo?” I ignore Catherine.
How long has he been here? It can’t have been more than a few days, and we were out of town this weekend, so maybe hedoesn’t know anything about her life here yet. Nothing weird has happened in the last week, so that means he’s probably just –
Wait.
“Theo, what’s going on?” I barely hear Bailey because I’m thinking about the floodlight camera that went off in Yachats this weekend.
Oh, shit.
I drag my hands over my face and try not to throw something else. Danny knowing Alex is here is one thing, but him knowing about us is another.
“It’s her husband,” I choke out. “He found her.” Catherine wraps her arms around Suzie, and Bailey lets out a strangled gasp. I rush for the door, but Bailey gets in my way, standing right in front of me and looking like she’s going to cry.
“Wait!Shouldn’t we call the cops?”I can feel my temper flaring.
“Fuck, no, the cops won’t help her.He’sa cop, and they stick together.” I reach for the door, but Bailey is still there, blocking me from leaving. “Bailey, I need to go,” I grit out.
“Where are you going?”
“I’m going to go get her, so I need you to move.” She doesn’t, and my hands are shaking from the effort it takes to restrain myself from shoving her out of the way.
She’s getting in between me and Alex.
“How are you even going to find her? I think we should -” Fuck this, I’m done being nice. I lean down quickly, getting in Bailey’s face as I reach around her and grab the door handle.
“Get out of my fucking way,” I snarl at her, but my voice sounds wrong to me, too venomous and cold. Bailey’s eyes widen with fear, and she scrambles away from me as I throw the door open and sprint out of the office.
I pull out my phone and open the tracking software as I get in my car.
Alex is close, twenty minutes away down the Youngs River, but I know I can make that drive in half the time. I start speeding, constantly checking my phone, but Alex’s location isn’t moving. She went missing between twelve and one, which means she’s been there for at least an hour, maybe closer to two.
Danny’s dead either way, but he better not have fucking hurt her.
