Page 145 of Evil Bones
Leave the food and go?
Stepping back from the sink, I unpocketed my mobile and, somewhat nonsensically, tried Katy’s number again.
With the same result as before. Morecockle-doodle-doo-ing from the phone on the countertop.
I was standing with my mobile pressed to my chest, undecided, when the thing shrilled in my hand.
I tilted and glanced at the screen.
Unknown number.
Nevertheless, certain that the caller was Katy, I clicked on.
“Hey.”
My greeting failed to elicit the usual reciprocal “hey.”
“I’ve arrived bearing chow.”
A hollow silence hummed across the line.
“Katy?”
More silence.
“Where are you?” I asked, voice more sharply edged than normal. “Are you okay?”
Click.
Dead air.
What the hell?
My mind fired scenarios, each more horrendous than its predecessor.
I held a moment, heart hammering.
Screw it.
I punched a number on my speed dial list.
“Yo. Lemme guess. You figured out it’s Clarabelle you got in your lab.”
“What?” Totally focused on Katy, I missed Slidell’s reference.
“The cow bone? That farmer’s big score?”
“Katy’s missing,” I said.
“Whadaya mean, missing?” I could hear the cadence of male banter in the background, the murmur of a crowd. Figured Slidell was watching baseball.
“She invited me to dinner at her place,” I said. “I’m here but she’s not.”
“That don’t seem—”
“She didn’t text or phone to cancel.”
Slidell said nothing.
