Not even a little bit.

I packed my bags. I packed Ethan’s. I disconnected the Xbox. I packed some groceries. I grabbed a skillet. I loaded this all in my car. I went to the station, got the keys, and stole a quick, distracted kiss from my man who was on the phone the entire time I was there.

While there, I also got a lot of greetings from a lot of friends, all of whom were busy, so I didn’t dally.

I took our shit to Merry’s and put things away as best I could.

His extra room was a junk room, not a guest room.

I’d deal with that tomorrow.

I went out to go to the grocery store to add to the seriously meager supplies Merry had in his kitchen, something I needed to do before I went to go get my kid from school.

And I left the Xbox on the floor in front of the TV.

* * * * *

Garrett

“Nothin’ here but girl shit,” Jake muttered.

Garrett and Mike stood across the table in the basement were Jake did some of his work. Scattered on it were Wendy Derian’s purse, the contents of the same, and the contents of her car.

“Yeah, except there’s no cell,” Garrett replied.

Jake looked up to him. “Nope.”

“We went through the room she was stayin’ in at her sister’s. Not one there either,” Mike noted.

Garrett looked to Mike. “Twenty-eight-year-old woman’s gonna have a cell phone.”

Mike looked to the table. “Shit.”

Woman in a hurry to get where she’s going.

Cell gone.

Not good.

“Got stuff to process, guys. You need anything else?” Jake asked.

“No, man, thanks,” Garrett answered.

They moved out of the room, but they didn’t move to the stairs to go back to their desks. They moved to the stairs to exit the building in order to do legwork. They had a list of friends and family to hit.

But Garrett knew where they were gonna start.

“Cutler’s?” he asked as he pushed the door out to the back parking lot.

Mike nodded.

They moved to the unmarked sedan they used on the job and didn’t speak, not even to discuss who drove.

They’d been partners a while. They had that down.

They took turns.

Today was Mike’s turn.

Garrett folded into the passenger side.

Mike set them on their way.

Cher’s house was quiet, her Chevy not in the driveway, when they hit her street and parked outside Cutler’s.

They got out. They went to the house. They knocked.

No answer and his truck was not in the drive or on the street.

“We’ll come back,” Mike said.

Garrett nodded and they took off. They went down the list and hit what they could—Wendy Derian’s employer and then her friends at home, some at work, ending with going back to the family.

Most were home. They’d gotten the news and news like that translated to an instant personal day.