CHAPTERTEN
Gerri picked up her cell phone and dialed Joy’s number. It had been days since she had heard from her, and that was unlike her friend. Her phone went straight to voicemail again.
“Something’s wrong,” Gerri said to herself.
She paced, wearing an uneven spot into her carpet, before finally deciding to take a drive to her apartment. Joy would have been home from work hours ago. If she walked in on some sort of awkward situation, so be it. She just needed to know that her friend was okay. She’d had a bad feeling last night and tried to brush it off. The feeling only seemed to grow throughout the morning and afternoon. Now, Gerri felt this crushing sense of doom every time she thought about Joy.
Gerri grabbed her purse and keys and decided right there to take the short trip to Joy’s. Thankfully, traffic was light, and she made it to her friend’s apartment building in record time. A chill raced up her spine as she walked down the hall and saw Joy’s door wide open.
“What in the world?” She glanced around to see if there was anyone around before entering the apartment.
“Joy?” she called out from the doorway.
When no answer came, she went a little further into the apartment to the living room. Joy’s purse, keys, and cell phone sat on the table near the door.
“Joy?” she called out again, but there was no answer. Gerri closed her eyes and listened carefully, wanting to see if there were any sounds present in the apartment.
Nothing. No heartbeats. No breaths. Just nothing.
She glanced around the room and saw that a potted plant had been knocked over. The dirt lay scattered across the otherwise pristine floor. Gerri sucked in a deep breath, followed by another.
“What the hell?” She picked up a scent that didn’t belong though she had no idea who the scent belonged to.
Gerri snatched her phone from her purse and paused for a second. She had no idea who she should call. Would it be to the alpha or to the local police department? Joy was human and unaffiliated with the pack, but someone from the shifter community had been here, and Gerri was convinced that whoever it was had taken Joy.
She dialed 911, opting for the more traditional human approach. After explaining how she found her friend’s apartment and her fear that something nefarious had happened, Gerri left the apartment the way she found it and went to wait in the hallway for the police.
Within minutes, two uniformed officers arrived and began asking questions. They walked around Joy’s apartment, taking notes and nodding at all the right times, but that was about it. When they finished up, they didn’t offer much in the way of help or support, declaring that a knocked-over plant didn’t mean anything. They had no proof that something bad had happened to her.
Since Gerri didn’t know how long Joy had even been missing, they refused to file a missing person’s report for seventy-two hours.
Gerri wanted to scream as they turned their backs and walked away. She racked her brain, trying to figure out who the next call should be. She tapped her speed dial button and let the phone ring as she walked back into Joy’s apartment.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Vicki. It’s Gerri. We have a problem.”