A loud knock on my front door woke me up. Groggy, I glanced at my phone and saw it was nine o’clock. Since it was a Saturday, I had no reason to wake up early. There were no missed calls from Hayden, even though we were supposed to speak yesterday, so it was likely him knocking.
“Coming!” I pushed away the blanket and put on a shirt, then made my clumsy way to the living room, where I once more vowed to buy some curtains.I unlocked the door, but it wasn’t Hayden on the other side.
“What happened?”
Wearing his uniform despite it being a Saturday, the Chief gave me a stern look. “May I come in?”
I moved aside to let him in, then asked again, “What happened?” He wouldn’t have come all this way if everything was okay.
“When was the last time you spoke with Hayden?”
Oh, God.
I leaned against the wall, my pulse pounding in my ears.
“Jonah, answer me.”
“We texted yesterday at around noon.”
“What did you talk about?”
“We…”Was this a trick?
He took a step toward me, deliberately intimidating. “No more games. Tell me everything.”
“We talked about the investigation.”
“The one I told Hayden to drop? The one I warned him about?”
I nodded numbly.
“Damn you, you and him both.”
“What happened? Fucking tell me!”
“I don’t exactly know.” He went to sit on the couch.
I unglued myself from the wall and slumped into my armchair. “Where is he?”
“Missing.”
I shut my eyes and drew a breath.Don’t panic. Just find out everything you can.“You said you don’t know what happened, so how can you be sure he’s missing?”
The Chief ran a hand through his gray hair, and I figured by the bags under his eyes that he hadn’t slept. “Hayden called yesterday morning to say he’d be late for work. It turns out that he visited Patton State Hospital and met with one of the patients.”
“With Amanda Tulip.”
Anger flashed in his eyes. “Yes. Who is she?”
There was no point in withholding information; secrecy felt like a childish privilege I no longer had. “She worked for The Society when I was there. Hayden and I were looking for people who might know where they’re keeping Nick.”
“Did you speak with Hayden after he left the hospital?”
“Like I said, we texted.”
“Show me.”
I went to get my phone from the bedroom, the familiar itch pulling me toward the bathroom where my needles waited. I pushed back the urge, grabbed my phone, and then returned to show the messages to the Chief. He read them before putting my phone on the table. “This tells us nothing. You wrote that you’d speak with him last night.”
