“You’ll be my first call.”
Joshua hung up and stared at his phone, as if he could divine Van’s whereabouts from the slim hunk of plastic and parts.
“This isn’t like him, right?” Melody asked. “To disappear?”
“Not according to Beatrice.”
What if he was hit by a car in a crosswalk? What if he was in an accident? What if he had a fucking heart attack because of his goddamn hypertension? Fuck.
“Maybe he left a note and we just haven’t found it,” Melody said. She began buzzing around the apartment, checking on and under furniture. Joshua watched her, unable to move or jump to action, too scared at what he might discover.
“Found a clue!” Melody tugged Van’s cell out from between two couch cushions. “Dead. Shit.” She took it to the charger in the kitchen. “And of course, it’s locked and passworded.”
“Why would he go somewhere and leave his phone behind?” His cell was like an extension of Van’s body. Joshua had never seen him without it, except while naked.
“I don’t know, but it suggests he left in a big damn hurry.”
“Which doesn’t make any sense, because all of his family is either the Off Beat staff, or us.” Joshua quickly shot off a text to Benji. His band didn’t go on until eight, so maybe he’d call back soon. Sure enough, Joshua’s phone rang with Benji’s ID. “Have you talked to Van today?”
“What?” The noise on Benji’s end was deafening, but a second later it muffled to tolerable levels. “Sorry, what’s wrong?”
“I said have you talked to Van today? He didn’t show up for work, he left his phone in the apartment, and no one’s heard from him in a couple of hours.”
“No, not since lunch. Are you saying Van’s missing?”
“Yeah.” Joshua hated phrasing it like that, but “missing” was the best word. “And his phone is protected, so we can’t even see if someone called him.”
“Is his car outside?”
I didn’t even think about that.
Van lived far enough from Off Beat to make walking in extreme temperatures problematic, and it was incredibly cold already for early December. Joshua peeked through the front window. “His car is here.”
“Okay, then he probably didn’t get far, right?” Benji said.
“Unless he took shore transit, or hitched, or God knows what.” Melody kept giving him helpless looks, so he changed the call over to speaker.
“Let’s think about this rationally,” said Benji. “He left his phone behind, which could suggest he got a call and bad news.”
Leave it to Benji to be calm in a crisis.
“But bad news from who?” Joshua asked. “We’re all fine, and he doesn’t talk to his family from Texas.”
“Maybe an old friend from New Orleans?”
“Wait,” Melody said. “Van once told me he has the number of one his older brothers. He’s the only person Van still keeps in touch with.”
Joshua blinked hard, vaguely remembering Van saying something similar. “Do you remember his name?”
“He never gave me a name.”
“So maybe something happened to his old family?” Benji said. “His father is dead, but his mother is still alive. Maybe she’s sick?”
“I can’t see Van freaking out about her,” Joshua said. “He’s always maintained that he hates his adoptive parents and doesn’t care what happens to them.”
“I’m going over all potential scenarios here, okay?”
“Okay, I’m sorry.”
