"I don't think so," Leif said. "There wasn't enough time."
That wasn't what I wanted to hear. From the sound of his voice, it wasn't what he wanted to say either.
"There must have been," I insisted. "She didn't vanish into thin air. You think something happened to her?" Of course he did. He wouldn't have called me otherwise.
"I wasn't that far behind her." His breath crackled the phone. "One minute she was there and the next minute she wasn't. There's definitely something weird about this."
"Yeah. I'll call you back." I ended the call and pressed Sable's contact.
It rang a few times before going through to voicemail. I thought about leaving a message but didn't know what to say. That was a first for me, I was never lost for words.
Irritated, I ended that call as well and called Leif back.
Before he could speak, I said, "Where are you?"
I took down the address and hung up without saying goodbye. Called myself a car and pushed my way out the glass doors at the front of the courthouse.
The drive was only a few blocks, but it felt like hours. The longer it took, the more my anger simmered, threatening to boil over.
If anything happened to Sable, I was going to destroy people, starting with Leif. I was working on getting her to trust me. To open up to me. Had he ruined all of that? If he had, he’d ruined any chance he had with her too.
What the fuck was he thinking? Was he thinking at all?
He wasn't as hot-headed as Woody, but he had his impetuous moments. I was the calm in the eye of the storm. Both of them told me I thought too much, I should be more spontaneous.That was like telling someone to smile more often. Fuck that. Someone had to have a cool head.
Rationally, what might have happened?I asked myself.
It was possible she walked faster than Leifthoughtshe did. She could have been a couple of blocks away before he started after her. She might be anywhere in the city by now. My instincts told me otherwise. Whatever happened, it happened not far from Leif.
Hell, for all I knew, she was walking the neighborhood to get some air.
Wherever she was, I didn't see her before the car pulled up in front of where Leif leaned against a building, tapping his foot on the sidewalk.
"I just tried calling her again. She didn't answer," he said.
I nodded and did the same thing. Once again, the call went to voicemail.
"She has to be somewhere," I reasoned.
Leif smirked.
"Fuck off, you know what I mean. Somewhere close by."
His smile faded. "Yeah, I… I don't know. What do we do?"
That was a very good fucking question.
"Is there any chance," I started slowly, "she took off running from your dumb ass?"
"Of course not," he scoffed. "Have you seen me? I can't help wondering what if…" He made a face, not wanting to finish the sentence.
"Yeah." I knew what he was referring to. Or specifically,who.
If Woody touched a hair on her head, I was going to lose my shit. I knew why he thought what he did, but if she cut Wolfgang’s throat herself, I didn't give a shit. Woody's father or not, he got what he deserved.
I rubbed my chin. I could give Woody the names of the people I suspected killed his father, but that would create different problems, especially if I was wrong.
I was tempted to tell him I'd done it, but he knew me better than that. If I had, I would have come out and told him. Or better yet, invited him to come along and help. Him and Leif.
