“I’m okay, thanks. Can I use your bathroom?”
He waves his hand down the corridor. “Sure.”
But as I pass the bedrooms, the doors are open and they’re both empty. Sadie really isn’t here. Christ, I was convinced she would be. Where the fuck is she?
When I return to the kitchen, he says, “Sadie didn’t want to ask for her paycheck up front.”
“Oh! Okay.” She’s obviously kept the fact that Des paid her that money quiet from Jake.
“Can you do it? Pay her upfront?” he adds.
God, what do I say here? The best option is to stall. “I don’t see why not. Let me check tomorrow.”
What the hell are these debts? Has Sadie been worried about this all this time? I should have asked more questions, probed a little harder about Jake and his issues, but I wanted to give her the space she gave me.Goddammit.
He rubs his hands together. “Good. That’s good.”
There’s no point in me hanging around here now. “Have you seen Sadie today?”
He shakes his head.
“No worries. I’ve got to get back, Jake. If you see Sadie, can you tell her I was looking for her?”
“Yeah, yeah. Don’t see her much nowadays.” He frowns. “She moved out, y’know?”
Okay … He seems pretty confused. If he wasn’t such an asshole, I’d have some sympathy. “Yes.”
“Don’t forget that money now, will ya?” he says as I head toward the door.
“I won’t.”
After I escape, I stand on the landing, chewing my lip and listening for voices downstairs. Everything’s quiet, and I turn my phone over in my hand. I’m not aware of anyone in Sadie’s life except her mom and Jake. I head down the stairs. Perhaps mulling this over with someone else would help. I glance at my watch: 5:30 p.m. I stop on the next floor down and press Des’s number.
“Hey, James, it’s 6:30 a.m., so this better be important,” Des says.
“I’ve lost Sadie.”
“What do you mean, you’velost Sadie?”
“She went out of the office at lunchtime and didn’t come back. I’ve texted and called, and she hasn’t responded. I thought her asshole stepdad might have done something, so I headed out to her mom’s apartment in Queens. He was there, and Sadie wasn’t. I’ve just left him.” I scuff down another flight of stairs.
“Wait. What? She has an asshole stepdad?”
Damn. I can’t spill all Sadie’s secrets to Des. I promised her I wouldn’t tell anyone about Jake. “Long story.”
He huffs. “Well, you’d better fill me in at some point. I’m presuming she’s not at home?”
Home? I’ve just been … Oh, he means … I come to an abrupt halt on the next landing down and close my eyes.God, I really am an idiot.Why wouldn’t she just be in the place shelives, James? I raced out here thinking Jake had accosted her, or she’d bolted to her mom’s. In reality, she’s probably just curled up on the couch, engrossed in a book, and has forgotten to check her messages.Yeah, not likely. She’s more likely panicking and packing up her stuff.
I sigh into my phone. “I haven’t checked there yet. Damn. I should have done that first.”
I fill him in on the call I got from Jane and what she said as I carry on down the stairs. When I reach the bottom, there’s no sign of the guys who were hanging around. Des hums in my ear. “Well, if Jane ambushed her, that’s a crapshoot. God knows what she said to her. I understand why you’re worried, James.”
“She would never just disappear from work; she’s not like that.”
“Yeah, she’s Miss Reliable. You remember the meeting we had when I suggested she move into the apartment?”
“Yes.”
