Page 93 of The Stipulation
My heart starts pounding properly now. Please let it just be that it’s out of range, not that Sheldon has done something to her. I hand Betty her cell phone and pull my own cell phone out and call Jo. It rings once. Then it goes straight to voicemail. I try again. Again, it goes straight to voicemail.
“Her cell phone is off,” I mutter.
“That’s not like her, is it?” Betty whispers.
No. It isn’t. Jo is meticulous. Careful. Prepared. She wouldn’t switch off her cell phone for no reason. And I don’t believe for a second she’s someone who would forget to charge it. A slow, controlled fury begins to build inside of me.
“Sheldon wouldn’t hurt her,” I say, trying to convince myself of that. But the words taste hollow. He’s unstable. Entitled. Angry about the will. Angry about Jo being here. Angry that she exists at all. He has most people fooled into thinking he doesn’t care about any of that, but I can see right through him. I should have warned Jo about him. I didn’t really think he would do anything more than have a tantrum about it, though.
“She’s clever,” Betty says, almost pleading. “Perhaps he’s showing her something stored there. Something of Mr. Joseph’s.”
“Joseph hasn’t used that warehouse in years.”
Silence falls between us. Neither of us believed that explanation anyway.
“I’m going there now.”
Her shoulders sag in visible relief. “Thank God,” she whispers.
“If I haven’t called the house phone in thirty minutes,” I continue calmly. “I want you to ring the police. Send them to the warehouse.”
Her eyes widen. “Mr Rhodes …”
“Thirty minutes,” I repeat, cutting off her question with the answer before she even has time to finish asking it. “Tell themyou believe a woman is being held against her will at Joseph Manswell’s old warehouse in Hawthorne Trading Estate. Give them my name. They’ll take it seriously.”
She nods quickly. “Yes, sir.”
I step back, already turning toward the front door.
“Mr Rhodes,” she calls softly.
I pause.
“I’m sorry.”
I meet her gaze.
“If that air tag leads me to her,” I say evenly. “You’ve saved her life.”
Her hand flies to her mouth. I don’t wait to see if she is going to say anything else. I stride out of the house, the cold air hitting my face like a slap. My car is parked at the curb. I don’t think. I just move. Door open. Engine on. The roar of it fills the quiet street as I accelerate. My hands grip the steering wheel so tightly that my knuckles whiten.
If Sheldon has touched her …
The thought fractures into something violent and uncontrollable. My tires squeal against the road as I tear away from the house, heading straight for Hawthorne Trading Estate.
Chapter
Thirty-Nine
AXEL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIBv2GEnXlc
-never tear us apart-
My pulse hammers, and my stomach twists as I drive. Every second ticks slower than it should. Every red light, every idle driver on the stretch of road in front of me, feels like a personal obstacle, a countdown to something worse.
Betty’s words loop in my head, a mantra I can’t shake:She should enjoy her early nights while she can. She’s about to disappear.
