Page 4 of Rescued By Midnight

And in that moment, I know.

2

LANDON - NOW

Last night, we didn’t go straight to the hospital like we wanted to. For one thing, there are three major hospitals in San Esteban, and we had no idea which one is treating Alice. For another, visiting hours would be over. While we could get in regardless, we wanted to let Alice get her rest.

And for a third—we aren’t sure she’ll be happy to see us.

Instead, we spent all night reviewing old footage from Alice’s disappearance. We pored over the police files we’d been able to obtain from our contact in the department, Detective Baldwin. We even reviewed the entirely useless media footage, just in case there was something we’d missed the first hundred times we watched it.

Every time Alice’s piece-of-shit husband, Brayden, came onscreen, I wanted to punch something. Sure, he looked sad as a kicked puppy while he cried about his missing wife. “Please bring her home,” he’d blubbered. “Please.”

“Fuckin’ douche.” Cody had turned off the screen.

Now it’s Sunday, though, and Cody and I want to get into Alice’s hospital. At least, I want to get in.

“Why are we doing this again?” Cody asks as I pull into the Margaret Chung Medical Center parking lot. “And how the fuck did you convince Baldwin to share which hospital Alice is at?”

“Baldwin didn’t need to say a thing. I guessed, and he confirmed by refusing to say another word about it.”

“As to my first question,” Cody presses, “why the fuck are we doing this?”

I park and get out of the car without answering. He knows why we’re doing it. Alice was, at one time, a good friend. And I have a feeling she’s going to need good friends again.

Unfortunately, the receptionist doesn’t agree with us. “Your names aren’t on the list,” she says. “I’m sorry, but I can’t let you through or give you any further information on a patient who may or may not be here.”

I know she’s here. I look over at Cody.

He sighs at me before leaning in close, but not too close, turning on the charm. His twinkling, light brown eyes can usually get us whatever we want. “So, Mayumi,” he says, reading her name tag, “the thing is, Alice is our friend. I promise, we aren’t reporters or anything. We just want to help her?—”

Mayumi gives him an impassive look. “You can leave now.”

“Hold on a second, maybe we can work something out? Please?” He smiles and widens his eyes at the same time.

“I like girls,” she says bluntly. “Whatever you’re doing with your eyes? It might work on other women, but it makes you look stupid to me. Get out.”

Despite the seriousness of the situation, I can’t help but laugh as Cody and I leave the hospital. It’s rare he gets shot down. In fact, this might be only the second time I’ve seen it happen.

“Alice probably has a thousand officers from SEPD working on this,” Cody says with a sulk in his voice. “She doesn’t need us.”

“I think she does.”

He’s silent as we get in the car, rubbing his clean-shaven face. He does that a lot when he’s thinking or brooding, so I wait to see what he comes up with.

“Well, fuck it,” Cody says. “We know someone who can find a way to contact her.”

It takes me only a millisecond to realize who he means. At the same time, we nod and say, “Ariel.”

ALICE - NOW

“Here you go.” Brayden drops a phone in my lap, then starts his truck. The engine rumbles loudly as I stare at the device.

“What’s this?”

“New phone. We, ah, had to give your old one to the police when you left.”

When I left. Like I went willingly.