Page 19 of Throwing Shade
“Did you report it?”
“Not yet. I wasn’t sure if I was overreacting. Do you think they’d write me off as paranoid if I called Missing Persons with nothing more concrete than a gut feeling?” I couldn’t mention her trashed workspace as I had no way of explaining how I’d seen inside.
Eli squeezed my hand. “I’m sure there’s a simple explanation for it, but it’s best to get an investigation started as soon as possible. Let me talk to a friend of mine.” He asked me some questions, including whether Jude had any problematic exes or was suffering from money trouble.
I answered both in the negative.
“Are you going to tell Sadie?” he said.
“Not unless I have to. I really hope I’m wrong and something innocuous came up, but she’s never done this before.” I paused. “I know it’s not a lot of information to go on.”
“The first seventy-two hours are the most critical, but the majority of cases are solved in that time period and Terence is tops in his unit. He’ll be able to work with this.” He used the voice he took with his mom when he didn’t want her to worry, versus the one where he was certain of an outcome.
I slugged back the rest of my wine.
Eli fired off the information in a text, then he yawned again. “Early shift tomorrow. I'm going to hit the sack. Let me know if you want to start your midlife crisis.”
“Asshole,” I said affectionately.
He scrawled the name and number of his Missing Persons contact in his chicken-scratch handwriting. “Yeah, but I’m your asshole.”
“Please no. I leave that to Chris”—Eli’s on-again, off-again lover.
“He’ll be delighted at the sole custody.”
I stuck the paper on the fridge. “Thanks for helping me with Jude.”
“Anytime, babe, and don’t worry. We’ll find her.” Throwing a wave over his shoulder, Eli headed home.
I wouldn’t hold my breath that I lucked out and Eli’s officer friend had magic and could be confided in. Since stopping Alex meant a quick foray into the Ohrist community anyway, I’d ask around about Jude, and then back to my original plan of putting all magic behind me.
My shadow lifted her head and turned it in my direction, but I walked briskly out of the room and snapped off the light.
