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“Thank you.” I rubbed my lower back. “I just—I just need to know she’s okay.”
Kaos and Zoom promised they’d get on it, and I hung up.
I took a moment to simply breathe.
The weight of not knowing where she was sat on my chest like an elephant.
There were no secrets between myself and Kaos and Zoom as to how I felt about Taz. I’d loved that woman the very moment I laid eyes on her.
But I knew nothing would happen between us—she was almost forty and I wasn’t even thirty yet.
Frustrated, I grabbed my phone, helmet wallet and keys and stepped outside in the sweltering heat.
On my motorcycle, I raced to a few more places Taz would normally frequent.
No one had seen her.
One of the last places was a dessert food stand close to her house. I approached the lady who ran it and she grinned at me.
“Sawatdii khap.” I pressed my palms together in front of my face.
“Ja.” She responded.
“It’s been a while since I’ve seen you.” She pointed out. “How is Taz?”
“I’m taking it, you haven’t seen her recently, P?”
She shook her head.
I sighed, ordered some snacks, and made my way to Taz’s place.
Since I didn’t have a key and no one was there to let me know, I parked my cycle in front of the gate, then hopped the wall into the yard. Once I was in, I jimmied the gate to open it and brought my bike in.
If she was to return with me there, I was pretty sure she’d be angry.
But right now, that was a future problem.
Inside, the house was as it usually was.
The kitchen living and dining spaces were all neat and tidy. The small room at the back she used as an office was a bit chaotic, but it was always like that when she was working a consultant project.
I knew she’d scored a major movie project and had been hard at work on that.
Her bedroom was a little different.
It didn’t seem as if anyone had broken in, but it told me wherever Taz and gone off to, she’d left in a hurry.
Her duffle bag was missing, which told me she’d left on her own.
In her reading nook, the safe was standing open—her passport was gone along with the gun she kept there.
Most of the cash was missing, but not all of it.
The gun being gone worried me the most.
I pulled out my phone and called Kaos back to tell him what I’d found.
I sat in the living room to talk with my friend and his girl, trying to brainstorm what could be happening.