Page 7 of Savior

I fumble with my purse and pull out my phone. Carly’s face greets me as I open our last conversation. The reality that I’ll never see her face again hits me right in the gut, stealing the breath straight from my lungs. It takes a moment for me to remember what I was looking for. Blinking back tears, I tap our last message and provide him with the time stamp.

Manning jots it down on his legal pad, his brows furrowed. “And did she mention meeting someone there? A man she was going home with, maybe.”

Paige shakes her head and looks down at the table. “She didn’t say. We didn’t hear from her after that.”

“If she were to meet someone, would she leave with them without telling you?” Manning asks.

“That’s what we thought happened at first, but she would have let us know the day after. It’s how we knew something was wrong.” Realizing how it sounds, I add, “She wasn’t...promiscuous or anything. She didn’t go home with every guy she met.”

“I understand.”

Paige taps her thumb against the wood tabletop. “I don’t even think she’d have gone home with anyone. We had midterms this week. It wasn’t like her to be reckless and put her personal life ahead of school, not even for a cute guy.”

Manning’s impassive face softens. “Whatever happened, this was not her fault, and we’re going to do whatever we can to find the person responsible.”

“Thank you,” Paige says.

He nods. “Now, was she involved with anyone? Did either of you notice anyone paying her a lot of attention that made her uncomfortable? An ex-boyfriend maybe?”

Paige and I share a glance. “She wasn’t seeing anyone new that I know of,” Paige tells him.

“Me either. Her last relationship was last year and there hasn’t really been anyone since. She was more interesting in playing the field and her work.”

“Around when was this?”

I rub at my temples and squeeze my eyes shut. “June, I think.”

“We can get you her laptop, if that helps. I mean, if her parents say it’s okay. I’m not really sure how this works. We just want to help find who did this to her.”

He questions us for another half hour, and we tell him everything we remember about Friday, her friends, and her habits, but to me, none of it points to who killed her. For all I know, she went to her friend’s birthday party and was abducted the moment she left. Based on what he told us, no one at the party saw her leave with anyone, though one person did see her walking out to her car.

It’s like whomever attacked her is a ghost.

* * *

“How are you holding up?”

Joseph pulls me into the dark recesses of a near empty coffee shop and guides me to a table in a corner. I let him because I don’t have any energy to protest.

“I’m exhausted.” I don’t go into more detail, but I am running on three hours of sleep. Paige was a wreck after we got back from the police station, and I spent the whole night sitting next to her and making sure that she was okay.

“You wait here.” Joseph plants me in a seat. “I’ll go get us a coffee and something to eat.”

“I’m not very hungry.”

He just smiles. “You look like you’re about to pass out. I’ll get you a panini to go with the coffee.”

Overcome with gratitude, I smile. “Thanks.”

I shed my purse and hang it on the back of my chair. My eyes feel like they’re made of paper, and I could use about a ten-year nap, but when Paige woke up and I tried to lie down, sleep wouldn’t come. Every time I close my eyes, I would end up replaying the last time I saw Carly.

The sad thing, one of many, is that I can’t remember what we talked about or if she knew how much I cared about her. Tears fill my eyes, and I blink them away before Joseph comes back. Inhaling slow and steady, I try to focus on something else, anything else, to distract me. When Paige is able to make it through the day without bursting into tears, I’ll allow myself the reprieve of dealing with my own emotions, but until then, she needs me to be the strong one.

When I look up again, I find the doorway full of students coming in from classes, their eyes all on me—each expression full of pity, sadness, and uneasiness.

Disgusted and unable to watch them while they watch me, I keep my eyes on the table until Joseph returns.

“Sorry. They took forever.” He sets two plates with steaming sandwiches and two paper cups full of coffee on the table. He pushes mine in my direction.