by Kaylea Cross
“She’s been missing since last night. Well, no, today. I mean, well, I didn’t realize until this morning that she hadn’t come home last night.”
“Maybe she just stayed overnight at a friend’s house.” Whitney was twenty-four years old. She could stay out all night if she wanted to. Kate hoped that was all it was. The idea her sister could really be missing made her feel sick in the pit of her stomach.
“No, no, I don’t think so, really. I think she would have told me so. We try to keep each other safe that way, you know. I have such a bad feeling about this, Kate. I think you should come to Seattle right away.”
“You mean, like right now?” This news was all so unexpected. Frantic thoughts swirling in Kate’s mind made it hard to process.
“Well, yeah. I mean, as soon as you can, of course.”
“So, what do the police say?” Kate asked, searching for a voice of reason.
“Police?”
“Yes, Suki. You did call them, didn’t you?” Kate was incredulous that her sister might be in danger and the police had not yet been informed. Are you kidding me? Her heart beat hard against her chest, sending pulsing blood painfully racing to her head.
“I’m sorry, Kate, don’t get mad. I think you have to wait twenty-four hours before you can report someone missing, don’t you?”
“How should I know, Suki? I would have called them to find out, not just assumed.” A muscle twitched in Kate’s jaw.
“You’re right, you’re right. I’m sorry.”
“I’ll call them for myself as soon as we get off the phone. I want to talk to the police before I come running up there.” Suki had all day to call me, why did she wait until now? Was she hoping Whitney would eventually show up? Something doesn’t feel right.
Perhaps Whitney was just staying over with a new boyfriend that Suki didn’t know about. Or maybe she went with some girlfriends for a long weekend. Suki is probably just overreacting. Kate clung to that thought to give her a sense of security.
On the other hand, if her sister really were missing, of course she’d drop everything and hop on the first flight to Seattle. She felt uneasy just cancelling work and reorganizing her life on the whim of this woman she barely knew. Kate had photo shoots in the Los Angeles area lined up all week. People depended on her, so she wanted to be sure it was warranted.
“Kate. Your sister is missing! You really need to come as soon as possible,” Suki pressed. “Surely, you don’t have anything to do that’s more important than this, do you?”
Kate recognized the guilt card being played. Her late mother had been a master at it.
“No, of course not. Nothing’s more important than finding my sister, if she really is missing. However, I am going to call the police first and see what they say. You may be correct about the twenty-four hour thing, but I want to know for sure.”
“Then you’ll come?”
As much as Kate hated the thought of upending her whole world overnight, she had to seriously consider the possibility that Suki might be right. If Whitney needed her, she had no choice but to go to Seattle on the first flight she could get.
“Yes, yes, I’ll come, but I am going to talk to the police as soon as we hang up. After that, I’ll check for flights out of L.A. tomorrow.” Kate would have to wait until the morning to change her work schedule, too. “I appreciate you letting me know, Suki. I’ll be in touch.”
* * *
Suki hung up from her conversation with Kate and immediately made another call.
“Hullo,” a young man answered.
“It’s done.”
Chapter Two
“Hey, lady! You’re up,” a young male’s voice came from behind her.
“What?” Startled, Kate looked around.
“You’re up, over there at the counter.” The impatient teenager pointed to the airline ticket counter.
His voice had jerked her out of a daze. She’d been standing in the long, slow-moving passenger line, replaying her situation and the unproductive conversation with the Seattle Police. She hadn’t been able to get beyond talking to the officer at the front desk because Whitney had not been missing long enough. He hadn’t told her anything of value one way or the other, except that if she was really concerned, she should come as soon as possible. Of course she was concerned. She loved her sister. How dare he suggest otherwise.
It was because of that bond, that if there was any chance Whitney actually was missing, Kate would drop everything and go. She had arranged to fly to Seattle on the next available flight.
Unfortunately, getting to Seattle was not so easy. Engine trouble on her connecting flight from Salt Lake City had forced the plane down in Boise, where she had to spend the night.
“Sorry,” Kate muttered to the people in line behind her. Her face reddened and she rushed to the counter, slapping her driver’s license down on the counter a little harder than she’d intended.
The ticket agent glared at her, then moved like a snail. Kate was sure she must have offended the woman. Glancing up at the monitor on the wall, it showed that her Horizon flight to Seattle was departing in twenty minutes.
Kate checked her watch for the umpteenth time, feeling her heart thumping in her chest. Come on, come on, come on, lady! I have a plane to catch! She tapped a staccato beat with the heel of her shoe.
Finally, the ticket agent offered up her pass. Kate grabbed it, tossed her long tresses over her shoulder and spun around to run for the security gate.
Splat!
Kate normally considered herself a controlled, refined, twenty-eight-year-old woman. But here she was, sprawled out face first on the hard floor, having tripped over a child’s rolling backpack that she neglected to see in her haste. A manly, well-groomed hand reached down and helped her up. Mortified, her cheeks flushed a bright red.
The helpful hand belonged to an attractive man who looked to be in his early thirties. Kate could not help noticing his deep green eyes, thick brown hair and the broad shoulders filling out his fleece pullover.
“Are you okay?” His voice was warm and deep.
“Yes,” she replied, her face flashing hot. “All, except my pride. Thanks for the help.”
She scrambled to gather up her purse and coat and made a beeline for the security gate. Under any other circumstances, she might have been happy to linger and talk to the helpful stranger, but not today.
Finally, reaching the security gate, Kate flashed her boarding pass and driver’s license at the beefy TSA official and took her place in line for the scanners. While waiting her turn, she noticed a young man in the next line over, putting his dull green backpack on the conveyor and stepping up to the scanner. He was about her age and wearing a navy blue baseball cap that covered his mop of curly brown hair. In the next moment, he and his backpack were pulled out of line and given the extra wand treatment.
“Oh, come on! Are you kidding me? I’m gonna miss my flight!” he complained, holding his arms straight out from his sides, while another TSA agent rummaged through his pack.
I can’t afford to be singled out and delayed like that, she thought, trying not to stare. Efficiently loading her purse, shoes, and jacket in a gray plastic bin, she set it on the conveyor belt.
Checking her watch again, she was acutely aware that time was ticking down. If she could get through this security check without incident, she would have a good chance of making her flight. Kate handed her boarding pass to the female TSA worker on the other side of the full-body scanner, stood against the scanner as instructed, trying her best not to think of what the male TSA worker was looking at on the screen.
Thankful she was not detained, Kate scooped up her things, hurriedly stepped into her shoes and set off for Gate A-10. Following the overhead directional signs, she dashed down the wide corridor and found her gate.
The last few passengers in the boarding line were entering the door to the jet-way. Kate made it just in time.
Once on the plane, she found her assigned sea
t, on the aisle, and stowed her purse and coat. She leaned her head back against the headrest, closed her eyes, and let out a long sigh.
“I see you made your flight.” A deep and familiar voice came from the aisle next to her.
Kate opened her eyes and turned to see who was talking to her. It was the man who had helped her off the floor at the ticket counter. He was storing his carry-on bag in the upper compartment over his seat.
“Yes, yes, I did.” She was a little surprised to see him. He must have rushed for the plane, too. Then she realized he must have been right on her heels the whole mad dash to their gate.
“Are you okay? That was a nasty spill you took back at the ticket counter. Anything bruised?”
“Just my ego. I’m fine, really.” A twinge of embarrassment heated her cheeks once more.
“My name’s Ryan, by the way,” he offered with a friendly smile, as he took his seat.
Kate smiled back and was about to respond with her name when the young man with the baseball cap and the dull green backpack walked down the aisle between them. She was glad the extra security had not made him miss his flight. Then she turned her attention back to her dashing rescuer.
“I’m Kate. I—” She was cut off in mid-sentence by the commanding voice of the captain, booming over the loudspeaker, welcoming all the passengers and thanking them for flying with Horizon.
“Kate, what do—” Now he was cut off by the flight attendant asking everyone to fasten their seatbelts and turn off their cell phones, after which she proceeded to give the safety measure instructions. Ryan and Kate glanced at each other and grinned.
She looked forward to talking with her new acquaintance a bit more on the flight, once the announcements were over. It would be a pleasant distraction from the crisis at hand, at least for a little while.
“Kate,” Ryan said, once the flight attendant was finished, “are you from Boise?”
“No,” she answered. “I live in Los Angeles. I’m a photographer there.”
“Oh, I would have guessed a model, not the person behind the camera.”
“Thank you, that’s sweet,” she said, “but no.”
“Are you going to Seattle on business?”
“No.” She was silent for a moment, floundering over a safe answer. “I’m going to see my sister. She lives there.” Kate wasn’t ready to tell this perfect stranger that her sister was missing, and she was going there to help find her. “Are you from Boise?”
“Yes…well, I was. I grew up here, went to Boise State. Then I moved to Seattle after graduation. You know, to make my fortune in the big city and all.”
“What do you do?” Kate asked.
“I’m a real estate agent. Fortunately, the housing crash hasn’t hurt the Seattle area as bad as it has in other parts of the country, so I do pretty well.”
“Home for a visit?”
“Yeah. I came for the weekend to see my mom and dad and go to a Boise State football game with them. My mom and dad are diehard BSU Bronco fans. They love their blue turf.”
“You can’t be serious.” Kate thought Ryan was kidding her.
“Even ESPN loves it. If you’re ever watching college football on TV and the grass looks blue, you’ll know it’s Boise State.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“So tell me, why are you in Boise?” he asked. “Weren’t there any direct flights from Los Angeles?”
Kate told Ryan about the flight troubles that had landed her—literally—in Boise. “That’s why I had the little mishap at the ticket counter—I was just so rushed. Thanks again for helping me up.”
“I’m glad I could be of service, ma’am,” Ryan said, as he pretended to tip his invisible hat. “Perhaps we could get a coffee or something while you’re in Seattle.”
“Maybe.” She nodded, not knowing what she would find once she got to Seattle.
Kate appreciated the mental diversion for a while, but her sister was never far from her thoughts.
* * *
The piercing voice of one of the flight attendants blared over the loudspeaker telling everyone to make sure their seatbelts were fastened and their trays were put away, as they were preparing for their final descent into Seattle. What lousy timing. Ryan was just about to ask Kate for her phone number so they could meet for coffee, but the landing announcement cut him off.
He found Kate attractive and engaging and wanted to spend more time with her. Now that they had landed, the pent-up passengers all made a mad dash to retrieve their carry-ons from the overhead bins and jostled their way off the plane. Since Kate had no carry-ons, except her purse and jacket, she immediately joined the throng of passengers moving forward to get off the plane. Ryan had to wait for a clearing to get his bag out of the overhead and lost sight of her.
Disappointed, he headed for the baggage claim area. He would casually ask for her number while they stood around waiting for their bags to come up on the carousel.
However, when he reached the baggage claim area, she was nowhere to be found. He walked around the luggage carousel several times, he searched through the crowd, but she was not there. He had sensed a connection with this stunning woman, but now he had no way of contacting her.
When his suitcase finally came up on the carousel, he grabbed it and took the escalator down to the outdoor loading area. Peering up and down the roadway, he still hoped to catch a glimpse of her waiting for a cab or a shuttle, but she was not there either. Disheartened, he hailed the next taxi in line and went home.
Chapter Three
The noisy baggage claim office had been packed with people from the troubled flight the night before, and the agent appeared overwhelmed with finding everyone’s luggage. Anxious to get to Whitney’s apartment to speak with her roommate, Kate was relieved to finally have her luggage. As she waved down the next taxi, she could have sworn that it was Ryan’s silhouette in the backseat of the cab she saw speeding away.
The yellow car pulled up. Kate threw her bags in the trunk and she was off to her sister’s apartment in the Belltown district of Seattle. In the smelly backseat of the well-worn cab, she sat in contemplative silence, mulling over questions she wanted to ask Suki.
Before she knew it, she had arrived. After paying the cab driver and retrieving her bags, she wheeled her luggage to the apartment building entrance.
A young man was leaning against the far left edge of the building, she noticed, smoking a cigarette. When she approached the building, he hurried away. He looked a lot like the disheveled young man with the ball cap and dull green backpack from her flight. That was odd. She shrugged off the uneasy feeling. There were more important things to deal with.
Kate pushed the intercom button by the entry door. Whitney’s loft apartment was number 310.
“Yes?” a youthful female voice came over the scratchy speaker.
“This is Kate, Whitney’s sister. Can you buzz me in?”
“Oh, yeah. Sure.”
Kate heard the buzz and a click of the lock release. She pushed the door open and found an Out of Order sign on the elevator. She sighed. Just what she needed after a long night. She hauled her suitcases up the three flights of stairs, and then, out of breath, she knocked on the apartment door. Whitney’s roommate opened it.
Suki had a head of deep red curls, layered to frame her round face. The red hair set off her sky-blue eyes. Dressed in a T-shirt and faded jeans, she looked like a teenager.
“Hi, I’m Kate.”
“Yes, come in. I’m so glad you’re here. I’m Suki,” she said, extending her hand.
“Sorry I didn’t make it last night. Like I told you on the phone, we had plane trouble,” Kate replied, taking her hand.
“I’m glad you called and let me know about the delay. I’ve just been so worried about Whitney.”
Kate pulled off her coat and draped it over her arm. There was something familiar about this young woman. “Have we met before?”
“No!” Suki cleared her throat. “I mean, no
, I don’t think so.” She diverted her eyes and changed the subject. “Here, let me take your suitcase. I’ll put it in Whitney’s room for you.” She dragged the heavy, wheeled bag down the short hallway and lifted it onto the partially made bed. Kate followed close behind with her smaller bag.
“Why don’t you get settled and freshen up, and I’ll make us some tea,” Suki offered. “Then we can talk.”
“That would be great. Thank you. I’ll be just a few minutes.” The creeping feeling of familiarity stayed with her.
Kate glanced around her sister’s bedroom. The bedding was rumpled, a few tops thrown on the chair, shoes overflowing out of her closet. Whitney was not the meticulous person Kate was, but that was one of the things she loved about her sister. She was bubbly and carefree—a genuine free spirit. Kate wished she were more like Whitney in that way.
She walked into the open kitchen area to see Suki with a kettle of water that had just started to whistle. A plate of what appeared to be blueberry muffins was set out on the table. “Looks like I’m just in time,” she said, trying to lighten the mood before digging into the serious business of her sister’s whereabouts.
“Yes, you are. Just in time. Take a seat. There are muffins on the table if you’re hungry. I have green tea and Chai tea. Which one would you like?”
“Green, please.” Although it didn’t really matter. Kate wished the girl would just sit down and stop fluttering about so they could talk.
Finally, Suki set the mugs down and sat.
Kate blew on the steaming tea, taking a moment to organize her thoughts.
“Suki, I have a lot of questions for you.”
“I figured you would.”
“Exactly when was the last time you saw my sister?”
“Well, it was the day before I called you. Saturday—like I told you on the phone. Yes, that was it, Saturday. Whitney had the day off, but I had to work. I left the apartment midmorning. She never mentioned anything about having any plans that evening, but when I got home and she wasn’t here, I just assumed she had a date or went out with friends.”