A Taste of Magic (8 page)

Both sick at heart and sick to my stomach, I closed the door to the apartment and then retraced my steps through each room. This time, I opened every closet and cupboard door. I looked behind the shower curtain and under the bed. I even opened her bedroom window to make sure she wasn’t on the fire escape. Silly, because obviously if Alice had been anywhere near, she’d have heard me by that point, but that didn’t stop me. I had to be one hundred percent positive. And I really wanted her to be there.

I was still in Alice’s bedroom when I heard the knocking on the door. I ran at top speed—well, as quickly as I could amid the glass and clutter. Of course, it couldn’t be Alice, she’d just let herself in. But it might be Nate.

My heart dropped when I opened the door to two strangers.

“Hi, I’m Officer Thomas,” said the older, gray-haired man with a slight paunch. “And this is Officer Neuman.” He nodded to the tall, slender, black-haired female cop next to him. “We’re responding to a 911 call. Are you Elizabeth Stevens?”

“Yes. I am. Please come in.” I stepped back to give them room to enter. I shuddered. Seeing the police made the situation all too real.

They followed me in, and the woman, Officer Neuman, took charge. “Let’s you and I talk while my partner checks the apartment out,” she said softly, with a reassuring smile.

We went into the living room, and I sat down. I was beginning to comprehend how serious this could be. I looked at the door again, willing Alice to come through it with her goofy grin.

Officer Neuman flipped open a note pad. “Can you tell me what happened? All the way through. I’ll probably ask you to repeat things.”

I related the events to her the best I could. As I did, my eyes kept drifting back to that damn door. My intuition didn’t tell me anything. You’d think if my sister was hurt in some way, I would know. That somewhere inside, I’d feel it. While I wanted to hang on to that, I couldn’t quite allow myself. After all, I didn’t have a history in ESP or precognition.

Gypsy magic, yeah. Freaky see-into-the-future stuff? Nope. Officer Thomas returned. He tried to walk around the glass, which was nice of him. “Does anything appear to be missing?”

“I don’t know. I’m honestly not here enough to answer that. Alice keeps to herself, mostly.”

“Does she have a husband or a boyfriend? There are some men’s clothes hanging in her bedroom closet.”

“A boyfriend, but I’ve never met him. He’s been under wraps. It’s a fairly new relationship, I think.” The shakiness in my voice pissed me off. How could I help Alice if I couldn’t remain calm?

“Do you know his name?”

I shook my head. How stupid that I didn’t know the name of the man my sister was involved with. Let me tell you, that one fact made me realize, like little else had, how much I’d pulled away from the people I loved in the past year. Alice and I used to share everything. What a rotten sister I’d turned out to be.

“Elizabeth? I asked you if anyone in your family would know his name,” Officer Thomas said.

I refocused. “Oh, I don’t know. I’m not sure anyone in my family has met him. She hasn’t been dating him for long.”

“How long?” This came from Officer Neuman.

“Um, maybe a month? No more than two, I think.” Damn, I couldn’t remember for sure the first time Alice mentioned the mystery man. I thought it was at least a good month before my birthday, which probably meant she’d known him longer. “Do you think he had something to do with this?”

“We have no way of knowing that. Right now, we’re just trying to get a little information about your sister,” said the female officer. “When you talked to her, did she sound scared?”

“Not scared. Sad. Like something really awful had happened.” Another shiver of cold fear struck me.

I hated this.

A knock on the door made me jump. I shot to my feet, but Officer Neuman laid a hand on my arm. “Let us get that,” she said, with a nod to her partner.

Officer Thomas checked through the peephole before opening the door. “Hi, Nate. We were told you might stop in. You’re a friend of Elizabeth’s, right?”

Nate stepped into the entryway, his eyes taking in the broken glass, and then moved on, searching. When his gaze landed on me, my composure fled. Every bit of what I’d been holding myself together with went flying out the window. He wasn’t in uniform, which meant someone had contacted him at home. I’d have to find out who the 911 operator was and send her a thank-you card. Or maybe some flowers.

I started to cry, slowly at first. As Nate came toward me, my tears came faster. He didn’t say anything, just opened his arms and I walked into them. They closed around me, and I buried my head in his chest, my cheek rubbing against the rough grain of his sweater.

“I don’t know where she is,” I mumbled.

“We’ll do our best to find her,” he murmured in my ear, stroking my back. “Have you called your family?”

I lifted my head and clenched my jaw, trying to stop the tears. “No. I was hoping I wouldn’t have to.”

“Maybe she’s with your parents or your grandmother or your brothers? Could that be the case?”

I shook my head. “No. She called me and asked me to come over. Why would she do that and then leave? Without letting me know.” I pointed to the cell phone. “She didn’t take her phone with her either, and she never goes anywhere without it.”

“Does she carry a purse?” Officer Neuman asked.

“Yes. Of course she does. Don’t all women?”

“Look at me, Elizabeth.” I focused on Nate’s steady green eyes. Thank God he was there. “Did you see her bag anywhere in the apartment?”

I mentally went over my frantic search. “No… but I didn’t look for it either. I was looking for
her
, not her purse.”

“Do you want to do that now? If it isn’t here, that may be a good sign. It’s easy to leave in a hurry and forget a phone. After that, you should call your family. Before we send out the search dogs, let’s make sure she isn’t sitting at your grandmother’s place drinking tea.”

It was useless to argue with him. The last place Alice would go in a crisis was to any of our family. Maybe she’d call her best friend, Chloe. But I didn’t think so, because she’d called me. I just hadn’t gotten there quick enough.

Because Alice was such a neat person, it didn’t take me long to ascertain her purse was not in her apartment. Which meant she had her car keys. Returning to the living room, I saw Nate in deep conversation with the other two officers. He turned to look at me. Concern flickered over his expression.

I cleared my throat. “It’s not here. And I realized that means she has her car keys. Should I go downstairs and see if I can find her car in the lot?”

Officer Neuman came forward. “Give us the make, model, and color, and my partner and I will take a walk outside. That way, you can have some privacy while you call your family.”

“Alice drives a Mitsubishi Eclipse Coupe. It’s red.”

“How old is it?” Officer Thomas asked.

“Um, a couple of years, at least. I think it’s a 2005, but I could be off a year or two.”

Officer Neuman wrote the information down. “We’ll go look. Fill Nate in and then call your family.”

When they exited the apartment, I collapsed on the couch. “I don’t want to call my parents. They’ll flip out. And Alice is probably okay. So why worry them for nothing?” I needed to believe this.

Nate sat down next to me. “You need to call. But you can start with your brothers if you want.”

“How do you know I have brothers?”

“Your grandmother told me.”

I kept forgetting they knew each other. One of these days, I’d have to find out how. “This will not be easy.” I heaved myself up and walked toward the bedroom.

“Where are you going?”

“I left my phone on Alice’s bed. I don’t think I want to call my family on her phone to tell them she’s missing.”

I retrieved my phone. I held it for a minute, delaying the inevitable. Calling them made the situation even more real, and this was real enough as it was. Another minute passed. I sat on the edge of her bed, put my head between my knees, and cried some more. When I felt I could talk clearly, I went back to Nate.

“Here goes nothing,” I said, punching in the first number.

Nate squeezed my knee and offered up a smile. It didn’t help, but I appreciated the effort.

Grandma Verda wasn’t home when I called. But I got through to everyone else. I told my parents and then my brothers that I didn’t know where Alice was. I explained the condition of her apartment and that the police were there. I told them she’d called me upset and asked me to come over.

Nate spoke to each of them as well, asking the same questions I’d been asked. He impressed me, this cop I’d met so unexpectedly. His voice was warm, reassuring, and stabilizing as he talked to my family. Before he hung up, he asked everyone to stay at home, in case Alice showed up or contacted them.

On a different day, for a different reason, I would have laughed at this. Telling my family to stay put was, for lack of a better phrase, a complete waste of time. I gave it thirty minutes, forty-five on the outside, before the entire Raymond clan barged in the door at Alice’s.

“They’re not going to stay home. They’ll be here within the hour.”

Nate frowned. “We don’t want people trampling over possible evidence.”

“So you
do
think something happened to her, don’t you?”

“It’s not that, but we have to preserve the scene—” He broke off, a flustered expression crossing his features.

“The scene of a crime, right?” My chest tightened again and another tear rolled down my face. “I can’t comprehend this. It doesn’t make any sense. Who would want to hurt Alice?”

“We don’t know she’s hurt, Lizzie. Worrying about things that might have happened isn’t going to help. Focus on the facts. That’s all you can do right now.”

I excused myself and went to the restroom. I washed my face and used Alice’s brush to comb through my hair. I looked around the small blue-painted room and tried to find a reason to stay. Going back out
there
meant seeing the remnants of what ever happened again. I didn’t want to.

But because it was expected, I went back out. I’d barely sat down when the door opened and Officers Thomas and Neuman entered. And then, right behind them, a bedraggled Alice followed. Everything shifted back into focus as soon as I saw her.

Bolting off the couch, I ran to her and hugged her tight. “Where were you? Are you okay?” I demanded. “I’ve been frantic, Alice. Tell me you’re not hurt.”

She hugged me quickly and then pulled herself free. Her eyes were rimmed in red, and her pale face was blotchy from crying. “I’m fine. Why did you call the police?” she whispered.

“I was so scared when I got here and found your apartment like this. You left the door open and all this broken stuff. Where were you? What happened?”

“I’ve already explained to the officers,” she said, her voice stiff. “You shouldn’t have called them. This is private. I called you.”

“But you weren’t here. What was I supposed to think?”

Alice opened her mouth to say something, but before she could, all hell broke loose. My parents entered the apartment with a bang. The tension emanating from my sister amplified instantly. They made record time; they must have left the second they hung up the phone. My mother took one look at Alice and started to cry, so that made three of us. The expression on my father’s face went from fear to concern. Next, Scot ran in, and, right after him, Joe. The only person missing was Grandma, and I suspected that was only because she hadn’t been at home when we’d phoned.

With a shaking hand, Alice tucked her hair behind one ear in a nervous gesture. Her eyes questioned me as my mother exclaimed over the shattered glass and my father spoke to the police. Nate came up behind me and put his hand on the small of my back, as if letting me know he was there, supporting me.

It helped. A lot.

“I’m not sorry for getting the police involved. I didn’t know where you were. I didn’t know what happened. You were supposed to be here. You called me and wanted me to come to you. What was I supposed to think?” My voice quavered with emotion.

Averting her gaze, Alice said, “As you can see, there’s nothing wrong with me. I’m sorry I worried everyone, but now I’d just like to be alone.”

“Not until you explain what happened,” my mother said.

“Did someone hurt you?” Scot asked.

“Where were you?” my father interjected.

“What’s the deal?” Joe asked.

“Your sister was just worried,” Nate added.

I didn’t say anything. I didn’t feel bad for calling 911, but I felt lousy as I observed my sister trying to take everything in. What ever happened had shaken her up, and then coming home to an apartment filled with people while she dealt with it couldn’t have been easy.

Alice burst into another round of tears and raced out of the room. Her bedroom door slammed shut, followed by the unmistakable sound of a lock turning. She wasn’t normally one for melodramatics. I was scared all over again.

“Can you explain what’s going on?” my father asked Officer Thomas.