You sure you don’t want some bread or an appetizer while you wait?”
Alex thought he detected a note of pity in the waitress’s voice.
He checked his watch again. 7:40 P.M. “No, I’m fine, thank you.”
Once the waitress was gone, he rose from the table and maneuvered near the entrance to call Laurie from his cell phone. It rang four times and then went to voice mail. “Just checking in to see if you’re on your way. Let me know if you want me to send Ramon to pick you up.”
Laurie had said she might be on a tight timeline if she ran home first to see Timmy, but he had never known Laurie to be forty minutes late, let alone without a text or a phone call.
He checked his phone once again a few moments later for any new messages from her. Nothing.
If she wasn’t here and hadn’t contacted him, something was wrong.
This time, he didn’t bother leaving his table to make the call. It was too urgent.
Leo picked up almost immediately. “Alex, shouldn’t you be having an extravagant dinner with my daughter?”
“Did she go home after work to see Timmy?” Alex asked.
“No, she said she was going straight to dinner with you.”
“She’s not here, Leo. She must be in some kind of trouble.”