That night, Tommy’s phone buzzed, waking her and Kelly. He mumbled and reached for his phone on the bedside, blindly fumbling around only to find nobody on the other end.
Meanwhile, Tommy froze hearing the high-pitched voice on the other end.
“Where’s your blond boyfriend now?”
Click.
“Oh, my God.”
Kelly sat straight up.
“It was him.” Her hand was shaking. “And I think he did something to that cop assigned to follow me.”
“Erks?”
Tommy told Kelly what the voice had said. Kelly called dispatch.
“They said he ended his shift two hours ago. That’s all they could tell me.”
“We’ve got to warn him,” Tommy said, tugging on some jeans she found on the floor. “We’ll go to his house. Whatever. We have to tell him.”
“Hold up,” Kelly said, punching a number on the phone.
After a few calls, he managed to track down Erk’s home number, but the phone rang and eventually went to voice mail. Kelly left a message for the cop to call him immediately and hung up.
“I just got a feeling this is bad, really bad,” Tommy said, sitting on the couch with her knees hunched up and her chin resting on them. Her entire body was shaking.
Kelly noticed her trembling and put his arm around her, hugging her close.
“Let’s not worry yet. Erks is probably just in a beer-induced heavy sleep. Or at a girl’s house. Or at the bar.”
“God, I hope so,” she said.
The next morning, Tommy stopped in the café downstairs and ordered a triple shot of espresso before she got in her Jeep. She probably hadn’t slept more than an hour at a stretch since she received that call.
Kelly said he would report the call to Lt. Costello as soon as he got to the police department. He’d left her apartment before six so he probably already had done so. He said he would call if Costello needed her to come in.
In the newsroom, Tommy tried to distract herself with her assignments. She was shooting a grand opening of a local co-op. Finally, she couldn’t wait any longer and called Kelly.
“Have you heard from Erks?”
Kelly waited a minute before answering. “No, but he’s not working today. We sent someone over to his place, though.”
Tommy was surprised at this. They must be worried, as well.
As if sensing her thoughts, Kelly said, “It was just precautionary. Landlord opened up and everything appeared just fine. He has two days off, maybe he went up to the North Shore or something for a mini vacation.”
“Did you call his ex?”
Kelly didn’t seem surprised Tommy knew personal information about Erks. “Yeah, she said he doesn’t have the kid until next weekend. They don’t usually talk, just do the kid exchange.”
Tommy changed the subject. Custody was a sore point with Kelly. His crazy ex-wife had moved with their kids to Hawaii. Now, the only way Kelly could see his kids was during his annual vacation, which he spent in a rented condo on the Big Island. A few months ago, he’d mentioned that maybe Tommy should come with him and meet the kids. She knew that was a huge step for him so she didn’t press it and was waiting for him to say more. Now was not the time.