Under Different Circumstances

Chapter 32

Wondering what was taking Jay so long, I checked my phone. He'd sent his last message just over an hour ago.

Dinner is ready. Are you on your way?

Twenty minutes later, at 8:30 pm, I hadn't received a reply yet and tried calling him. His phone went straight to voicemail. There had been a couple of times over the last few weeks where he hadn't been able to text me back for a few hours or answer his phone during work, but this was unusual. He never turned his phone off.

I sat at the island, spinning my phone in my hand and stared at the flame of the candle. I tried calling Kim next and let it ring for over a minute, but she didn't pick up either. The unit had probably caught another case, and Jay or Kim would call me back soon.

I climbed off the stool, put the casserole back in the oven and sat down on my couch and turned on the TV. I didn't mind waiting and was used to Jay having to cancel plans on short notice, but the fact that his phone was turned off didn't sit right with me. I heard the voice of the news reporter reading out the news and saw images of flooded houses and blown over power poles in Florida but couldn't focus on the TV. Every few minutes, I glanced at my phone and saw the minutes tick by but no messages or calls come in. When the 9 pm news began, I tried calling Jay again. His phone was still turned off.

I couldn't take sitting around anymore and jumped up from the couch to return to my kitchen. The candle had burned down to half its size, and I blew it out before taking the casserole out of the oven again, wrapping a kitchen towel around it, and carrying it to my front door. I grabbed my phone and keys and left the house.

If the unit had caught a new case, they wouldn't have had time to eat dinner and might appreciate the casserole. At the very least, I could drop it off at the station if they weren't there.

On the quiet drive to the station, I began going through other possibilities in my mind of what might be going on and why I couldn't reach anyone. Maybe Jay had simply lost his phone or they were in an area or building without cell service. But maybe an emergency had happened and one of them was injured.

I didn't like where my mind was going. I had known from the beginning of this relationship that situations like this where I couldn't get hold of him because of his job would come along. It would be the same for him when I'd start work.

But compared to the last few times when he'd been unreachable, this time felt different. This time, I had a pit in my stomach that had never been there before. My instincts were telling me that something was wrong, and I trusted them.

I pressed my foot down on the accelerator and sped through the dark streets, keeping a lookout for Jay's truck so we didn't miss each other.

At the station, as I climbed up the steps to the main entrance, I composed myself. I didn't want to come off as the worried girlfriend that panicked over nothing.

"Officer Goldilocks!" Sergeant Platt greeted me, looking up from some paperwork she was filling out.

I walked up to her desk and set the casserole down. "Not an officer just yet, Sergeant," I corrected and did my best to bring a small smile to my face. "Sergeant, I was supposed to meet Jay tonight, but I can't reach him. Has Intelligence caught another case?"

She set her reading glasses down onto her clipboard. "No, they weren't called to a new case," she replied and glanced at her watch. "Jay and the rest of the unit left over an hour ago now. Voight and Burgess are still upstairs, though. Maybe they know something. I'll buzz you up."

She moved towards the buzzer, but the gate opened before she pressed the button, and Kim skipped down the stairs.

"Here's Burgess," Platt noticed and motioned towards her.