Chapter 8 - Reid
EIGHT
Reid
ReidingRainbow: I figured as much. Whoever it is, Hazel probably already has their real number saved.
Armchair_Detective: Too bad that old boss didn’t pan out. I think you should write about the stakeout for the blog.
WhiteKnight31: Agreed.
ReidingRainbow: No way in hell.
Armchair_Detective: I’d pay money to see Reid confronting a random man in a strip mall parking lot at eight in the morning.
ReidingRainbow: That is absolutely not what happened.
Armchair_Detective: That’s how I’m choosing to picture it.
ReidingRainbow: Moving on. I had Hazel reach out to the police officer who took her report to see if they could help her get access to the footage, but they just gave her a generic, “We’ll look into it.”
Armchair_Detective: Damn cops. Why can’t they take a stolen pet seriously?
ReidingRainbow: I don’t know, but I’ll figure out a way to get that footage one way or another. Meanwhile, we should move on to looking at other suspects.
WhiteKnight31: Like the boyfriend.
Armchair_Detective: It’s always the boyfriend.
ReidingRainbow: EX-boyfriend
Armchair_Detective: Do I sense a little hostility in that “EX”?
WhiteKnight31: You were quick to correct that one.
Armchair_Detective: Does someone have a crush?
ReidingRainbow: I’m simply correcting a fact. This is an investigation, after all.
A loud clang from somewhere in my house had me ripping off my headphones. I bolted out of my chair and jogged into the hallway, my racing heart slowing as soon as I spotted my sister, Regan. She walked over to my sofa holding a bag of chips, not looking guilty in the slightest.
“Sorry. I knocked a pan over trying to get to these.” She shook the bag. “You really shouldn’t keep your snacks in such a high cabinet.”
“It’s not high up for me,” I pointed out. “You know, the person who actually lives here? That key is for emergencies.” I might as well be a broken record at this point.
“It was an emergency. Mom and Dad are driving me nuts.” She flung herself across my sofa and picked up the TV remote.
“Shouldn’t you be job hunting or something?” I asked. I was seriously considering changing my locks and not giving an extra key to every single one of my family members this time around. Clearly, I was too generous in assuming they could handle a few simple boundaries.
Regan groaned. “Ugh, not you too. I filled out some applications this morning. It’s not like the job market for a liberal arts major with zero work experience is super-hot right now.”
“Can you keep it down at least? I’m busy.”
“It’s past six. I know you’re not working.”
I moved into the kitchen and pulled open the fridge before nabbing a soda water. “It’s not with work.”
“Ohh, right.” She snapped her fingers. “This is about the catnapping.”
Hearing her call it that made something simmer inside me. It made it sound like a joke, which it absolutely was not to Hazel. It was her life, and she was really struggling right now.
“It’s not funny,” I said, resigning myself to the fact that I probably wasn’t going to convince Regan to go anywhere. I settled into the leather armchair positioned perpendicular to the couch.
“I didn’t say it was.” She held up her hands defensively.
Regan was the least serious one in the family.
A ‘free spirit,’ as my mom always called her.
She lacked a strong sense of responsibility and loved to try new things.
Living at our parents’ house probably stifled her, but it wasn’t my fault she hadn’t made a concrete plan.
We’d all warned her not to just skate by in college, and to spend more time focusing on her future.
My front door rattled before swinging open. Ruby and West sauntered through like they also lived here.
“Excuse me. Did I know you two were coming?” There wasn’t any bite to my words.
While I wished my family could at least shoot me a warning text, I liked how close we all were.
I’d take an unexpected visit over not seeing my sisters at all, any day.
They’d recently started stopping by a lot more.
I knew why. It was one hundred percent due to my divorce.
“Regan said she was here,” Ruby said unapologetically.
West shrugged. “And Ruby texted me to head over.”
“Glad someone thought to give me the heads up,” I said, but no one acknowledged me. Instead, West splayed out on my couch, propping his feet up on the matching ottoman.
“I was hoping you’d want to grab dinner,” he said.
“I’m down.” I had a bad habit of tuning out my body whenever I got caught up in something online, and I hadn’t even noticed I was hungry until West mentioned food. Now my stomach growled like it had been starving for hours.
“Same,” Regan said.
“Only if you pay for yourself,” Ruby warned, lingering behind the couch.
Regan pouted and draped her head over the back of the seat. “Can’t you take pity on your poor, broke, unemployed sister?”
“That worked when you were a college student, but not anymore,” Ruby said.
West laughed. “Nice try, kid.”
“Mexican?” I asked, standing and brushing the wrinkles out of my pants.
Ruby rolled her eyes. “You always pick that place.”
“It’s delicious and it’s down the street.” I didn’t mention that I’d just gotten lunch from there the other day. I had my favorite spots, and I liked knowing exactly what to expect when I went out to eat. Trying somewhere new was a risk.
“Fine with me,” West said.
“Let me just tell the guys I have to run. Regan interrupted me.”
“Are you working on Hazel’s thing?” Ruby asked, eyes shining with interest. “She seemed kind of down at work yesterday. I wanted to ask, but I was slammed with clients.”
My chest tightened.
She seemed down? I hated that.
We obviously weren’t any closer to figuring this out, but I thought she was at least a little bit more optimistic. She came across that way over text, anyway.
“Any leads?” West asked.
I chewed on the inside of my lip, biting back a laugh just thinking about the stakeout. “Um, not really. She thought it might be her old boss but…it didn’t pan out.”
“Shoot. And there’s no one else you can look into?” Ruby asked.
“Unfortunately, not yet.” Which was killing me. We’d just started, and I definitely wasn’t an expert in these matters, but I still thought I’d have more ideas by now. It was definitely an amateur; the perpetrator couldn’t be that slick. They must have left clues, and made mistakes.
“There’s a camera pointing to her courtyard. I was hoping to get access to the videos, but so far, no luck.”
“Does she have a doorman?” Regan asked.
“It’s not that kind of apartment complex.
” But as I said it, I realized that there actually had to be a leasing office somewhere on the property.
I’d noticed the call button when I’d buzzed Hazel’s unit the other day.
Maybe they wouldn’t be able to help, but getting in front of a real person was usually better than dealing with a call center.
I shot a text to Hazel.
Reid: I have an idea.
“Come on, put your phone away and let’s go,” West said, clapping my shoulder. I shot off another message to the mobile version of the sleuthing group chat before silencing my ringer.
Ruby and Regan piled into their respective cars, and I slid into the passenger side of West’s. If they were going to ambush me, the least one of them could do was give me a ride.
“How are you doing?” he asked before we even pulled out of the driveway.
“I’m fine.” My senses tingled, alerting me that something about his question was off.
“You haven’t been snooping on social media? Meghan’s been posting stuff with that new guy non-stop, and you haven’t even mentioned it since we brought it up at the last dinner.”
Honestly, I’d completely forgotten about that.
Seeing my ex-wife with her new boyfriend should have at least warranted a mild crash-out, but helping Hazel was the only thing preoccupying me lately.
While I was doing better—I really was—it still sucked to see Meghan move on before I did.
Especially since she’d been the one to end it.
Maybe, deep down, I’d known we weren’t right for each other.
But when she’d pulled up a chair that random Wednesday night and told me we needed to talk, I hadn’t expected it.
I’d go as far as to say that she’d blindsided me.
She’d said she wanted more. That I couldn’t change, and she had no desire to try and push me any longer.
She wanted excitement, and I just wasn’t the guy who could give it to her.
“I haven’t looked,” I said.
West shot me a quick glance, eyebrows raised. “Seriously? You weren’t curious? I thought for sure you’d go on a stalking spree the moment you found out. Ruby had to force me not to drive to your house that night to try and talk you off a ledge.”
I slid back in my seat. West had been around for the entirety of mine and Meghan’s relationship.
He knew how in love I’d been, and he’d seen how far I’d fallen when she’d told me she wanted out.
But that was nearly a year ago. I’d moved on.
Just because I hadn’t met someone new, didn’t mean I couldn’t be over her.
“I appreciate the sentiment, but I really don’t care.”
It was clear from his silence that he didn’t believe me.
No one in my family did, even if it was the truth.
Now that I was out of that relationship, I could see how draining it had been.
It wasn’t like we fought a lot, but we were never on the same page.
Never wanted to do the same things. It was dumb stuff, like, she’d want a night out while I just wanted to cook together and watch a movie.
Or she’d want to ditch my family’s annual trip to Florida so she could go to Italy instead.
Being with Meghan had left me constantly doubting myself, feeling like who I was just wasn’t enough. Honestly, being alone had been freeing.
I didn’t need some rebound. I needed to finally accept myself, after years of feeling like I wasn’t amounting to much as a husband.
“I’m here if you need me, man,” West said.
“I know.” And I did. Because he’d always been there for me. I knew without a doubt that West always had my back.
At the restaurant, Ruby and Regan were already waiting for us at a table. The four of us spent the entire dinner having lively conversation. Part of me was present, enjoying myself and laughing along.
Another part of me was somewhere else entirely.
It wasn’t until West dropped me back at home that I realized I’d been consciously stopping myself from checking my phone all night, resisting the urge to see if Hazel had texted me back.