Chapter 4: Theo

 

Saturday afternoon, April 25th

 

Knox’s side of the truck was quiet, and for once I didn’t try to fill the space with chatter. In all honestly, I was shocked silent by today’s revelations. Ethan wanted to leave the team? Chase and Liam both kissed Haley?

I tried to tamp down my jealousy, thinking of the countless nights I spent dreaming of her. Not to mention that Knox and I lived with her all these months, tempted by her daily, and not once had we kissed her. Maybe I should have, I thought ruefully. Oddly enough, it wasn’t even that I begrudged Liam or Chase their kiss with Haley; it was more that I wanted to experience it for myself.

After pulling into the garage, we shared a knowing look. We all accepted long ago that secrecy was a major part of our lives, but since meeting Haley, it was an increasingly difficult prospect. While she was inquisitive by nature, it was more the fact that I despised keeping things from her, hated that there was anything between us but honesty.

Knox had it easy; his poker face and gruff demeanor meant that Haley could rarely tell when he was upset about something. Not so much with me. It was like she had a special radar for my emotions and I knew today, of all days, I needed to put on a believable performance.

She didn’t respond after Knox called out, “Haley, we’re home,” so I approached her door to see if she was almost ready. Although I had looked forward to our movie date all week, I was now officially in desperate need of an escape from reality. I had a feeling Haley needed one too—something had obviously been weighing on her, and I had a hunch there was more to it than Liam and Chase kissing her. If only she would just talk to me.

I knocked. “Haley. Are you ready?”

When there was no answer, I knocked again and slowly cracked open the door. Even in her deepest sleep, it didn’t usually take much to wake her. My mind flashed to the night she spent in my bed, and I wondered if I needed to injure myself again to get her back there. Shaking my head, I pushed the door fully open to find that her bed was made and she was nowhere to be seen. Huh, that’s odd.

“Haley?” I said louder as I strode toward the closet. I didn’t want to startle her, but I was beginning to worry that something was wrong.

Silence.

To the untrained eye, nothing appeared out of place, but knowing her closet, I could tell that some of her clothes were missing. I wanted to believe they were in the laundry, but my gut told me otherwise. Noticing that the safe door was ajar, I opened it to find it completely empty. What the frizuck?

I couldn’t grab my phone fast enough to call her. Once, twice, three times it went to voicemail. I sent a text message, shouting “Knox” as I typed.

“Knox,” I yelled again more loudly, scanning Haley’s room for other missing items.

“What’s going on?” he asked, appearing in the doorway.

I glanced at my phone, double checking that the ringer was on, and hoping she would return my call, a text, anything. “Have you heard from Haley since this morning?”

“No. Why?”

“Some of her clothes are gone, her guitar is missing, and the safe is empty.”

“Are you sure?”

“Check for yourself, but yeah, it’s pretty obvious the safe has been wiped out.”

He swore, then marched to the closet, digging through its contents as I frantically called her phone. Voicemail again. Damn it, Haley. Where are you?

A piece of paper caught my eye and I walked over to her nightstand. Despite dreading what I would find, I forced myself to read the note. Time slowed as I processed her handwriting, the paper stained with several tears. Why? Why did she do this?

Her note claimed that it was time to move on, but I knew that couldn’t be it. Did we do something to push her away? I scanned my memories for something, anything, we could have done to cause such a drastic reaction, but my thoughts were muddled. All I could feel was panic at the idea that she felt the need to run away from us.

Knox’s hand clapped on my shoulder, shaking me. His lips were moving, but if he was talking, I couldn’t make out hear a word he said until I finally heard my name.

“Theo.”

“What?”

“I checked the tracker and it says she’s still in Santa Cruz. From her speed, she must be in a car.”

“Okay. Good,” I exhaled. “That’s good. She’s still in Santa Cruz.” My heart continued to hammer against my chest, but this was promising. We need to find her and talk to her.

Unwilling to waste even a moment, we jogged to the truck and sped out of the garage. I synced my phone to the larger screen on the dashboard, allowing us to easily follow the signal from Haley’s phone. When we pulled up behind a cab less than thirty minutes later, it was clear that the phone was inside . . . without Haley.

I groaned, knowing this would likely be a dead end. Knox pulled up next to the cab and I flagged the driver to get his attention, relieved when he slowed and pulled off into a parking lot. Maybe we would at least get some answers, but the longer this took, the farther she slipped away from us.

“Can I help you?” the cabbie asked from his open window.

“I hope so . . .” I looked at his dashboard, searching for his name, “. . . Frank.” I smiled and maintained eye contact. “I think you gave my roommate a ride this morning, but she seems to have lost her phone. Did you take a fare earlier today for this girl?” I asked, showing him one of the hundred pictures of Haley I had saved on my phone.

He nodded. “Yeah, I remember her; she was my first passenger today.”

“Did you find an iPhone in your cab?”

“I didn’t notice anything on the back seat, but feel free to check.”

“Thanks. I’ll only be a minute.”

While Knox waited in the truck, I dug around for the iPhone. It has to be here somewhere. Growing more agitated by the minute, I shoved my hand down the back of the seat cushions. My fingers were squeezed in the tight space, and it took me a few attempts, but I eventually extracted an iPhone, complete with a familiar case covered in stars.

Frack. Frack. Frack. I squeezed my eyes shut, knowing that this wasn’t a good sign, especially considering it was on silent. Somehow, I managed not to punch the seat cushion.

“Find it?” the cabbie called.

“Yeah. Thanks, Frank.”

“Sure, no problem. Glad you found it. She was quiet but seemed like a nice girl. I hope she enjoyed the museum.”

My ears perked up. I loved when people willingly offered me useful information. “Thanks again,” I said, returning to the driver’s window. “By the way, which museum did you drop her off at?”

He drummed the steering wheel while thinking. “Museum of Art and History, around opening time.” Finally.

“Thanks.” I waved as I sprinted to the truck.

Closing the door behind me, I looked over at Knox. “Did you catch all that?”

“Enough to know the phone was a wild goose chase.” Knox grunted. “I should have never told her about the tracking feature.”

He peeled out of the parking lot and sped to the museum while I scanned through the phone.

“Fiddlesticks,” I said through clenched teeth.

“She wiped the phone,” Knox stated flatly, anticipating my discovery.

“Yep. Looks like she did a complete reset. Recent calls and texts are empty, no linked e-mail accounts, no internet search history.”

“Damn. Keep the phone; we’ll give it to Chase later, but hopefully we’ll find her and it won’t be necessary.”

Relying on the phone for information was definitely a worst case scenario in my mind. The thought of returning to the loft without Haley was unfathomable, and even with Chase’s mad tech skills, it would be a while before we could recover the data she wiped.

“Do you know what time your buddy Frank dropped her off at the museum?”

“Around opening time, so it had to be close to eleven this morning.” I stared out the window. “You don’t think that was her destination, though, do you?”

“No.” His tone was eerily calm, but I sensed that it was more like the calm in a storm before all hell broke loose. A few minutes passed in silence until he asked, “How long has she been planning this?”

“I don’t know. I told you she’s been acting differently since spring break.” I was trying not to snap at Knox; it wasn’t his fault that Haley left.

“Yeah, well we now know that was because Chase, and then Liam, kissed her.” He barked out a laugh.

“There’s something else. When we went to dinner after the youth outreach event, she mentioned making a plan to move out.”

“What the fuck, Theo? Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

“First of all, it sounded like she would move across town, not vanish into thin air. And, second,” I glared at him pointedly, “I immediately shut her down and wouldn’t even consider the notion.”

“Did she tell you why she wanted to move out?”

“I never got the feeling that she actually wanted to move out. It was more like she didn’t want to impose any longer.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“Thank you,” I said on a loud exhale. “Honestly, it seemed more like a distraction tactic to keep me from discovering what was really bothering her.”

Knox grunted in response.

Circling the streets near the museum, we remained alert for anyone who resembled Haley. But when we passed the METRO Center only a few blocks over, Knox and I glanced at each other, and he immediately pulled into the parking lot. The truck had barely come to a stop when I jumped out and headed toward the bus station.

Please be here. Please be here. Please be here, I chanted in my head as I opened the door.

My heart dropped when I didn’t immediately see her in the waiting area, but I remained optimistic that she was in the restroom. Even better, maybe she had changed her mind and was headed back to the loft right now. Or, worse, she was already on a bus headed halfway across the country and we’d never see her again. Argh, stop!

I wanted to stand in the middle of the station and demand answers, but I knew we had to be more subtle than that. Knox joined me and we scanned the bus schedules, but without questioning station employees or checking the video feeds, our guesses were just that. We showed Haley’s photo to a few of the people milling about, but they either didn’t remember seeing her or had recently arrived themselves.

Knox tapped me on the shoulder and tilted his head in the direction of a young female in uniform. Jackpot. When he seemed intent on accompanying me to question her, I placed a hand on his chest, signaling that he should hang back. Normally, that was something he would do automatically, but since this concerned Haley, all bets were off. He glared at me but fortunately stayed behind, letting me approach the girl on my own.

“Hi,” I said with a winning smile. She blinked wildly and peered around as if to make sure that I was really addressing her, then gave me a shy smile.

“The ticket counters are over there and the next bus to Oakland boards in ten,” she said, returning to her task.

“Actually, I was hoping you could tell me if you’ve seen this girl,” I said, showing her a photo of Haley.

She was contemplative for a moment. “Oh yeah, I remember her, she had such pretty hair. She was here earlier.”

“Any idea what time?”

She shook her head.

“Do you happen to know where she traveled to?”

She pursed her lips and considered my question. “Sorry, no.” Ugh, this is useless.

“But she boarded a bus?”

She nodded. Great, I thought sarcastically. I got my answer, but it was most certainly not what I wanted to hear.

I related the intel to Knox as we returned to the truck, frustrated that there was nothing more that could be done at the station. I pinched the bridge of my nose between my fingers, the tension building into a raging headache while we waited for Jackson to answer his phone.

“Hey, Jax. Theo and I have you on Bluetooth.”

“What’s up?”

“Haley left Santa Cruz,” Knox said bluntly. Although I knew she was gone, hearing it out loud made it seem more real, and I hated the thought. We shouldn’t waste time driving back to the loft; we should head out of town to find her. Too bad we had no clue of her destination.

“What?” Jackson’s voice sounded strangled and then there was a pause. “Considering the morning we had, I’m guessing this isn’t one of your pranks.”

“Trust me, I wish it was. You think I could joke about something like this?” Knox asked, his voice laced with an edge of warning.

“Maybe she went for a run or a trip to the store. Have you texted her?” His tone remained calm and confident.

I let out an involuntary cackle that sounded crazed even to my ears. “Yeah, like an hour ago. And I don’t think she would have left a note and her keys.”

“Look,” Knox said, interrupting any further conversation, “we know she boarded a bus earlier today, and now we need the team’s help.”

Jackson exhaled. “Fuuuck. Alright, what’s been done so far?”

When Knox finished relating the events of our afternoon with occasional interjections from me, Jackson finally spoke again. “Okay. I’ll call Liam and Chase and have them get started on the next phase. Can you drop her phone at Chase’s apartment?”

“Yes,” Knox confirmed.

“We’re bringing her home, right?” I practically pleaded.

“Of course,” Jackson said with certainty.