David
Sprinting up the stairs, I took them two at a time to reach our bedroom where I hoped I would find Kaye. “Kaye, I want to talk to you, baby.”
Throwing the door open, I found the room empty. I went around, checking the bathroom and even the closets for her. But she wasn’t there.
None of our cars were gone, so I knew she hadn’t left. Unless she’d gone with someone else.
I pulled my cell out and called Brent. “Hey, did Angela come over and pick up Kaye?”
“No,” he told me. “She’s right here. Let me ask her if she’s talked to her. Hey, babe, have you talked to Kaye today?”
I could hear Angela in the background, “No. But she commented on one of my Facebook pics of the puppies. She said she was going to come over here. Why?”
It occurred to me that I hadn’t looked around at all. “Okay, I’ll call you back later. I’ll look around a little more. Big house and all that.”
Going to the window, I checked to see if she was outside in her garden, but I didn’t see her there. Walking across the hallway, I went into our daughter’s bedroom to look out to the other side of our property. Again, I didn’t see her anywhere.
So, I began walking all over the house, shouting her name as I went into each and every room. It did occur to me that she just might be avoiding me. That’s when I thought about calling her cell to see if I could hear it ringing.
Taking my phone out, I called her. To my disappointment, it went right to voicemail. That told me she had turned her phone off, which wasn’t like her at all. She always had it on just in case the kids called for some reason.
I wondered if, in her anger, she might have blocked my number. So, I went to the kitchen to use the landline. Calling her cell, I found it again went straight to voicemail.
Something wasn’t right. I could feel it.
A little niggling suspicion started to worry me.
Has she run off with someone else?
I didn’t want to even think that way, but it was coming up in my mind anyway.
Had she been seeing someone behind my back? Was she leaving me?
Going back upstairs to our bedroom, I went into her closet. I didn’t find a single thing missing, and that made me think I was overreacting.
My imagination was working against me now. I had to rein it in before I went off the deep end.
She had to be in the house somewhere. I just had to have missed a room or something.
Snapping my fingers, I thought about a room I had purposely missed. Kaye rarely went into the media room. She’d only gone in there when the kids or I were watching television, and she had come looking for us.
I went back downstairs and into that room, flipping on the light after I opened the door.
The first thing that looked out of place was the way the coffee table was just a little askew. The door to the attached bathroom was open, and I distinctly recalled closing it the evening before.
The maids had come in that morning, and I knew they wouldn’t have left it open. I also knew they wouldn’t have left the coffee table askew the way it was.
So, had Kaye been in the media room after all? Had she left the door open and the table the way it was?
Just because it wasn’t like Kaye to go into that room didn’t mean she hadn’t. I had to admit that I didn’t feel even the least bit tipsy, but I did have that shot and the two beers. Was it possible that I was a little drunk and not thinking as clearly as I should?
Heading outside, I started calling out her name over and over as I walked all around the house. To call it a house is a bit misleading. It was a mansion, and there were tons of places she could be.
The pool room hadn’t been checked. The cabana off the flower garden was a place I hadn’t looked either. She had to be outside in one of the structures, and I just hadn’t seen her from my bird’s eye view upstairs.
But everywhere I went, I came up empty.
Our home was remote. There were no neighbors within seeing distance. No one to ask if they’d seen her or seen her leaving with anyone.
But she had to have left with someone. That was the only answer.
She wasn’t home, so she had to be with someone else, somewhere else.
I called Brent again, “I can’t find her, Brent. Her cell is going straight to voicemail. Can you get Angela to call her?”
“Angela, he can’t find her. Call her please,” Brent told his wife.
“Brent, I’m getting pretty worried here, buddy. Do your thing and convince me that she’s alright and that she’ll be home shortly,” I said with a quiet voice.
My heart was beginning to beat faster. Adrenaline pumped into my bloodstream, and when I heard Angela say that she too had been sent to Kaye’s voicemail, I lost it.
Kaye is gone!