CHAPTER 37

My apartment is cramped, hot, and lonely. I guess it’s always been this way, I just never noticed it like I do now. I turn the thermostat to its normal I’m home setting. After staying at Moon’s, the heat is unbearable within an hour.

I check through my messages, glad that the cell phone from my car was waiting in the rental. Three missed calls from Terry, one from Brenda, and one from my dad. Crap. I forgot about calling my mother. I make the call. My mother is a wonderful person, but she has her moments. This is one of them. She talks my ear off for an hour while I swelter. I finally tell her I have other calls to make and need to get to work. She disapproves of my job and doesn’t ask specifics. She disapproved of law enforcement too. I’ve come to terms with it, and maybe one day my mother will realize that a boring eight to five job is not my thing.

I call Brenda next.

“Hey, girl, you had us worried,” she says as soon as I identify myself. “Terry was planning to call in a missing