Week 173 – Midnight

He’d been up since midnight the day before, going on twenty-seven hours now, and he’d only gotten three hours sleep before that.

Middle of the night phone calls went with the job, in his going on nine years as a homicide detective it wasn’t the first time he’d worked more than twenty-four hours straight and it wouldn’t be the last.

Throwing back the covers he climbed into bed, but no sooner had he turned off the lights, put his head on the pillow, and closed his eyes than his phone rang.

With a groan Tyler sat back up, switched on the lamp on his nightstand and picked up his cell phone. Expecting to see his boss or his partner’s name on the screen instead he was surprised at the name that flashed up.

“Mollie, what’s up?” he asked as he answered.

“Its Macey,” Mollie sobbed, she was obviously upset and that got a ball of panic rolling in his stomach.

“What about her?” It had been six months since he and Macey had broken up, and while he had thought about her every single day he wasn’t a part of her life anymore, and he had no idea why her sister was calling him at one in the morning.

“She’s missing.”

“Missing?”

“She went on a blind date tonight and she was supposed to call me when she got home but i haven’t heard from her,” Mollie explained.

A date.

The idea of Macey on a date made his stomach churn.

“Look, Mollie, its nothing to worry about I’m sure, they probably just hit it off and went back to his place.” Tyler had to force those words out, Macey having sex with another man was a repulsive notion but it was the more likely scenario.

“She wouldn’t, you know that, Ty. Macey doesn’t have sex with men on the first date, especially not a blind date. She was going to be home by midnight and call me immediately so I knew she was okay, she wouldn’t make me worry, if she were going to spend the night with him she would have at least sent me a text. Something is wrong, I can feel it, please can you just look into it? I know the guy, he works with me, I don’t know him well but he saw a photo of Macey and he wouldn’t stop talking about her. I thought it would be good for her to start dating again but what if I set her up with some crazy serial killer?”

“Calm down, Mollie, I think thats unlikely. I’m sure you’ll hear from her in the morning. I have to go. Really, I’m sure everything will be fine,” he added because he felt bad that he was cutting her off when she was obviously worried, but he just couldn’t deal with the idea of Macey with another man. He still loved her and the more time they were apart the less he could remember why it was they had broken up in the first place.

“If anything happens to her, Tyler, I won’t ever forget that you weren’t there for her when she needed you,” Mollie screamed before hanging up.

Guilt speared him.

Not being there for her was what had broken them up last time, Mollie was scared endnote pulling her punches.

But what were the chances that she’d gone on a date with someone who had hurt her?