Chapter 2
Doug and Liz were both awake at four am. Call it intuition. Call it worry.
"Awake?"
"Yeah."
"What time is it?"
"Four."
"What time did you tell her to be home?"
"You heard me tell her. Three am. An hour ago."
"I know it's an hour ago. Where is she?"
"I don't know."
Ring. Ring. Ring.
Doug grabbed the phone from the bedside table.
"Yes?"
"Mr. Westin?"
"Yes. Who's this?"
"Lieutenant Mason, Manchester police. Your daughter is at Manchester General."
"What's wrong?"
"I don't want to talk about it over the phone. Can you please just come down here?"
"We'll be right there."
Doug, Liz and Gus ran into the Emergency Department of Manchester General a half hour later.
"My daughter, where's my daughter?"
"Who's your daughter?" the clerk calmly responded.
"Ann Westin."
Looking at her list, the clerk pointed to a room two doors down on the left. Annie's agent was standing outside the door.
As they got to the door, Liz stopped and pulled Doug aside. "Gus can't go in there. We don't know what we'll find and I think it would be best if he didn't know until we knew."
Doug reluctantly agreed. "I'll keep him in the waiting room. But don't be long. I need to know what's going on."
"Okay."
Doug turned and took Gus back to the waiting area. Glancing at the blank expression of the agent, Liz took a deep breath and opened the door.