Nothing. A muscle in my jaw ticks. I try the handle. The door is unlocked. I step inside.
Her room is immaculate. The bed made, the curtains half-drawn. Like the vault, the room is empty of her presence. She isn’t here.
Where the hell are you, Jo? I think to myself.
I step back into the hallway and head downstairs, my thoughts shifting from insecurity to irritation. If she wanted space, she could have just said so. She’s not a coward. She wouldn’t just disappear. Would she?
At the bottom of the stairs, I see Betty down the corridor, pacing restlessly by the console table beneath the portrait of Joseph.
“Betty,” I say, walking toward her. “Have you seen Jo this morning?”
Her face drains of color. And that is the moment when the first real spike of fear hits me. She wrings her hands immediately, the cloth twisting between her fingers.
“Mr. Rhodes, I …”
“What’s wrong?” I ask, my voice sharp. “Where is she?”
“I saw her. But I think I’ve made a terrible mistake,” she blurts out.
The hallway feels suddenly smaller. “What mistake? Betty, what’s happened?”
I’ve known Betty for years, almost all of my adult life, and except for when Joseph died, I have never seen her like this. She isn’t a drama queen. Something is actually seriously wrong here. Tears spring to her eyes.
“I thought I was doing the right thing. I promise I did. I didn’t mean for anything bad to happen. I just … I didn’t want to lose my job …”
“Betty.” I step closer, lowering my voice deliberately. I force myself to sound calm. “You’re not in trouble, I promise. Just tell me what happened.”
She swallows hard. “Mr. Manswell, Sheldon, he called last night.”
“Sheldon?” I repeat.
“Yes. It was quite late. Past eleven o’clock certainly. He sounded …” She hesitates. “Not himself.”
“In what way?”
“He was slurring his words. He was angry. He demanded to speak to Jo.”
My jaw clenches.
“She was already in bed,” Betty continues quickly. “I told him I wouldn’t disturb her at that hour. He didn’t like that.”
“What did he say?”
Her fingers tremble. “He said … she should enjoy her early nights while she can. Because she’s about to disappear.”
The words hit me like she poured iced water down my spine. I don’t react immediately. I can’t afford to. I need the full story, and I don’t want to scare her.
“And you’re sure that’s what he said?”
“Yes.” She nods rapidly. “It didn’t make sense. I assumed he was just drunk. I mean, he was drunk. But the way he said it …” Her voice shakes. “It made my blood run cold.”
“Why didn’t you tell me this last night?”
“I didn’t want to overreact,” she whispers. “He’s said dramatic things before. And Jo had already gone to bed. I figured he would sober up and that would be the end of it.”
“Ok,” I say carefully. “What happened this morning? Where is Jo?”
Betty presses her hands together. “I saw Jo leaving. I asked her where she was going, just conversationally. She said she was going to Sheldon’s place.”