Maybe they knew exactly where she was.
Jett opened his office and pulled up the restaurant security footage.
We watched table twelve.
At first, everything looked ordinary.
Then the woman opened her purse.
She searched around inside and pulled something out.
As she withdrew her hand, a tiny object caught against the purse clasp.
The ring.
It slipped from her fingers.
Neither of them noticed.
It landed on the seat, rolled toward the wall, and disappeared into the narrow gap behind the booth.
“That’s how it got there,” Jett whispered.
Then something else happened.
The husband’s phone lit up.
He answered.
Whatever the person on
the other end said made him go completely still.
He turned the phone toward his wife.
Her hand flew to her mouth.
They stood so quickly that she knocked the chair sideways.
He grabbed her purse and coat.
Then they rushed out.
The bill was still sitting on the table.
That was when I understood.
“They weren’t running away from the check.”
Jett looked at me.
“No.”
I was already heading toward the employee lounge.
The valet working that morning hadn’t been on duty the night before, but Jett found the man who had been.
“Do you remember that couple from table twelve?” I asked.
He nodded.
“They were in a hurry.”
“Did they say where they were going?”
He thought for a moment.
“The husband told me to get their car immediately.”
Then he frowned.
“He was on the phone. I heard him say something like, ‘Call the hospital.
Tell them we’re coming.’”
Hospital.
My heart started racing.
Jett grabbed his keys.
“I’m coming with you.”
“No.”
