The Heart Has Reasons by Martine Marchand

thinking.”  He whipped his cell phone out of his pocket
and speed-dialed the salon.  Sherry answered on the fourth ring. 
“Has Larissa shown up yet?”
    “No,
and she ain’t called, neither.”
    “Shit.”
    “Are
you at her house?”
    “Her
neighbor let me in.  There’s no sign of her.”
    “Is
her car there?”
    “Yes.”
    “You
oughta call the police.”
    “I’m
doing that now.  Call me immediately if you hear from her.” 
He hit END without waiting for a response, then hit the speed-dial number for
the Charleston PD.
    Twenty
interminable minutes later, one uniformed officer arrived.  Brendon
quickly explained the situation and, at the officer’s request, gave him a tour
of the house.  They finished in the kitchen where Yumiko stood off to the
side, looking frightened.  He frowned at the glass pitcher and wineglass
standing upside down on the dish drainer beside the sink.  It was unlike
Larissa not to have dried them and put them away.
    The
officer eyed him curiously.  “She your girlfriend?”
    “Friend. 
She works at my salon.”
    “Maybe
she’s shacked up somewhere with a boyfriend.”
    “Larissa
doesn’t have a boyfriend, and she also doesn’t ‘shack up’.”
    The
officer raised his hands placatingly.  “I meant no offence.  I’m just
saying that maybe she has a new man that you’re unaware of.”
    “There
is no ‘new man’.”
    “How
can you be so sure?”
    “She
tells me everything.  If she’d met a new man, I’d know.”  His voice
rose in frustration.  “And in any case, if she weren’t coming to work she
would have called!”
    “Sir,
please stay calm.  Where’s her purse?”
    Brendon
blinked at the sudden change of topic.  “Her purse?” he parroted, looking
around the kitchen as if expecting to see it laying somewhere.  “I don’t
know.”
    They
made another tour of the house.  Unable to locate it, the officer said,
“Women always take their purses with them.  Maybe there was a family
emergency.  Someone picked her up and, in all the ensuing turmoil, she
simply forgot to call.”
    Yumiko
spoke up for the first time.  “Larissa no have family.  She all
alone.”
    “I
assume y’all’ve tried her cell.”
    “Only
about a thousand times.  It goes straight to voice mail.”
    “I
meant since y’all been here in the house.”
    Well,
shit.  Brendon whipped out his own phone and speed-dialed Larissa’s
number.  A moment later, her distinctive, albeit muffled, ringtone sounded
from right there in the kitchen.  They tracked it to a drawer next to the
sink, where Larissa’s phone lay under a stack of neatly folded dishtowels. 
More troubling were the two guns lying next to it.  The ringing stopped
abruptly as he disconnected and turned to the officer.  “Larissa might
inadvertently leave home without her phone, but she never forgets her
gun.”
    “She
got a concealed-carry permit?”
    “Of
course she does.  She’s not the sort to break the law.”
    “Glad
to hear it.”  The officer adjusted the wide leather duty belt, weighted
down with holstered sidearm, extra ammo, several pairs of handcuffs, pepper
spray, and collapsible steel baton.  “I understand that y’all are worried,
but failing to show up for work doesn’t automatically make her a missing
person.  At this point, there’s nothing we can do ‘cause she’s not
considered at risk.”
    Brendon
struggled to keep his temper in check.  “What exactly qualifies as ‘at
risk’?”
    “That
would be someone under fourteen, mentally handicapped, or a possible crime
victim.”
    “She’s
been having problems with an ex-boyfriend.  He’s sort of been stalking
her.”
    “What
does ‘sort of’ mean?”
    “She’s
repeatedly told him she wants nothing more to do with him, but he keeps calling
and coming around.”
    “Has
he ever assaulted her?”  Brendon shook his head.  “Has she filed an
E.P.O. against him?”
    “She
was considering doing so.”
    Yumiko
said to