Page 11 of Forbidden Whispers
Chapter 5
The printer in Maggie’s apartment spat out the final page of Valentina Romano’s interview results. Maggie lifted out the stack of paper and began scanning pages for any potential information that might serve as a clue to Valentina’s whereabouts. Seconds later, her phone buzzed.
She glanced at the screen and smiled at the name lighting it up.
“Hey, girlfriend,” she said, answering it. “I’ve got you on speakerphone.”
“Why? Is my dad there?” The voice of her best friend since elementary school, Jaime, filled the room.
“No, he doesn’t normally work on Saturdays.”
When Maggie had officially started her matchmaking service a couple of years ago, Jaime had begged Maggie to hire her father, George Fairfax. Not that the reserved gentleman had any real knowledge of or interest in the matchmaking business, but he’d been floundering with what to do with his life after losing Jaime’s mom to heart disease. As a retired corporate executive, his business acumen and financial knowledge had been a huge help to Maggie as he took on the role of her company’s business manager. There was also the added bonus that for now, he was willing to work without pay.
“You’d better not be working either, missy,” Jaime said in her best mom voice, making Maggie smile. “I was calling to see if you wanted to meet for lunch. I need a break from your precious, little namesake here, so Jack is going to watch her for a few hours.”
Jaime was referring to one-year-old Emma, Jaime and her husband Jack’s little girl.
Maggie laughed. “Since my name is Maggie, I’m not sure if Emma qualifies as my namesake.”
“You have and always will be an ‘Emma’ to me!” Jaime said, referring to Maggie’s college nickname. It was based on the title character of the popular Jane Austen novel who fancied herself a matchmaker. Although, Maggie had found much greater success than Jane Austen’s quirky character ever did.
Jaime and Jack Knightly had been one of Maggie’s best success stories. Jack was a well-established nerd who hadn’t even had a dream of a chance with her gorgeous blond friend. Until Maggie that is. Maggie had seen the relationship potential when they were all in college together, and she’d used her skills to successfully connect the two of them.
Maggie sighed. “I’d really love to meet you, my friend, but I can’t. I’ve got a crisis on my hands.”
“What crisis?”
Maggie proceeded to tell Jaime about everything that had happened that morning.
“No way!” Jaime cried. “That all sounds more like one of my true crime podcasts than real life. And are you talking about the Noah Riley? Like your super-secret crush from high school, Noah Riley? As in the ‘he’s so hot, but he doesn’t think of me that way’ Noah Riley?”
“Cut it out!” Even though Maggie was alone in her apartment, she felt her face redden. “And yes, that Noah.”
“What are you going to do?”
“We’ve got to find her, Jaime. I’m freaking out! You know I can’t afford any more bad press. It’s been hard enough getting my business off the ground while battling against those random bad social media reviews that keep popping up.”