Lisa smiled. “Don’t go too far,” she murmured out of habit. A breeze rustled the trees. Lisa turned back to grab her phone from the table, just to check the time. And then… silence. No meow. No skittering pawsteps across the patio. No jingling from the little bell Lisa had tied loosely around Nina’s collar.
Just the wind moving lazily through the branches. She frowned and stepped forward. “Nina?” No answer. She walked to the edge of the grass. The yard sloped gently toward a thin line of bushes that separated her property from the neighbor’s untended lot. “Nina!” she called again, louder this time. Still nothing. Lisa crouched. “Sweetheart?”