AS I WAS finishing up a disappointing burger, I got a call from Liz’s home number. It was her roommate. I explained who I was and why I was calling. She seemed bored and uninterested in me, the moment I said I was looking for Liz’s sister. She said she’d met the kid a couple of times, and she was apparently “a total bitch” to her. And everyone else.
I asked if Liz was around, and she said she hadn’t seen her in a couple of days, but that wasn’t so unusual since she started staying at her boyfriend’s place. The boyfriend, Devon Something, had an apartment in Waterloo, and lived closer to the university than she did.
I was just about to follow up with some more questions when another call came through. It was Liz’s number, so I thanked the roommate and hung up on her.
Liz sounded like she was somewhere busy, somewhere outside. I had a hard time hearing her, but told her I was looking for her sister. I asked if we could meet up and talk about her last movements. She called me a creep and hung up on me.
I looked at my phone and wondered what I said wrong. I paid my bill and headed out. As I was heading home, she called back.
“Sorry about earlier,” she said. “I’ve been getting some strange calls. Threatening, you know?”
“Can you describe them?”
“The usual. Weird guys, heavy breathing. You know.”
I didn’t. “Were they possibly related to your sister?”
“My sister?” There was a pause. “I don’t think so.”
“I called your roommate.”
Another pause. “Oh yeah? What did she say?”
“You were hanging out with your boyfriend lately.”
“Devon? Yeah, we got into a fight.”
“Oh, that’s too bad. What about?”
“None of your business!”
“Can we meet?”
“I’m with my friends. We’re going clubbing.”
“Clubbing? Where?”
“The Palisade.”
I knew the place. The Palisade. It’s a rave club. I’d been there a couple of times in my younger days, though I bet they still played the same old house music. Now, the club was mostly known for party drugs, date rape, and Russian gangs. I wasn’t sure why anyone still went clubbing.
As much as I didn’t want to go to a club, it seemed like the fastest, possibly the only way, to meet the sister tonight. Also, I could confront her directly and see first-hand what kind of rough crowd she and Molly hung out with. I said I’d meet her in ten minutes. She said I should manage my expectations better.
There was a lineup at the club, and by this time, it was down to the end of the block. I called her back, but she could barely hear me over the music inside. I asked if she could come out because the line was long, and there was a $20 cover charge. She told me to suck it up, so I had to find a better way inside.
I walked along the line until found my place. It had been a while since I’d done this and I was a little rusty. Then again, maybe pushing kids around was easier than it used to be. I muscled my way into the line by charming a couple of girls and intimidating a couple of boys. I asked the girls if they’d like to bypass the line. They liked the idea a lot. I told them they’d have to ditch the boys, and they seemed okay with that too. I told the boys to hold our spot and tried to look mean doing it.
At the front of the line was a huge bouncer. A big, meaty guy in a windbreaker. He looked a little harder to intimidate than a 20-year-old college kid. The bouncer seemed unfazed that I wasn’t in line. In fact, he seemed uninterested at all. But with a couple of girls on my arms, dressed in skanky outfits, he seemed a little more receptive. Once I slipped fifty bucks into his hands, he seemed even more receptive, and we got inside.
I paid another $20 cover once inside, then shooed the girls away. They were happy about that. I looked again at my phone at a photo of the sister. She said she was sitting at the bar, so I went to the main floor bar, closest to the entrance. There were four bars in the place. She was at the third one, in the mezzanine. I remembered how much I hated the place.
Music was good, though.
She was sitting alone in a crowd of ravers, and I squeezed in beside her. When she turned to me, I saw the telltale mole on her lip, and her cautious glance in the dim light.
“You’re younger than I thought,” she said.
“It’s my zest for life.” I smiled back at her. She looked down at her drink.
“I was expecting some old dude.”
“Honestly, I didn’t want to do this.”
“Why are you looking for Molly? What’s she done this time?”
When I mentioned Molly was missing, and that her mother was concerned, there was a hint of surprise, but she quickly covered it up and pretended she didn’t care.
“Your mom said the two of you still hung out occasionally.”
She shrugged and said, “Not really. She had her thing, and I had mine.”
“So, you haven’t seen her recently?”
“Maybe a couple of days ago,” she said. “She was looking for money … as usual.”
“Was money tight? She lived at home, didn’t she?”
“Drugs, probably. She was into a lot of weird stuff.”
“Like what?”
“Like drugs.”
“Okay, but did she hang out with anyone? Anyone who might have wanted to hurt her?”
“There were a couple of guys. They’d loan her money, give her oxy and vitamin K, that kind of thing. Sometimes …”
“Sometimes what?”
“Nothing. Sometimes they hit her.”
“What? Hey, that’s pretty important! Do you know their names? Or maybe where I could find them?”
“No, sorry.”
“What did they look like?”
She shrugged and finished her drink. Pretty big drink to just gulp down—unless she was finished talking to me.
“Look, I think Molly’s in trouble. I need to find her. Is there anything you can give me?”
She gave me a sidelong look and placed something on the bar in front of me. It was a key. Brass, with molded orange plastic on the bow.
“What’s it unlock?”
“Her locker. I stole it out of her purse last time I saw her. She steals from me, so I stole from her.”
“Last time you saw her? A couple of days ago?”
“Yeah, she owed me money, and I figured I could get it from her locker.”
“A school locker?”
“No, the bus terminal. She’d change her clothes there.”
I examined the key. It made sense. Her phone’s last known location was the bus terminal. Maybe I could find a clue about her travels. Or maybe find her phone.
I looked back at Liz, but she was gone. The loud music and flashing lights threw me off, and I got a little mad at myself for letting her get away.