December 5th, 2016
Las Vegas, Nevada
Sarge hadn’t realized just how hungry he had gotten until the wonderful smells of the buffet hit them going up the escalator. Since it was Pickett’s turn to buy, he didn’t even bother to take off his jacket before heading to the buffet to get his omelet started.
After they all had food, the three of them talked about the chance the parties were still going on and the reasons they had gone on for so long.
“More than likely just be tradition,” Robin said. “College and high schools have a lot of strange traditions. I could see something like this going on every year from most schools. A secret party whispered about all year. Only the popular kids getting the invite and instructions.”
Sarge had to agree with that and it made the most sense. But they still needed to find the person feeding all the hotel information to the different schools. And finding safe ways into the shuttered hotels and setting the rules for each hotel. That kind of information had to come from someone local.
And someone who had access to hotel information in general. That just couldn’t be a large list of people who had been around for twenty-five or more years.
Robin said she and Will would see if they could figure out who that person might be while Sarge and Pickett interviewed a few of Heather’s old friends from the time before fake Heather.
The first woman they called to talk with after breakfast was Cinda Blessing. Cinda agreed to talk with them over a break, so they met her outside her accounting office at 10:30 in the morning. The day was growing warm enough that they could sit on the concrete steps of the building facing the traffic.
Pickett sat beside her while Sarge stood facing them both a few steps down.
Cinda was a large, round woman who dressed for her size and had an infectious laugh and almost a twinkle in her blue eyes. She clearly enjoyed life. Sarge liked her almost at once.
Robin had showed them Cinda’s picture from high school. She had been thin and trim back then.
“Why are you investigating Heather’s week-long disappearance after all these years?” Cinda asked.
Sarge smiled at her. “Just trying to tie up a few loose ends and after we do we promise to give you the entire story, if you’ll help us now.”
Cinda smiled back and said, “Sounds like a deal to me.”
“First off,” Pickett said, “please don’t mention this to Heather if you are still in contact with her.”
Cinda looked sad and shook her head. “After that week of her being gone, she was never the same. We haven’t spoken in years. But honestly, why don’t you just ask her what happened?”
“She can’t say what happened,” Pickett said, looking sad.
Sarge was impressed at how Pickett sold that with the look.
Cinda nodded and said, “Oh.”
“So do you know where she disappeared from, exactly?” Sarge asked.
“No,” Cinda said
Sarge could tell she was hedging on that answer, so he decided to give her a little help.
“Was it from one of the sex parties held at the shuttered Landmark?”
Cinda jerked, then smiled. “Yeah, the last time I saw her before she disappeared was that night in the Landmark. That place was creepy, but I have to tell you, Danny and I had some fun that night. I got pregnant that night with our first kid and Danny and I were married three months later. Our kid could never figure out why, at times, Danny and I would just call him The Tenth Floor and then laugh.”
Both Sarge and Pickett laughed along with Cinda.
“The poor darling,” Cinda said, shaking her head, “to this day he still doesn’t know what that is all about.”
“You know how often those kinds of parties are thrown?” Sarge asked.
“Only one I ever heard about,” Cinda said. “But being married and pregnant, I doubt I would have heard of others.”
“Do you know who Heather was with that night?” Pickett asked.
“Not a clue,” Cinda said. “Some guy she said was from California, a junior, and handsome and she said she would introduce me. But I never ran into her in the hotel and then I got sort of busy, if you catch my drift.”
Cinda laughed again and Sarge had no choice but to join her laugh it was so infectious.