Chapter Six
JULIE
I was nervous as I walked into the Holiday Inn. I’d had to go straight from work, and honestly I was beyond tired, but oddly energised, at the thought of finally getting somewhere closer to finding my lost friend.
I stepped inside the bar, looking around for Mr Clarke. I eventually spotted him in a corner booth in the overly bright, and cheap-looking bar. It was about what I expected for a bar in a cheaper hotel. Still at least it had one.
I walked over to him, my legs feeling a little weak on the approach, one word repetitively punctuating each step. Slut, slut, slut, slut…
No. That’s not why I’m here.
“Mr Clarke?” He looked up from his glass, which contained something dark. He offered me a weak smile, and gestured at me to join him, so I slid into the booth to sit opposite him. That put the table firmly between us. See? That’s not something a slut would do.
“Thank you for suggesting we meet, Julie. Honestly I had no idea where to start. Harvey always kept in touch, and then he just stopped.”
I opened my mouth to speak, and he suddenly sighed.
“I swear I’m a better host than this. Let me get you a drink. What do you want?” Oh. Of course. Hotel bar. No table service. I asked for a white wine, and he headed over to the bar to buy it. It felt weird letting him buy me a drink, but he seemed to want to. Some men still held to the gentleman etiquette in life. Maybe that was part of the reason why I preferred men older than my generation. They knew how to treat a lady.
Ha… you’re hardly a lady. Sluts don’t get to be treated like a lady. They spread their legs, and let men use them.
“Here we go. Sorry about that, Julie. My mind isn’t at its best.”
I thanked him for the glass of wine, and waited for him to sit down again.
“So the police aren’t getting anywhere?” I asked him, watching his face darken, as reality hit him again.
“Harvey just disappeared off the face of the earth. Apparently he met with the fire inspector, and police, when the shop was burned down. That’s something at least. They just have no idea where he went from there. When I spoke to his best friend, she said that he’d taken a break, and that she thought he was coming to me. That was a few weeks ago. I’ve tried her a few times since, but not been able to reach her. Short of that, I don’t have anyone to ask.”
I sipped my wine, letting out a little sigh of relief. I was finally relaxing.
“That’s so sad, but I’m the same with Cassidy. She didn’t… uh… doesn’t have family, so there’s literally nobody looking for her but me. Even her so-called best friends are kind of disinterested. Or maybe it’s just that they don’t see why I’m the one trying so hard to find her. Harvey was the only one who tried to help me. He seemed nice.”
Mr Clarke sighed. “He’s a good lad. He’s all I have. I mean, his mum died years ago, and it’s just been us for so long. And now suddenly he’s just nowhere to be found.”
It was a bizarre coincidence that he went missing so soon after Cassidy. I’d give anything to pick her brain about this. She always knew what to do.
“You mentioned Lenore somebody. Is there any other way to find her? Maybe her phone is playing up?”
Mr Clarke shrugged. “I have her mobile number, but my ability to find someone is pretty much limited to having their contact information. You know, the weird thing is… the man who stopped to help me, when you left. He said he’s a private investigator. He offered to help.”
I frowned. “Just out of the blue, he appeared? Sounds a bit suspicious, doesn’t it?” He nodded.
“Exactly! I pretty much told him to get lost, but now I’m wondering. Would it be worth at least speaking to him, to see if he can get us on the right track. Maybe we don’t need to commit to anything too costly.”
I chewed at the inside of my cheek. “I mean, I have some money, but probably not enough to pay some guy to look for Cassidy. I wish that I did.”
He waved a hand in the air. “Don’t be silly. I don’t mean that I’m expecting you to pay. I can see what he can do about Harvey, and then, like you said, hopefully it’ll lead us to your friend too.”
**********
ADAM
I finished my beer, and sat back at my desk. What a monumentally wasted fucking day. So far all I’d achieved was pissing off the Bennetts, which could cost me my life. Pissing off Marco, which could cost me my life. Fucking up, in the first damn stage of the job the Bennetts demanded of me, which could risk my life. Oh… and I had no bloody updates for Samuel, which apparently… could risk my life. How the hell did I get caught up with these unsavoury types?
When my phone rang on the desk, I felt a wave of dread. It was going to be the Bennetts, wondering why the hell I hadn’t been in touch yet. I took a breath, wishing I had a full beer, and I answered it.
“Is this Adam Teller?” The man asked. He sounded way too refined to be a Bennett. And it definitely wasn’t Marco. Good start.