“It’s fine,” I replied, sitting a little straighter in my tiny chair. “What’s wrong?”
I heard my friend take a deep breath. “You remember Cyn?”
“Cynthia? Your sister? You’ve told me about her, yeah,” I replied, brows furrowing as I racked my brain for anything else Demi might have mentioned about her sibling.
“I haven’t heard from her in days,” Demi rushed out. “And I called the police, but she’s nineteen — and she used to run away when she was a teenager. And… and there’s the drug use, too. She’s been picked up for it before, you know? So, they don’t think anything’s wrong. They think she’s probably gone on some bender and she’ll turn up when she wants to turn up, but…”
“Breathe, Demi,” I said calmly, already fumbling for my bag to pull out my pad of paper and my favorite purple pen. Yeah, it was old school as hell, but it worked, especially when you were already on the phone. “You don’t think she’s on a bender, then?”
“No!” she all but shouted into the phone. I winced. “Ah, sorry, Iris. That’s what the police keep saying, but she’s been clean for six months. She even did a program in the Lead-up, and she was doing sowell. We’re closer now than we’ve been in years, you know? I’d know if she got mixed up in that shit again. She was like a different person when she was using. I would know.”
“I believe you,” I murmured. I had no idea what the relationship between Demi and Cyn was like — now or when Cyn was using drugs, for that matter — but I had no reason to think my friend was making this story up. “Did you try talking to your pack? Maybe someone knows where she’s gone?”
I could practically sense the emphasis with which Demi shook her head over the phone. “Of course I did — and they said the same stupid shit. I went to her friends first — no one had anything useful to tell me — and when I went to talk to the pack elders, they told me not to worry. Like I could do anything but worry! They’re convinced that Cyn isn’t sober anymore, and she’ll show back up when the money or the good times run out just like before.” Finally, Demi stopped, inhaling deeply. I could hear the shudder in her breath and frown.
“I believe you,” I said again, still scratching notes down furiously on my pad. Admittedly, I had no evidence that Cyn hadn’t fallen off the wagon, but I also had no evidence that she had. Until I had more information, I saw no reason to doubt Demi. She cared about her younger sister, and no one else respected that. “Is there anything else you can tell me about the disappearance?”
“No,” Demi replied, sounding dejected, “except I’m certain that Cyn wasn’t trying to disappear.”
“Okay,” I replied, closing my notepad. “How about I come meet you? Where are you right now?”
“Austin, Texas. Can you get here?”
I looked out the window, squinting at the flickering diner sign again. “It’ll take me about two days to drive down,” I said after some mental math. They’d be long days but not unbearable. After closing out my case here in Iowa, I was eager to leave the endless cornfields behind. “I’ll see you on Thursday morning, okay?”
“Okay… okay, yeah. That’s fine. Should I text you where to meet me?”
“That would be great,” I replied, looking around the room as I took mental stock of my belongings. They all fit into one bag — or they lived in my car.
“Thank you so much,” Demi gushed. “I mean, seriously. I really, really appreciate it, Iris. No one else is taking me seriously, and I just…” She cut herself off. “Anyway, thank you. I’ll let you get back to sleep. Text me when you’re in Texas, and we can plan a time.”
She bid me goodnight and hung up. I set the phone back on the table and stared at it. Missing family members were usually easy cases; more often than not, the answer was staring the caller in the face, and they just didn’t want to see it. I hoped, for Demi’s case, that there was actually some reasonable explanation for why her sister had disappeared. However, if there wasn’t, I’d at least deliver the news with much more tact than the damn police.
The thought alone made me snort.
I finally stood up, peeling the tissue away from my nose. The dried blood made me scowl. There was no way I was falling back asleep, not after that nightmare. I might as well shower before getting on the road for the next two days, so I used up every last drop of the hot water before drying off and getting dressed.
There wasn’t much to pack, so once I’d grabbed both sets of keys, I strolled to the office and deposited the room key in the dropbox before getting my car. The stale smell of fast food greeted me as soon as I opened the door and I scowled, tossing my bag in the passenger seat as I sat in the front seat, taking a few moments to find a suitable motel halfway between Nowhere, Middle America, and Austin, Texas.
Then again, a peaceful camping spot would be fine, too. I eyed the blanket and pillow in my backseat and shrugged. I could decide when I got to Kansas this afternoon. There were plenty of rest stops and Flying J’s in that state, right? No one would bat an eyelash if I crashed for the night where truckers did. I’d met some really interesting people at truck stops.
Not always for the best, but… That wasn’t uncommon in my line of work.
Plan solidified, I slid the keys into the ignition and willed my engine to turn over — smiling when my Crown Vic purred to life without a complaint. I smiled and gave the dashboard an affectionate pat. “That’s my girl,” I hummed, backing out of the parking space. She already had 300,000 miles on her. What was another thousand? “Ready to go to see Texas again?”
The engine hummed along, and I took that as an affirmative, flicking my blinker and turning onto the freeway. Sometimes I wondered how I ended up with this job, but most days… I loved the open road. I really did — and sometimes that was more than enough to keep going.
ELI
Remus’ Old Penthouse Eli’s Penthouse
Austin, Texas
Isat back on the couch, wrinkling my nose slightly as I looked around the penthouse. My half-brother, Remus, had given me the keys after he and his wife married over a year ago. I hadn’t spent much time in the United States before now, but with my father coming every few months to see his grandsons…
A sigh escaped, and I stared up at the ceiling. I still hadn’t worked out how I felt about Texas. If nothing else, it was fuckinghotin the summer. It wasn’t just hot, but there were days ranging from June through August that were unbearably humid. So humid, in fact, they were downright wet. It was like trying to swim instead of walk down the street. We had our wet days in London, but at least it would have the decency to justrainand be done with it.
There were some things to like about Texas, however. The winters were much milder. The length of the days was much more acceptable. I was enjoying the amount of space here, and even if this used to be Remus’ apartment, it still felt more like me than my room at the Archer family estate. That home had been in our family for over a century, conveniently located in the heart of London, but having one room? I still felt like a child under my father’s eye, even at the ripe age of twenty-five.