She had a black eye, some scabs starting to peel off, and a voice light as dandelion seeds. Shook her hand, told her I was investigating a lead went bad. I also mentioned I mighta roughed up the slob what roughed her up.
Paula half-smiled through her swollen lip, but I think she woulda smiled bigger if it wouldn'ta hurt so much. She asked if she could help. I showed her Clara's picture, but it didn't ring a bell.
Metro ride back to the office couldn'ta ended soon enough. Dara locked up after she left. Soon as I got inside, I had a shot of bourbon. Tasted like failure.
Wasn't gonna sleep, so I got up and went back to Vera's. It was only 10, she was probably still working on her paper. She asked if I found anything. Kept tapping her fingers against her thigh. Even more papers scattered around their apartment, like the first set had kids. I asked if there were any other clubs they mighta gone to. She said Blue/Black and Slide were 2 places Clara loved.
I asked if she'd noticed anyone weird around Clara the last couple weeks, or if Clara mentioned anything. She said she didn't, which I expected. If they got Clara out without a struggle, they did it in about 20 minutes, too quick for drugs to knock her out. Had to be a smooth talker slob, or someone she trusted. I asked if there was anyone in there Clara had her eye on, or anyone they knew. She said a couple of guys from class were there, gave me their names and addresses. I thanked her, wished her luck with her paper.
When I looked down at the paper, I just saw some of them email addresses. Had to wait for Dara to turn em into street addresses.
Back in the office, I was kinda bored, figured I'd try to sleep a bit. 8th or 9th shot finally did it.
No comments:
Post a Comment