Clara (Three of Twenty)

Dara convinces Clara's slob super I'm Clara's uncle from out West, she's Clara's cousin, and we traveled so far, and we were just gonna wait for a while till she came back from class, and Clara said the super would be OK with it, and Dara just won't shut up, won't let anyone get a word in edgewise, until she turns her head down and flashes her eyes up and gives one of them innocent looks and finally stops rambling. Next thing you know, super's apologizing to us and unlocking Clara's apartment.

Buncha books around the coffee table and piled real neat on top of it. Only one open book, it looked like it fell off the piles, landed facedown. There's a half-smoked cig with red lipstick in her ashtray on the table and a few ashes, just a cig or 2 worth.

Some food in the fridge. Lettuce expires in 3 days. Skim milk smells fresh, grapes haven't gone bad. Lot of them healthy cereals in the cabinet that taste like twigs and berries [Trace really means just twigs and berries. I would say I'm surprised he knows what a berry tastes like, but I assume he's just guessing here. -Dara]. Don't know how she managed to stay alive eating all this rabbit food.

Hamper in the bathroom only got a few bits of mostly tiny clothing, like what she was wearing in them club pictures. She'd done laundry in the past few days. Her bedroom's pretty neat, no bedsheet, but the bed's rumpled, like someone just slept in it and didn't make the bed.

We get going to Vera's, few buildings down. Normal looking girl answers the door. Dark hair pulled back tight, chunky glasses 2 sizes too big, cashmere sweater, pajama pants. I tell her the truth, can't pussyfoot with her here. We need her trust to get some answers. Look on her face starts as confusion, melts into fear. Her mouth drops. I see a metal bar through her tongue.

She invites us in. Buncha textbooks open, loose notes everywhere. We sit on the faded grey couch, only place without paper. She says they went down to Zoo Club 2 nights ago, Monday. Clara wanted to take a break, wouldn't let Vera stay inside. They stick around a while. Some guy starts chatting Vera up. She looks back after 20, 30 minutes and Clara's gone.

Vera started getting woozy in the club, so the guy she's talking to calls a cab, sends her home. She wakes up the next morning, complete blank. Calls Clara a couple times, but Clara don't answer. Figured Clara was probably sleeping it off, or working on the paper, didn't think about it till now.

I asked her what she remembered about the guy. He lisped his words, sometimes clicked his teeth like he couldn't control his tongue. Ran his hand through his short blonde hair. Looked down at her, so probably about a head taller. Asked her a lot of questions, but didn't say much about himself.

Seemed like a team effort. Wingman distracts friend, Ace Pilot swoops in on the target. Vera mentioned Clara liked leaving clubs with random guys, which is why she wasn't too worried.

Kept getting better and better.