Little Girl Gone

7

The apartment’s décor screamed college student—a hand-me-down couch, mismatched chairs and tables, and a stack of empty pizza boxes near the kitchen. There was even a leopard print beanbag chair in the corner.

Logan made sure everyone was seated before he pulled over one of the chairs from the dining table and joined them. There was no denying that he was feeling a little annoyed. Not just with Ryan and Angie, but with himself, too. He couldn’t figure out what he’d done to cause their reaction.

Putting on his best nonthreatening smile, he started off by getting the names of the other three. The girls were Maria and Joan, roommates in the apartment directly below Elyse and Angie’s place. The guy’s name was Kenny. He was Maria’s boyfriend, and lived a few miles away.

Still smiling, Logan repeated who he was and why he was there. Joan and Maria seemed to be the first to relax. Kenny was still a bit guarded, but Logan could tell he was also coming around. Angie and Ryan, though, continued to look unhappy.

“You all know Elyse?” Logan asked, focusing most of his attention on Joan, Maria and Kenny.

“Sure,” Maria said. The other two nodded beside her. “She’s a friend of ours.”

“Do you really know Elyse’s grandfather?” Angie asked, more of an accusation than a question.

“I really do.”

“What does she call him?” Joan asked. Unlike Angie, she seemed to genuinely want to hear the answer, and give him a chance.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I’ve never met her before. But back home we all call him Tooney.”

“Yes,” she said. “Grandpa Tooney.”

“You could have just guessed that,” Ryan said.

Glancing at each of them in turn, Logan said, “Look, she was supposed to visit Tooney today, but she didn’t show up. He tried calling her. She didn’t answer. So he asked me to come down and make sure everything’s okay. That’s it.”

No one said anything for a moment.

“She…she did tell me she was planning to visit her grandfather today,” Maria offered.

“When did she say that?” Logan asked.

“A day or two ago. I can’t remember exactly.”

He considered this for a moment, then said, “She told Tooney she was going to leave at ten this morning, and be at his place in the afternoon. Does anyone know if that’s when she left?”

Maria shrugged, and shook her head.

“I didn’t see her at all today,” Joan said.

Kenny was also shrugging. “I just came over this evening. Wasn’t even around this morning.”

Logan turned to Angie. “You’re her roommate. Do you know if she left this morning?”

She looked torn, like she wanted to answer and wanted to keep her mouth shut at the same time. Finally, she said, “She…she didn’t come home last night.”

“She didn’t come home?”

“It’s not that unusual.” She turned away, her gaze momentarily falling on Ryan. Logan wasn’t sure, but it seemed like some message passed between them. “Sometimes she spends the night at her boyfriend’s place. I assume that’s what she was doing, and just left from there.”

“Boyfriend?” Maria said, surprised. “When did that happen?”

Angie looked uncomfortable. “Not that long ago.”

“What’s his name?” Logan asked.

She hesitated, then said, “Aaron. Aaron Hughes.”

“Aaron?” Maria stared at Angie in disbelief. “I thought she said she wasn’t interested in him.”

“I guess she changed her mind,” Angie told her, shrugging. “I mean, we didn’t really talk about a lot of things, so I don’t know for sure.”

“Do you have his address? Maybe a phone number?”

She shook her head. “Sorry.”

“I know where he lives,” Joan offered.

Everyone looked at her.

“You know?” Maria asked.

“What?” Joan said, unable to completely hide her embarrassment. “He was hanging out around here a lot. He’s kind of cute, he asked me out, so I said yes. Not a big deal.”

Maria couldn’t hide her distaste. “You went out with him?”

“Just a couple times. You spend all your time at Kenny’s. I get bored.”

“Where does he live?” Logan asked, trying to get her back on track.

“Over in Venice Beach, right on Pacific Avenue. He’s got a little bungalow kind of thing. Tan with a flat roof. You can’t miss it. It’s about a minute’s walk north of Washington Boulevard.”

“Do you know the address?”

“Hold on.” She pulled out her phone. After a moment, she smiled and nodded. “Yeah, I guess I do.” She read it off, and Logan jotted it down in his notebook. He then asked if she had Aaron’s phone number, and she gave him that, too.

“Thanks,” he said, then turned back to Angie. “Her grandfather said she has three roommates. Where are the other two?”

“Laura and Carrie?” Angie said. “They went home for the break.”

“Thanks,” he told her, then looked at Ryan. “See how easy that was. All you had to do was be nice from the beginning, and you’d still have your pride.”

“Whatever,” Ryan replied.

“I’m sure he didn’t mean anything personal,” Maria said. “There’ve been some strange men hanging around the building lately. The guys have taken to watching out for us because of it.”

That would certainly explain why Ryan tried to shut him down so quickly. “What do you mean strange?”

“You know, they show up every once in a while, walk around a little, then just leave,” Joan said. “Kenny tried talking to them once, but they just ignored him.”

“The same guys every time?”

The two girls looked at each other, thinking, then Joan said, “There are four of them, I think.”

“Yeah, but never more than two around at the same time,” Maria added.

“That’s true,” Joan said.

“Describe them for me.”

“There was one black guy, and the rest were white,” she said.

When she didn’t add any more, Logan asked, “Age?”

“I don’t know. In their thirties, maybe.”

“Anything else? Height? Weight?”

“Around your height, I guess,” Maria told him. “And in good shape. Other than that, nothing stands out.”

Interestingly, it was pretty much the same general way he would have described the guy who’d attacked Tooney that morning. He filed that thought away for later.

Tearing a few pages out of his notebook, he gave each of them his number. “If any of you hear from Elyse, or think of something that might help me, please give me a call right away.”

He then had them each write down their number.

“Thanks,” he said as he stood up. “Sorry to have interrupted your evening.”

“Shouldn’t we call the police?” Joan asked.

Logan couldn’t miss the instant karma of having the same thing he’d said to his father and Tooney thrown back at him. “We don’t even know if there’s anything wrong yet. If there is, I’ll be the first to make the call.”