Little Girl Gone - By Battles, Brett Page 0,27
not to let his sense of relief show as he said, “Logan Harper. You’re a friend of Elyse Myat’s, right?”
She looked at him, warily. “Yeah.”
“I’m a friend of her grandfather. Tooney.”
She continued to stare. “So?”
“Can I ask you a few questions?”
“It’s almost time for me to go to work. What kind of questions?”
“Well, Tooney’s concerned about her. She was supposed to visit him yesterday, but she didn’t show up. And now we can’t find her anywhere.”
The suspicion on her face immediately turned into concern. “Are you serious?”
Logan nodded. “When was the last time you talked to her?”
She looked away in thought. “The night before last. Yesterday she was supposed to go up to…” She looked at Logan again, testing him.
“Cambria,” he said. “To visit her grandfather.”
“Yes.”
“She didn’t make it.”
“Oh, God. Did you check the hospitals? Maybe she was in an accident.”
“We checked. No accident,” he said. “Could I come in for a minute? Might be easier than talking out here.”
She hesitated only a second, then nodded, and moved to the side so he could enter.
Unlike Ryan’s apartment, Lara’s place was furnished in a much more finished, post-college style—real paintings on the walls, furniture that didn’t look twenty years old, and no smell of stale pizza.
As soon as they were seated in the living room, he asked, “What was her mood like when you last talked?”
“Mood? Uh, fine, I think,” she said. “She was looking forward to getting out of town.”
“Any clue that she might have been thinking about going some place else?”
“Not that I can remember.”
“Any problems with her boyfriend?”
“Boyfriend?”
“Aaron Hughes.”
She snorted a laugh. “Aaron’s not her boyfriend. Who told you that?”
“Angie.”
Her laugh this time was even louder than the first. “I don’t think Elyse would ever talk to Angie about her love life. She and Aaron went out once, I think, but that was it. She thinks he’s kind of odd, and not in a good, Jesse Eisenberg kind of way. Elyse does sometimes spend the night here. Maybe that’s what Angie was thinking.”
That pretty much confirmed what Logan already suspected. Aaron was not Elyse’s boyfriend, and Angie was not trustworthy. “How long have you known Elyse?”
“Three years this coming summer. We started school together.”
He looked around the room. “You live here alone?”
“Why?” she asked, her guard coming back up.
“Sorry,” Logan said quickly. “Just curious. That’s all. You don’t have to tell me.”
She allowed herself to relax a little. “My sister. We share this place. She’s a CPA.”
He smiled. “I was wondering how you could afford to furnish your place like this on a student salary. It’s certainly nothing like Ryan’s apartment.”
She gave him an odd look. “Ryan?”
“Elyse’s neighbor?” he said. “That’s where Angie was when I went by last night.”
She shook her head and shrugged. “I guess I’ve never met him, but we don’t really hang out much over there. Not since Angie showed up, anyway.”
“How long has she been there?”
“She moved in over winter break. Three months now, I guess.”
Only three months?
“Thanks,” he said, feeling the sudden need to have his talk with Angie as soon as possible. “I appreciate you giving me a little time.”
“Hold on,” she said as he started to rise. “You haven’t told me what’s going on. Is she really missing?”
He tried to sound reassuring. “I think her grandfather’s probably being a little over cautious. I’ll bet it turns out she decided to go someplace like Vegas or San Diego on a whim.”
Lara looked less than convinced, but she didn’t argue the point.
Logan wrote his number on a page from his notebook, and gave it to her. “Please call me if you hear from her.”
“Can I use your pen?”
He handed it to her.
She tore the page in half and wrote her info on the blank piece, handing it back to him when she was done. “And you call me if you hear from her.”
“I will,” he promised. “One last thing. I understand that Elyse had another friend, a guy named Anthony? Do you know who that is?”
“Sure. Anthony Hudson. We’re all friends.” She was quiet for a moment, then her eyes brightened. “Hey, they were supposed to have dinner the night before last. He would have seen her.”
“Do you know where I can find him?”
“His apartment’s maybe a half mile from Elyse’s.”
He gave her back the piece of paper, and she added Anthony’s address and cell number to it.
“Thanks, again,” he said.
• • •
Logan found a parking spot almost directly in front of Angie and Elyse’s building, then ran into the courtyard and