Authors: Jesse Abundis
She was hesitant to say anything for a second. “I do remember seeing the girl.” One of her female friends grasp her arm, telling her to stay back, but the young worker just said calmly. “ It'll be ok.”
Karen gestured the girl to come forward. “Can we have a moment alone?” she asked the owner.
“Yeah, sure thing, boss.” Mr. Santos snapped his fingers at his crew. “ Let’s head out the parking, to have a smoke.” They followed, complaining on their way out. Asking if they would get paid for showing up to this meeting. “ You fucking lucky I pays you at all, chico.”
Karen waited until they were gone to continue asking questions. “Let’s have a seat.” The three moved over to a nearby table. The female worker looked no older than nineteen, no doubt too young to be working with the nightclub. But she was eye candy, which meant more customers for the establishment. “ What’s your name?” Karen asked.
“Brittany.” She mumbled.
“Relax, kid. You’ve got nothing to fear from us, we’re not the cops.” Peewee could see the uneasiness in her face, she was scared they would ask her age and use that as a card on the table. “ Just tell us what you saw.”
Brittany took a deep breath before answering. “ It was around midnight, I saw her dancing with this guy, they were getting hot and heavy on the dance floor. It was, sensual.” She blushed a bit.
“ That’s what caught your eye in the first place?” Karen smiled, she missed being young and pure. Though at her age, Karen had lost her purity ages ago.
“ Yeah.” She giggled nervously, she played with the edge of her flower skirt, twisting it back and forth, being interrogated was a first, she had no clue what to expect.
“ How did this guy look like?” Peewee took out a small notebook from his pocket to make notes.
“ He was tall.” She said.
“ Can you tell me how tall, like six feet?” Karen nodded at the girl to answer Peewee’s question.
“ He might have been, I think he was like six-four.” She nervously scratched her leg, her voice began to prattle. “ He also had long hair.” She scratched her forehead, trying her best to dig the memory from her mind.
“ Did you see him face to face?” Karen asked.
“ I passed him by twice, but each time his hair covered his face.” She shook her head. “ I should have said something, I know, but they told me not to, I can‘t lose this job.”
Karen held her hand. “ Relax, we’ve all been there. It’s ok, you’re not in trouble.”
“ Do you remember the detective name who came to question the staff?” Peewee’s voice was soft and comforting, he didn’t want this girl to feel she had cost someone’s life, no one deserved to carry that weight on their shoulder.
“ He looked mean, small, but built..” Brittany shivered
“ Harkness.” Both Karen and Peewee said, they knew the man, they knew his face, he could be a rabid dog when he wanted to be. Jamie had once been chased by the detective himself down the streets after snapping a photo of a crime scene. Her long legs were able to out run the detective in the four block race they had.
Karen placed her hand on her shoulder, to keep her calm. “Yeah, he’s a bit of an asshole.”
The young girl laughed. “He looked like one.”
“Is there a chance any of the other staff got a good look at him? “ Peewee knew it was a reach, but this could be the golden opportunity to have a visual description on their man.
“No, they were all busy handling other customers. I’m the only one that saw her on that night.” She looked at them. “You don’t think she’s dead?”
Karen jumped quickly to answer. “No, there’s a good chance she‘s just doing this to give her family a scare.” It was a lie, but a lie to ease Brittany's mind. “You know, the whole melodrama.”
“ Good,” She blew a sigh of relief. “ is there any more questions you guys want to ask?”
“ No, we’re done.” Karen borrow Peewee’s notebook, ripped a clean page, and wrote both their numbers on the paper. “ I want you to have this,” She handed Brittany the piece of paper. “ It’s our cell numbers, in case you remember anything, don’t hesitate to give us a call any time of day or night.”
“ Can I call you if I’m lonely.” She winked at Karen.
Karen just rubbed her chin. “ I can never say no, to a pretty gal like yourself. But, seriously, don’t hesitate to call us if you remember anything new.”
“ I will.” She reassured them.
“ That’s my cell at the bottom in case, you know, you want to chat or whatever.” Peewee said to her, but was completely blown off, which added more bruises to his already battered ego. “ Let’s get going.” He told Karen, grabbing his notebook feeling like the third wheel in this girl on girl sex fantasy, kinda like the guy in a porno, you don’t want to see him, you really don’t need to, the girls are all anyone needs. “ We got a lot of busy things to do.”
They informed the owner that they were through with the investigation and thanked him for his cooperation. “ We’re just glad we could help.”
“ There's a bouncer here...” Peewee wanted to get to the bottom of that issue.
“ We're done.” Karen yanked him out the front door.
“ The girl was all over me,” Peewee fixed his clip on tie as they walked down the street. “ I’m telling you it’s the suit.”
It didn’t take a genius to know he was full of crap, but Karen was willing to humor him. “ I saw that, made me so jealous. ”
“ I know, I saw that, I didn’t want to say anything, but I just knew it. I could see it in your eyes.” They reached the car. Peewee rubbed the hood, a sign to show his baby that he had return to her. “ But, that’s beside the point. What do you think of the description?”
“ It’s not a lot to go on, but, it proves our charming man was at the crime scene.” Karen didn’t want to use those words, she hoped the girls were alive and well. “ A note from Lisa Donner didn‘t come down the wire until the pressure was poured on, I’m guessing we’ll see the same here.”
“ What the hell does he do with them.” Peewee was frustrated, the more he tried to figure out the why the more walls he seemed to hit, it was wearing on him. “ I just need to know…” His cell vibrated in his pocket, taking the words out of his mouth.
“ Who is it?” Karen asked as he dug into his pocket to pull it out.
“ It’s Maggie, she wants to meet.”
“ I’ve been meaning to ask does Maggie live here or just flies over for a visit?” Karen wondered, seeing how Peewee had been very hushed in the whole background of his relationship.
“ She moved to N.Y recently, has a small apartment close to Harlem. She’s working at a diner to pay for the rent.”
“ Husband’s not in favor in her living here?” Karen knew the answer to the question already.
“ He’s hoping to cut Maggie off and get her back to L.A. It’s a really fucked up situation. You mind if we head over to her place?” Peewee looked at his cell again viewing the message left by Maggie,
“ Have you found her?”
Karen wasn’t going to say no, she knew Peewee had formed a bond with this woman, it’s the only reason he was going out of his way to solve this case. “ Yeah, of course. I want to ask Maggie some questions too.”
Chapter 23
Where has my daughter gone?
The old dying mustang pulled up to the apartment complex which Maggie Donner was living in, it was a run down graffiti riddled cesspool. The homeless slept on the sidewalks with their make shifted homes and tents, the effect of the economic boom of the nation, the new poor of this generation, thirty and homeless with no where to live but the streets. “ The lengths a mother will go to find her daughter.” Peewee told Karen, staring at the apartment with heartbreak, knowing each visit ended the same, Maggie in tears, pleading for him to find Lisa , just to end the suffering that would drown her each night, Causing her to wake up from her nightmare and run to the phone, hoping her daughter would call as she always did each morning before work.
“ Okay, well, we better head up.” His voice was firm, but his will was weak, here he was with no further progress, just a bucket of false hope to ease her burden.
They exited the car and made their way inside. A few homeless folks slept in the hallways, in the stairwell was a woman tying herself off, ready to inject heroin into her veins. She eyed them from head to toe, wondering if they were cops. “ Best leave me alone, bitch, you ain’t better than me !” She screamed at them as they passed her by. “ You fucking assholes, you better keep walking.” They did nothing to set her off, it was just the natural instinct, a tick, when you were broken and defeated, everyone seemed like an enemy to you, mocking you and judging you with their eyes, pointing out the fall from grace you knew you had become. “ You don’t know my story, you don’t know the life I’ve lived.” Truth.
They reached Maggie’s apartment, before they could knock the door was pulled opened. “Peewee, you came!” Maggie cradled her cell phone in her hands. “ Come in, who is she?” She was taken back by Karen‘s tattooed arms.
“ She’s my associate. Karen, this is Maggie, Maggie this is Karen.” He introduced one another.
Karen had seen the photos of Maggie, she had long blonde hair, a face that never seem to age. That drastically changed with the months. She could tell Maggie wasn’t getting any sleep, the bags and dark circles under her eyes were proof of that. She even had lost a few pounds, her face was much thinner from past photos. The clothes she wore seem to almost barely cling on her. She wore a stain pink shirt, and baggy sweat pants. “ Come in, come in.” She opened the door, inviting them to make themselves at home. The entire apartment was a pigsty, It was litter with garbage and old news papers, insects crawled at the corner of the living room, and the stench of old food roamed in the air. Karen could see the deteriorating of Maggie Donner mind over her missing daughter. The old photos of Lisa as a child were littered around the house, Maggie was clinging on to the past, unable to come to terms with a future without her only daughter. Karen wondered if any news they brought would ease this woman's already cracked psyche.
Both Peewee and Karen took a seat on a couple of boxes as Maggie sat on a wooden creaky chair. “ How’s everything, Mag?” Peewee spoke to her as an old friend.
“ Everything is fine,” She glanced constantly at the cell phone in her hand. “ just been working, trying to pay the bills.”
“ Do you need any money?” He asked her.
“ No, I’m doing fine, hon.” Peewee had loaned Maggie some money the last time he was here, she felt bad for not being able to pay him back. Her husband was the bread winner, but he refused for his wife to carry on the search. He like the others, thought Lisa had ran away out of her own free will.
“You just didn’t allow her to live her own life, you always kept hovering over her, why do you think she moved to New York, to escape you!”
Maggie flinched in the seat, as her husband words replayed in her head, it was on the night he tossed away Lisa’s clothes in the fireplace, “
She’s not coming back, so stop all this right now!”
No matter how hard she cried, he was willing to accept his daughter was never coming back, so he destroyed every last thing that used to be her.
“ I would offer you something to eat, but, I haven’t had time to head to the grocery store.” Maggie bit on her finger nails.
“ It’s alright, you texted me.” Peewee tried to keep Maggie focused. “ I’m guessing you wanted to know about the case?”
“ Do you know where she is?” Her voice was mixed with anticipation and fear.
“ Maggie, we think whatever happened to Lisa, is happening to other women as well.” Peewee cleared his throat.
“ Are you saying someone’s taking other girls, like my Lisa?” Karen could see it in the eyes of the poor woman, nothing was really sinking in, her mind just seem to wander back to her old life. “ I wonder if this phone works.” Maggie stared at the cell in her hand, losing focus on what was in front of her.
Peewee carried on. “ Another girl, went missing, her name was Janet Morales.”
Karen interrupted Peewee to ask her own question, something that would keep Maggie Donner with them. “ How would you describe your daughter, Mrs. Donner?”
Peewee looked over to Karen. “ What are you doing?” She never answered.
“ She was a sweet girl,” Maggie began to smile. “ everyone loved her, she could make you laugh, she would just love you with open arms.”
“ How was Lisa’s past relationships?”