Dark Rites

Vickie laughed. “Yes, thank you. That would be terrific.”

“And you, miss?” the cashier asked Devin. “Are you together? Same check?”

“Coffee with a little cream,” Devin said. “And yes, we’re together. We’re actually looking for someone.” She nodded at Vickie to go ahead.

“A waitress who works here later—night shift, I believe. She’s very pretty and has dark hair. She’s about five feet six inches. Nice, polite, very efficient,” Vickie said.

“Audrey Benson,” the girl behind the cash register said. “I’m afraid she doesn’t come on until about two in the afternoon. She works the late shift.”

“It’s really important that we speak with her. We don’t want you doing anything that wouldn’t be right, but if you could call her...?” Vickie suggested.

“It’s a little busy!” the girl whispered to her.

“Is there a manager on?” Devin asked.

“You’re looking at her. And I am really sorry, but—”

Devin reached into her shoulder bag and produced her badge.

“It’s really important,” she said.

“Can you give me ten minutes and let us catch up with the rush? Then I’ll be right with you.”

“Of course,” Vickie and Devin said in unison.

They headed to the end of the bar and waited for their drinks.

A young man brought their coffees to the end of the counter. “Hey,” he said to Vickie. “I know you ordered at the counter, but you look as if you’d like to sit. Please, right over there. My table, and I don’t mind. We see you here all the time.”

“Thanks,” Vickie said. “Sure. And...really? I’m here that often?”

He laughed. “Yep—you and your friend. Alex. Well, Professor Maple to me!”

“You know Alex?”

“I have a class with him.”

Vickie studied the man speaking to her. He was, she thought, in his midtwenties, maybe even as young as twenty-one or twenty-two. He was lean and about six feet even with close-cropped black hair and warm brown eyes.

“Political science major—working my way through school,” he told them. He offered them his hand. “My name is Manny,” he told them.

Vickie introduced herself and then Devin, adding, “Devin is actually Special Agent Lyle. She’s with the FBI. We’re looking for Alex.”

“Oh?” Manny asked. “Well. He missed a class this morning. I know because a friend of mind dropped by about an hour ago to say that he was cutting class because there wasn’t a class. But I didn’t know that Professor Maple was missing. He was in here Saturday night.”

“You were working Saturday night?” Vickie asked him. “You work days and nights?”

Manny nodded. “I work whatever shift I can each week. I have some scholarship money, but college—especially this college!—isn’t cheap.”

“Good for you. And us,” Devin murmured, glancing at Vickie. “So, did you see Alex do anything out of the ordinary on Saturday night? I realize that’s probably not an easy question—hard to tell what is usual or ordinary for someone else!—but it does sound as if you somewhat know Alex.”

“Saturday was a big night. We had the music duo, the Dearborn sister and brother, Cathy and Ron.”

“A lot of people came to see the show? To stay?” Devin asked.

“Yes.”

“Did Alex speak with anyone? Did he come in with anyone? Did anyone seem to be bothering him? Did he...did he look okay?” Vickie pursued anxiously.

“Come to think of it, he was a little off. Friendly as ever—the professor is a great guy!—but he started to seem a little out of it. As if we were serving booze instead of coffee,” Manny told them.

Vickie glanced at Devin anxiously.

Could that mean something? she asked with her look.

Devin gave her a barely perceptible shrug. Maybe.

“Did you see him when he left?” Devin asked.

“No,” Manny said. “I was running around like crazy, and I wasn’t Alex’s server on Saturday night. Audrey had his table—Audrey Benson.”

“So we heard. We’re just waiting on the manager to help us get in contact with her,” Vickie said. “You don’t happen to have her number or a way to reach her, do you?”

To her surprise, he smiled. “Sure. And she’s a good kid. She’ll be happy to help you.”

He pulled out his phone and dialed, smiling at them, happy to be of assistance.

But after a moment, he began to frown as he listened to a recorded voice on the phone.

“Um, well, I thought I could help you,” he said. “Her number is no longer in service at the moment. I think it was some kind of a prepaid cell phone. Odd. Though, not so odd. Lots of college kids can’t afford the plans where you pay the big guys on a plan every month.”

“Do you know where she lives?” Devin asked.

“I’m afraid not. She said that she was somewhere near the aquarium, though. She hasn’t worked here that long. We just exchanged phone numbers in case we had to cover for one another somewhere along the line. I like her—she’s always very cheerful,” he told them earnestly.

The cashier/manager walked over to them, sighing as she smoothed her hands down over her apron. “What is going on? How can I help you? I’m Susan. Acting manager now, but I suppose I should call our overall manager. I mean, we really want to help, but I don’t know anything about privacy laws and all that.”

“Manny here just tried Audrey on the number that he has for her. Perhaps you could just call her and ask her if she minds talking to us. This is an official missing-person case,” Devin said pleasantly, but with an impressive authority Vickie definitely admired.

“Oh, yes! Of course!” Susan said.

She waved a hand in the air. “Thank you, Manny,” she said, as if she’d realized that, at the moment, she was the queen of the situation and he’d been a retainer to handle things in her wake. Manny grinned good-naturedly and turned to start wiping down a table.

Susan continued to a little office in the back. She indicated that Vickie and Devin should follow her. She walked around behind a desk and opened a computer, punched in a few keys and found a phone number. The office had a landline and she used it to call Audrey Benson.

But her expression was much as Manny’s had been; she had evidently called the same number that Manny had in his phone, and received the same response.

“Well, the phone is disconnected,” she murmured.