“Let me get a notebook. Then I want you to tell me what’s upset you so much.”
The chair creaked as the woman settled into it. Rolls of flesh spilled over the wooden frame, but Jane didn’t care about her excess weight. She’d once been heavy herself. Maybe not quite to this degree, but definitely frumpy. If not for the counseling, daily workout sessions and self-defense classes that’d become her routine-all a product in one way or another of her friendship with Skye-she’d probably still be the disillusioned, overweight, hard-edged smoker she’d been four years ago.
Now she ran an hour a day, weighed a trim one hundred and ten pounds, and had stopped trying to kill herself with cigarettes. Only her smoker’s voice remained. And the scars from that period of her life, of course. They’d never go away entirely-especially the ones on the inside.
“I’m here ’bout my two sisters,” Gloria said. “They went missin’ three weeks ago.”
“Three weeks ago?” Jane echoed, unable to hide her shock.
Tears welled up again. “Three weeks ago las’ Saturday.”
It was Monday morning. That added another day, almost two.
“Why haven’t I heard about this?”
“I don’t know. There were articles in the paper. I reported it to the police the same afternoon it happened,” she said, “but the detective who called me ain’t found nothin’ yet. He’s been tryin’, but…no one’s got any idea where my sisters are an’…I’m so scared. That’s why I’m here. I have to do somethin’ more. I can’t jus’ sit around an’ wait. I’m all they have. I’m all they ever had.”
“Where’re your parents?”
“We have different fathers, but none of ’em are any good,” she said. “Our mother didn’t hang with the best crowd, you hear what I’m sayin’? She died of a drug overdose when I was twenty-three. I was the oldest and had my own place, so I moved my sisters in with me. Latisha, the youngest, wasn’t even in high school yet.”
Jane could easily identify with being raised by another member of the family. Her parents had been killed in a car accident when she was six, leaving her to be raised by an aging aunt who’d stayed single her entire life and had since died, as well. “Where do you live?”
“In a one-bedroom apartment on Marconi. We been there since they came to live with me. It’s a small place, but we make it work. I won’t uproot ’em again and again and again, like what my mama did to me.”
“It’s wonderful that you’ve been able to provide some stability,” Jane said. “How long ago did you assume responsibility for them?”
“It’s been ’bout three years now. They eighteen and seventeen. They both graduated this last June,” she stated proudly. “Marcie got her GED, but Latisha, she was put up a grade on account of she’s so smart. She graduated with honors and won a scholarship to Sac State.”
So the missing sisters were, for the most part, adults. That was probably why this case hadn’t become a major focus for the media. That and the fact that there’d been nothing more to report. “Did you have an argument with them? Try to punish them? Anything that might’ve made them angry enough to leave?”
“We argue all the time, but that ain’t what’s wrong, Ms.-”
“Jane. You can call me Jane.”
“They ain’t never left before. They know I yell ’cause I want ’em to be more and have more than our mother. They gotta go to college. They keep tryin’ to drop out so they can help me keep a roof over our heads. It’s tough to earn a livin’ workin’ at a convenience store. I put in a good sixty, seventy hours a week. But I got Marcie’s tuition at ARC to pay for, in addition to all the other bills. They’re what make it worth doin’-knowin’ they’ll have a better life if I keep goin’. I can’t lose ’em.” More tears streaked her bronze cheeks. “We been through too much. It can’t end like this.”
Already Jane feared she might be in over her head. Be careful what you wish for, she silently chided herself. She’d been bugging Skye to let her start taking on her own cases, and Skye kept saying she wasn’t ready. But if she didn’t get involved now, Gloria would have to wait for Skye and Ava to return. Depending on what happened in South America, that could take a week to ten days, maybe longer. With the economy the way it was, donations were down by a significant margin. Skye and Ava needed to finish this job in order to keep the charity’s doors open. That was the only reason Skye’s husband had agreed to her going so far away. He was the one who’d insisted Ava go with her, since he couldn’t take the time off work. They wouldn’t be back until the woman who’d contracted them had her child back. And Sheridan, their other partner, was planning to spend the next three or four months at home with her new baby.
“Have you been in touch with all their friends?” Jane asked. “Do you have any other family in the area?”
“I talked to everybody. I been on the phone night an’ day. Ain’t nobody seen ’em.”
“When’s the last time you had contact?”
“That same Saturday. Latisha was sleepin’ when I had Marcie take me to work. Latisha had to wait tables at noon and Marcie had to be at the Rancho Cordova Marriott at three. She’s a maid.” She leaned forward, as if taking Jane into her confidence. “I let ’em work part-time if they’re keepin’ up with their schoolwork and all.” She rocked back. “Anyway, Latisha never showed up at the restaurant. I didn’t know ’cause nobody called me. But when Marcie didn’t go to work like she always does, the hotel wanted to know what was what. I tried her cell, but it kept goin’ to voice mail.”
“So you’re thinking they disappeared from your apartment?”
“No. As soon as I could get someone to cover the store, I took the bus home and foun’ the house jus’ fine, locked up an’ everythin’. But the car was gone. We have a little Honda Civic.”
Jane made a note of this information. “Is there any chance your sisters could be into drugs, Gloria?”
“Oh, no! You think I’d let that happen after I watched my mama kill herself with that shit? After all I done to raise ’em up good? They wouldn’t dare. They know I’d kick their asses clear to kingdom come.”