"Right." Valentina nodded.
"So let's see, as far as we know, Lulu got home that night, around midnight..."
"I'm sure of it," Valentina said. "I live a street away, and I and my boyfriend James walked her home that night. So she was here around midnight. It's safe enough around here, but you can never be too careful, you know?"
"Did you usually stay outside until midnight on Saturdays?"
"Ha! Usually, if we're partying hard, we don't come home at all on Saturdays," Valentina said. "James had a headache that day, though, so we dropped her off early. Anyway, she went inside, then James walked me home. Around one a.m. I called her to gossip about Tank and Sandra."
Nora nodded. "Okay. So Lulu gets home, opens the door, steps inside, takes off her dress and chooses a pair of shorts and a t-shirt from the cupboard. She gets ready for bed, but then feels hungry. She makes herself a sandwich, takes a bite, and then hears the phone ring. So she leaves the sandwich on the counter, picks up the phone to talk to you."
Valentina nodded. "Then, she says, 'What the hell!' hangs up, and that's it. I never hear from her again!"
"We should get out of here," Nora said. "We've already touched things, and that's bad enough. But we need to go to Sean immediately and tell him that he needs to investigate this. I don't think Lulu's disappearance is something to take lightly. It's already been, what, four days?"
Valentina gave a strangled sob. "You think she's okay?"
"Come on." Nora made sure to use a handkerchief so that she didn't leave prints as she pulled the door shut. Standing in front of the door, she suddenly frowned. She leaned down and looked at the door carefully. The plant was right next to it, and something gleamed inside the black soil. It was a small metal object, and Nora picked it up carefully. It was the size of a quarter, and shaped like a T, with sparkling fake diamonds on it. "What is that?" Nora wondered. Sean would have to find out.
*****
Chapter 5
Ronan & The Firing
As they walked down the spiral staircase, Nora pulled out her phone and called Sean. He sounded a little grumpy, but after hearing her out, he agreed to come over immediately. Nora was glad; she'd half expected him to refuse.
She and Valentina sat on the bottom step of the staircase, and decided to wait for Sean. In about ten minutes, the gate to the house opened and a figure walked in, carrying two plastic bags full of groceries.
Valentina stood up. "Ronan!" She exclaimed.
Nora recognized him instantly; the skinny boy from Lulu's video. He must have been startled by Valentina, because he dropped one of his bags, and then gave a little cry of frustration as the contents spilled out.
"W-what are you even doing here?" he asked. "You terrified me, lurking in the dark like that."
"Sorry," Valentina said, "but you scared me too. Don't you live in my apartment block? What are you doing here?"
Ronan opened his mouth, but Valentina suddenly planted a palm on her forehead. "Oh, dude! I totally forgot, Lulu's landlord, Mrs. Beasley, is your mom! She's away on vacation, right?"
"Yeah, exactly. I agreed to water the plants for her," Ronan said. "What are you doing here, and who's this?"
Nora stepped forward, and stretched out her hand. "Nora Nathaniel. I work at the Madness Diner."
"Oh I had lunch there today. The orange chicken burger was fantastic." Ronan shook her hand. "I'm Ronan Beasley, by the way."
"Don't let those skinny arms fool you, Ronan's the best drummer Milburn has ever seen," Valentina said. "He always won talent of the year in high school."
Nora smiled, and reached over to help Ronan put his groceries back in the bags.
"Yeah, fat lot of good it did me. I'm 22 and stuck working retail. Only time I get to play drums are Saturday nights at the bar." Ronan sighed. "Anyway, why are you two here?"
"Well... we came by to see Lulu. Maybe you could stick around, the sheriff's coming over soon," Nora said.
"The-the sheriff? Why?!"
"Ronan, you know Lulu used to live above your mom, right?"
"Yeah, mom said she was a model tenant." Ronan nodded. "I haven't seen her since she got fired though. Gosh, she pushed me so hard that day, I toppled over a pyramid of cans. Gave me a nasty bruise on my elbow too."
"I know. I saw the blow by blow on Instabook. Do you know who filmed it? Lulu was so mad at being a laughing stock on social media."
"Some high school kid filmed it." Ronan shrugged. "But look, what's all this about the sheriff? Why would he be coming over? Is Lulu ok?"
Valentina's lips trembled a bit. "We don't know," she said. "Listen, your mom has a pair of extra keys, right?"
"Yeah. I guess."
"Do you have the keys on you? I was super worried about Lulu, so we kinda... forced the door open. But if you gave us the keys..."
"You could claim you had a spare." Ronan nodded. "Gotcha."
"Valentina, I'm not sure we should lie to Sean," Nora said. "Better to tell the truth and get in a little trouble."
"Says you," Valentina said. "If Lulu is missing, I don't want a felony or something on my record. Come on Ronan, you know me, right? It's just a little white lie."
"I- I'm not so sure..." He looked uncomfortable.
"All you have to do is give us the spare keys. We'll say we found them under the mat or something," Valentina said. "Come on, it's just so Sean will pay attention to the fact that Lulu's missing, rather than focusing on us."
Nora stepped up. In a rather firm voice, she said, "Valentina, we're not lying about this. I'll take responsibility for opening the door, if that makes you happy. But lying is never a good idea in an investigation, it can cause all sorts of complications."
Valentina opened her mouth, then closed it again. "Okay." She said in a small voice. "Sorry. I guess my brain is just fried. I'm so worried about her, Nora..."
"Ronan, you should get the keys though, because Sean will need them to investigate," Nora said.
Ronan nodded.
"Do you think Sean will be able to track Lulu's phone?" Valentina said suddenly. "If we can find out who's impersonating her..."
"Impersonating her?" Ronan sounded horrified. "Just what sort of trouble has Lulu gotten herself into?"
"Never mind that," Valentina said. "Here's Sean now. Go get the keys."
Headlights lit up the street as two police cruisers drove in. Sean parked his car, his deputy doing the same behind him, and got out. His face was brimming with concern.
Ronan looked from him to Valentina and back again then grabbed his groceries and ran off inside the house to retrieve the spare keys.
"Talk to me," Sean said, looking straight at Valentina after a brief nod to Nora.
Valentina told him the entire situation, leaving out nothing. When Sean heard about the messages, he held out his hand for Valentina's phone and bit his lip as he read the texts. "Alright," he said finally, "you've convinced me, both of you. By the way, what's the last post she made on social media?"
"Past midnight on Saturday night," Nora said. She blushed as Valentina stared at her. "I told you, I stalked her a bit on social media."
"You're not the only one who did, right Ronan?" Valentina gave Ronan a friendly nudge and he turned red.
"I- what--"
"Oh come on, we all know about it. Last week, after she got fired, you liked one of her photos on Instabook."
"So what, anyone can do that."
"This particular photo was posted two years ago," Valentina said. "We figured you liked it accidentally."
Nora wondered if Valentina was being unknowingly tactless, or whether she suspected Ronan of doing something. At any event, she'd succeeded in embarassing him. The boy was somewhere between tomato and ferrari on a scale of redness.
"Here's the spare key," he mumbled, handing Sean over a thin, iron key. "Can I go now? I need to water the plants and stuff."
"Sure," Sean said, "stick around, though. Your mom's the landlady, right?"
"Yeah, she
's on vacation."
"Can we contact her?"
"I don't think so. She's mountain climbing in the Rockies. The cell reception's not so good up there."
"Ok, I'm going to go through you, then." Sean and his deputy went off to investigate the house, and Valentina trailed after them, leaving Ronan and Nora alone.
"Were you stalking her?" Nora asked.
Ronan bit his lip so hard, it almost drew blood. "It was so stupid. Now everybody knows and they probably think I'm a freak or something."
"When did you see her last?" Nora said.
"The day she got fired. Lulu was kind of…well…we didn't run in the same social circles," Ronan said.
"Who did Lulu hang out with? Apart from Valentina, that is."
"Oh, you know, she likes tough guys. Val's boyfriend is a mechanic, and then there's people like Tank. She liked bros and chads, not betas like me."
Nora nodded along, trying to pretend she understood what "chads" and "betas" were supposed to mean. She could guess, though. "Well, you play in a band, right?"
"Yeah." Ronan puffed up a bit. "We're called The Sourdoughs and we play in McLindy's every Thursday and Saturday. Come see us sometime. We're really pretty good."
"Sure, sometime." Nora smiled. Then she frowned. "You said you play in McLindy's?"
"Yeah."
"Well, Lulu's last post was a video from inside McLindy's." Nora took out her own phone, struggled a bit till she found the post, and then played it. It was a short video, only six seconds long. The bar was dark, with a band playing classic hard rock onstage and a crowd of couples dancing. Lulu, James, and Valentina all had a shot of vodka in their hands, and downed it after Lulu cried, "This is how we par-tay!" The video had James and Valentina tagged, along with McLindy's bar.
"Is that you on the drums back there?" Nora asked, pointing to a blurred figure in the background.
"Hey, what do you know? It is me." Ronan grinned. "Funny, right? I never saw her, though. We played a pretty intense set that night and I was wiped out. She must have taken this video before eleven, because we stopped playing then and the next band came on." Ronan frowned, and said, "Can you replay it for me?"
"Sure." Nora played it again, and once more, they watched the happy trio down a shot of vodka.
"There!" Ronan exclaimed, pausing the video at the four second mark. "Look who else was in the bar that night."
The image was grainy, but Nora could tell right away. It was a bulky man with a hoodie on. Thomas "Tank" Nielson.
"Man, I wonder if Sandra knew Tank was at the bar." Ronan whistled.
"Why? Wouldn't she like it?"
"Sandra?" Ronan snorted. "No way. She hates Lulu's guts."
Nora nodded, remembering the comment Sandra had left up on the video of Lulu knocking over displays at the grocery. "Why does Sandra hate Lulu?"
"A lot of girls do, coz Lulu's pretty." Ronan shrugged. "You know what I mean? Guys tend to lose their heads around her, and that can annoy women."
"Do you know Sandra well?"
"She works at the grocery store with me." Ronan nodded. "Let's just say... her favorite pastime was to gossip about Lulu. Val was right before; I'm not the only one who's stalked Lulu online. Sandra was obsessed with her Instabook feed."
Nora tried to see if she could access Sandra's profile, but found it was set to "private".
"Yeah, Lulu was cool with the world seeing her every thought and photo, but Sandra's not," Ronan said. "Hang on, let's see if I'm friends with her..." He took out his own phone, and quickly went over to Sandra's profile.
There were about a hundred photos of Sandra in a beautiful white gown, and Tank in a well-fitting tuxedo. Sandra was smiling broadly in each of the photos, her round face dimpled with happiness. She had thin lips and dark hair that was cut into ultra short bangs, and looked trendy in combination with her cat eye glasses. In each of the candid photos, she was looking up at Tank with shining eyes, while Tank flexed for the camera. Nora had been at the wedding, and she remembered even then, thinking that Tank probably loved himself more than his new wife.
But this wasn't what Ronan wanted to show her. He scrolled back to a week before the wedding, when Sandra had made a post saying, "The world is full of people out to snatch your happiness. It's up to you to defend it!"
"See what I mean?" Ronan asked.
"Not really." Nora shrugged. "It could just be a general thought."
"Oh, trust me, I work with Sandra, so I know, it's not just a general thought. The post is about Lulu. Sandra suspected Tank liked her. It was this whole thing. Lulu made a post on her own page, saying, "Liking a person doesn't mean they've got to like you back. Get over it." Sandra got so mad at her! Of course, she had no way to outright confront Lulu without making it awkward. They're both so passive-aggressive."
"And Tank? He obviously loves Sandra since he's married her, right?"
"Yeah..." Ronan shrugged. "I mean, it's not like he ever really had a shot with Lulu. I heard she rejected him way back in high school, and even though he tried a couple more times, she never wanted him. She said--" Ronan suppressed a laugh here. "He was a good friend, but she was looking for a more successful man."
"Did Tank take that well?"
"He married Sandra as a rebound since Lulu wouldn't date him," Ronan said. "How's that for taking it well?
*****
Chapter 6
Tank
Nora made sure to swing by Dino's early next day, ostensibly to get a free training session from Valentina. Dino's was a fairly new gym, with row after row of gleaming machines ready for exercising on. It was fairly crowded too, considering how early it was. Nora waited at the reception, peering around, until she saw Valentina, who was dressed in a sports bra and fitted tights, giving instructions to an frail eighty year old on a cycling machine. Nora waved, and Valentina looked really surprised to see her.
"Nora? I didn't expect you here at...," she looked at her watch, "six thirty a.m."
"Just thought I'd pop in before opening the diner today." Nora said. The two of them wandered over to the free-weights section, a rubber-matted area that was almost totally empty.
"Why? Did you... did Sean say something to you about Lulu?"
Nora shook her head. "The last time I spoke to him was last night, same as you. He's putting a search team together, and hoping to find a K9 unit that can track her scent. He's also put out an--"
"An all-points bulletin on her, yeah I know." Valentina sounded depressed. "I just can't help feeling that she'll never come back to us. My best friend's just vanished and it's like there's nothing I can do."
"Now, babe.." Nora recognized the boy who approached them, and flung his arm around Valentina. He'd been tagged in Lulu's last video--James. He had an easy smile, and floppy brown hair that hung in bangs shadowing his eyes. He looked genuinely concerned as he said, "Is there anything we can do? Maybe we can all get a search team together and look in the woods? How's that?"
Val shook her head. "I don't know... I'm just falling to pieces, James. I don't think I can work today. I just want to curl up in bed."
"Come on, babe. Chin up. We'll get through this together. It's still possible that Lulu's playing a prank on us, right?" James nuzzled her neck, and stroked her hair, his eyes warm. "Cheer up. We'll do everything we can, and we're going to find her. When we do, we'll all go have a shot at McLindy's and forget this ever happened."
"I wish," Val said. "We were so happy that day, weren't we James? What happened? This is so sudden."
"Hey, Val." The hoodie-wearing bodybuilder Nora had seen at the diner came in, looking distressed. "So it's true what people are saying? Lulu's missing?"
"Tank." Val's face wasn't very welcoming. "You heard already?"
"Yeah, Tammie texted me. Ronan told her what happened last night at his house. I couldn't breathe when I heard. So that day at the diner, you--"
"Yeah. I came to you for help and you didn't even stop to listen." Val looked furious. "What was you
r problem anyway, Tank? I barely approached you, and said two words about Lulu before you shot out of there, acting like I was interrogating you."
Tank shrugged, uncomfortable. "I was just... I didn't want to talk about Lulu. You know how Tammie gets."
"You were hiding something," Val said. "You were so cagey."
"Hey!" Tank looked suddenly annoyed. "I'm not going to sit here and listen to you speak this way."
"Sure you are. If I find out you had anything to do with Lulu's disappearance, I'll shoot you myself!" Val cried, "You hear me? If you know something, you better speak up or else--"
"James, buddy, handle your girlfriend," Tank said. "She's clearly cracking under the stress."
James guided Tank outside. "Let's get some fresh air and leave Nora with Val for a bit. They've got quite a lot to talk about, I guess."
The two of them left, and Nora had to admire them as they did. They were both fine specimens of the male form. While James was tall and lean, he was still muscular in his shorts and sleeveless t-shirt. Tank looked quite literally like a tank--broad and square, with a bull neck and veins pulsing on bulging biceps.
Turning around, Nora saw Val's lower lip quivering as she watched the two men go. Dark clouds were clearly gathering in her mind.
"Val..." Nora said suddenly, "that day at the bar--I never thought to ask you--did Lulu say anything that might give us a clue?"
"Lulu?" Val considered this.
"Yes. How was her mood that day?"
"She was in a really good mood," Val said. "I mean, despite losing her job and everything, Lulu was in high spirits. She said something big was going to happen soon."
"Something big? Like what? Another advertisement offer from a company?"
"Something like that." Val frowned. "I assumed that, but I don't know. She kept saying over and over that big stuff was in the future. James actually got irritated at her for the deliberate suspense, I think. What do you think she meant?"
"I'm not so sure," Nora said. "You're her best friend. What do you think?"
The Milburn Big Box Set Page 102
