Page 114 of Last Girls Alive

She shrugged. “I dunno.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’ve been trying to get in contact with a friend. I know she’ll let me stay with her.”

“Who’s your friend?” said Katie.

“Tanis,” she said quietly.

Katie sighed and her heart sank.

“What? What’s wrong?” Candace stopped eating. “Tell me.”

“I went to visit Tanis today.”

“Yeah.” Her eyes watched Katie carefully.

“According to her landlord and boss, she has been missing since Tuesday, maybe earlier.”

“What? No… no… no.” Tears welled up in her eyes. “Not Tanis.” She stood up and was going to head toward the door. “You have to find her. Please…”

“Take it easy. Sit down.” Katie took her arm and steered her to the couch. “First, we don’t know if something is wrong. Second, both the city and county police departments are searching for her. Okay?”

Shaking her head, Candace said, “It’s not good. The only real friend I ever had and now she’s gone. It can’t be true.”

“We don’t know that.”

“C’mon, Detective. What does your cop experience tell you?”

Katie didn’t answer. The truth was it didn’t look good but she wasn’t going to add to Candace’s already trauma-filled life.

Candace began to cry. “I’ve lost everyone.”

“We don’t know that yet.” Katie felt helpless to try to make the situation better—she knew, at least her cynicism chimed, it was most likely only a matter of time before they found the body of Tanis dumped somewhere with the eerie message in Italian—hunter-gatherer.

“Candace. I need to ask you a couple of questions. And Ineedfor you to be honest. Okay?”

She nodded in agreement, wiping the tears from her face.

“Tell me about Ray Conner. What does he look like?”

“Um, he’s average, I guess. Brown hair, green eyes, and um…”

“Anything that stands out? Tattoos? Scars?”

“No. He had a couple of moles.” She laughed.

“Okay. Was he thin, muscular, pot belly…”

“He was thin, not fat, he was particular about his food. Everything had to be healthy. I got the feeling that he might have been heavy when he was a kid or he didn’t have a lot to eat. Something happened that he didn’t want to talk about.”

“What makes you say that?”

“I’m not sure, just some things he said to me. And some of the things he didn’t.”

“Is there anything else you’re not telling me about him?” Katie had the feeling that she was holding back about Ray. She was scared of him. Didn’t want to get him in trouble. Something made her hesitate.

“No, that’s all. It’s been five years. There’s not much to tell.”