Chapter 10 Artie #2
Then again, Arthur more than likely wasn’t his actual name. Raye and Luna had given him that name, so he shouldn’t be offended.
Though, since we had no idea who he was, you never knew.
But Morgan Freeman’s voice was only amused when he said, “Thirty-eight. Single mother of a twenty-year-old son who is currently serving five years for aggravated burglary.”
“She started early,” Joey noted.
“And the son started his career of crime early,” Luna added.
“Life hasn’t been kind to Amy,” Arthur told us.
“Her father disappeared soon after she was born. No contact since. Her mother barely made ends meet. Home life caused issues, or she was innately uninterested in school, either way, her grades were poor, and she barely graduated high school. Early pregnancy set her up to follow in her mother’s footsteps, and the father of her son disappeared just like hers did.
A string of bad choices in men followed.
She lives in a two-bedroom apartment in a rundown apartment complex between Food City on Thomas and the Sun Valley Motor Lodge on Roosevelt. ”
And yet another indication from the universe for me to speed up my mom’s trajectory, get past the assholes, don’t wallow, look after myself and find happy.
“Duane said she was decent to him,” I pointed out. “Are they in a relationship?”
“Perusal of text exchanges lean toward friendly, not romantic,” Arthur shared.
“Poor Duane,” Luna muttered.
“Have you got anything on who might have her and what they’re doing with Duane?” Jessie asked.
“Nothing, which tells us they’re communicating with Duane either through a burner they’ve given him or by alternate means.
There are cameras on the parking lot and aimed in reception at the motel.
Examination of those for the last ten days has shown no unusual activity when Duane is on duty.
Nothing unusual has come into his cell phone or email.
We have no indications of untoward communication with him.
And Amy’s cell is active, but there has been no activity on it, or her email, in the six days she’s been missing. ”
Shit.
Not good.
“Anybody report her missing?” That was Joey.
“Law enforcement has received no notification about Amy’s disappearance,” Arthur said.
“What about him saying he’s being watched?” I asked. “Have you noticed any activity like that?”
“Luna,” Arthur said.
“Yeah, so,” Luna took up the reins, “Jinx said Mr. Sh…I mean, Duane wasn’t there Friday night.
She reported that wasn’t unusual. The dude does have days off.
But she called this morning and said he was there last night.
She checks into her usual room before she hits her patch, but she said last night she could tell, before she even walked in, that he was warning her to keep her mouth shut.
So she did. Considering she wouldn’t be good at what she does if she wasn’t aware of her surroundings, she definitely took in her surroundings and didn’t notice anyone lurking or in a car staking out the joint.
She also didn’t notice any obvious cameras.
But she said he was tense, even jumpy, and he wanted her out so bad, he practically threw her key at her. ”
Even worse.
“And since she has keen spatial awareness,” Luna continued, “she said she hasn’t noticed anyone hanging around, visiting Duane, especially not a woman.
She also hasn’t noticed anything hinky.” Pause, then, “And she got offended I asked because,”—she took off Jinx’s voice—“‘gringa loca, like I wouldn’t tell you that shit. Or at least call in Titus or Los Guapos.’”
I smiled because that was a good impression.
And Los Guapos was what Jinx called the Nightingale Hottie Squad.
“So we have nothing,” Harlow said despondently.
It seemed we did, indeed, have nothing.
“You have addresses on Duane and Amy?” Shanti asked Arthur.
“Pertinent information has been sent via encrypted email to the Angels’ address,” Arthur said.
“You got anything else on Duane?” Luna asked.
“It would seem from GPS on his cell that his schedule hasn’t deviated, outside his visit to Willow,” Arthur shared.
“So what we have is a skittish dude who tries to reach out for help, that fails, but more than two days have passed since he made that attempt, and he hasn’t tried again,” Shanti started to call it down.
“So that could indicate he’s even more shit-scared of whatever this is than what we already knew.
Which makes bad, worse. And we’ve got a missing woman who no one has reported missing.
And that makes worse, worser. And we’ve got a whole lot of nothing else. Which completely sucks.”
No one said anything to that, including Arthur.
Finally, Gemma piped up.
“Um, Mr. Arthur…”
We all smiled again.
“…can you get CCTV footage of Food City? Namely any footage of Amy at her till or coming from and going to her car in the parking lot.” Gem turned to us. “Maybe whoever is behind this made an approach at her work.”
“Excellent,” Jessie said on an admiring grin aimed at Gemma.
Gemma beamed with pride.
“I can, and I will,” Arthur said. “Anything else?”
It was Joey who chimed in then.
“And maybe more intel on the son?” She too, turned to the rest of us. “We should know if they talk. If she visits. If he senses she’s gone. If he cares. Or if, and I know this is a long shot, but we can assume he doesn’t keep good company, so maybe he’s got something to do with whatever this is.”
I was understanding why Arthur saw promise in these gals.
How he saw it, no clue, since Gem’s extra job was home health care, and Joey’s was doing nails in her mom’s garage salon.
But then again, Arthur had a lot of mysterious ways.
“I’ll provide intelligence on that as well,” Arthur said. “Further thoughts?”
Again, no one spoke up.
Thus, Arthur did.
“As ever, call me if you need anything. Good luck, Angels.”
With that, Arthur didn’t say goodbye, but we knew he was gone.
“Was that cool, or what?” Harlow asked.
“Raye is gonna be pissed she missed that,” Luna remarked.
“Maybe not too pissed,” Gemma teased.
“Okay, so we have to get into Amy’s crib,” Shanti brought us back on target.
“We so do,” Jessie agreed.
“And maybe Duane’s,” I said.
“So weird, knowing his name,” Harlow murmured.
It totally was.
It made him seem human, which, of course, he was. But it was an all-new spin.
“Anyone know how to pick a lock?” Joey asked.
Again, no one said anything because no one knew how to do that.
“Whoever ‘they’ are, are probably watching the place too,” I noted. “So we have to go incognito.”
“Okay, so we have to learn how to competently pick a lock while looking like we’re just opening a door,” Joey said. “And we need disguises, like gas company or electricians or something.”
“We know Tex knows how to pick a lock,” Jessie remarked. “He could teach us.”
“And I bet he has a toolbox,” Luna added.
“I think my dad has some coveralls,” Shanti offered up. “One of us puts them on, pads them up, shoves their hair under a baseball hat, puts on a fake moustache or something.”
“We could also just go in after dark,” Gemma suggested. “If Amy lives in a rundown complex, they probably don’t have good lighting. And from what I can tell of this Duane guy, he likely isn’t thinking ‘safety first’ on the home front.”
“Two teams.” Luna decreed. “Raye, Shanti, Willow and Gemma take Duane’s place. Jess, Harlow, Joey and I will take Amy’s. We’ll case them. Make plans. Report back. Refine plans. And go in. That work for everyone?”
Whoa.
Luna was getting super good at this. Those teams were a great breakdown of experience from veterans to newbies.
Though, we were all newbies at breaking and entering.
“Sounds good to me,” Jess said.
“Me too,” I said.
“Me three,” Harlow said.
Luna got up and turned to us, hand extended.
We all did the same.
“One, two, three…” Luna called it down.
“Angels Unite!” we all shouted.
And we broke.