Chapter 19
It was almost another hour to get back to West Hollywood. We caught up with Autumn in her apartment at the base of the hills. She waited tables at a bar on Sunset and wasn't exactly thrilled about having a conversation at this hour.
"When was the last time you talked to Brooke?" I asked as we stood in her doorway.
"I guess it was the day before she went missing."
Autumn was a cute brunette with a round face, a voluptuous figure, and a golden tan. I figured she got a lot of tips at the bar.
"Did she say anything to you about going somewhere?”
Autumn swallowed and gave us a blank expression. "No. Not at all.”
"Her mother says you two are close.”
Autumn nodded. "She's one of my best friends.”
"Did she talk to you about the work she did at Meridian?”
Autumn shook her head, and her chocolate hair swayed. "No, we never really talked about that kind of stuff. It was like classified, top secret or something.”
"Was she working on a government project?"
"I don't really know. Like I said, we didn't talk about it, and when she did mention anything about work, it just went over my head.”
"Was she happy at her job?”
Autumn shrugged. "She was making a ton of money. Money can buy happiness, I don't care what they say. I’m running myself ragged just to pay rent and bills. It's impossible to get ahead in this town.”
"Was she seeing anyone? Maybe somebody her mother didn't know about?”
"No. The girl had no time for drama. She hardly had time to hang out with me. I was always trying to get her to go out to a bar or something. Have a little fun. She was always on some kind of project. Some kind of deadline.”
"Did she ever mention any concerns to you? Was she afraid of anyone?”
Autumn swallowed again before answering. "No.”
"Are you sure about that?" I said, sensing she was holding something back.
"I'm positive.”
"And you haven't heard anything from her since her disappearance?”
"If I did, I would have said something. I'm worried sick about her.”
"What kind of recreational things is Brooke into?"
"What do you mean?" Autumn asked with a wrinkled brow.
"What does she like to do for fun?”
"Why?”
"I'm just trying to get a sense of places she might have gone, people she might interact with. Maybe she developed a stalker.”
“Not that I know of.”
“We need to find out if her disappearance is related to these other cases. I think they are. But it's important to rule out other possibilities."
Autumn took a deep breath. "Well, she loves chai lattes, yoga, CrossFit. She likes to run. Other than that, she works all the time. Brooke doesn’t drink much, but she likes the occasional cosmopolitan.”
“Good to know. Could be helpful.”
There was an awkward moment as we stared at each other.
"You said you’re from Florida, right?"
I nodded.
"This is a long way to come. Can you really do anything out here?"
"No law against investigating," I said with a smile.
"I talked to the cops, but I don't think they’ve done much.”
I dug into my pocket and handed her a card. "If anything comes to mind, or you hear from her, get in touch. Anytime, day or night."
She took the card, and her green eyes surveyed it. "I will let you know. I hope you turn up something. I really miss her."
We said our goodbyes and walked back to the street. We had parked at the curb, careful of the signs. There were a dozen of them telling you when you could and couldn't park. You needed an advanced degree to interpret the parking laws in Los Angeles.
We climbed into the Ferrari, and Jack cranked up the glorious engine. Its ferocious growl was music. With the top down, we enjoyed the California sunshine, looking like rock stars in the red beast.
Jack pulled away from the curb and said, "There's something funny going on with that one. She's not telling us everything.”
"You think she's got some involvement in Brooke’s disappearance?”
"At this point, I'm convinced all of these incidents are related," Jack said. "They were all working on highly technical aerospace projects. I can think of a few reasons why they might start disappearing.”
"They were either working on a black budget project that somebody didn't want them to complete. Or a foreign intel agency is kidnapping them to extract information.”
At that point, it was just a theory. But probably not too far off.
This time, we decided to avoid the local police. I had a feeling we wouldn’t get far with them. We had just enough time to visit with Irving Roth before getting back to the hills for lunch with Scarlett.