Chapter Twenty-One
Michelle
It had been three whole days since the Halloween party in Zino’s; Michelle thought she would never recover from the hangover. Why had she drunk so many shots? She regretted every last one of them. She groaned as she rolled over and picked up her phone off the nightstand. There was still no word from Aliannah. She tried calling her again. The call still did not ring; it connected directly to Aliannah’s voicemail.
Where the hell was she? Michelle had seen Aliannah leaving the dance floor with a man in a bear costume and had presumed she had gone home with him. For it to be this long without contact after a night out was worrying. She had called her a dozen times, and Gavin had called her, too. There was radio silence. Was Mr Bear that good in bed? Was that the reason for the silence? Michelle would kill Aliannah the next time she saw her for not even sending a simple ‘I’m home safe’ text or a ‘busy but alive’ text. She got comfortable in bed and continued to watch the home renovation show she had on the TV. Gavin was back at work tonight after his few days off; Michelle took full advantage of having the TV all to herself again.
*RING* GAVIN CALLING. That was weird. Gavin never called during a shift.
“Babe, get dressed quickly and meet me at Zino’s; I can’t talk now. I have to get back to work until you get here.” Gavin sounded stressed when he hung up the phone. Michelle took a minute to process what was wrong. Gavin couldn’t be injured. He would have said so on the phone. She wondered if Zino’s just needed an extra bartender, as it wouldn’t be the first time they asked her to cover them in a squeeze. She picked a black T-shirt and jeans and threw on her leather jacket. Michelle brushed her teeth and gave herself a quick look over in the mirror before heading out.
She jumped out of the cab at Zino’s and walked up to Adam. He was the external door bouncer tonight.
“Hey, Gavin called me to come down. What’s going on?” she asked as Adam opened the rope to let her in.
“I have no idea, Mich, but it sounds big. Gavin is up with Mr Manning in the office; he told me to tell you to head up there,” Adam waved her on through. Michelle walked as quickly as she could to the door behind the bar that led up to the office. She knocked on the office door before going inside. It was a huge office that overlooked the dance floor with one-way glass. Mr Manning sat at his desk, and Gavin stood behind him. They were both looking at something on Mr Manning’s computer.
“What is going on?” Michelle asked, looking between the two men. Gavin looked angry and stressed. Mr Manning rubbed his jaw as he focused on the screen before him.
“The cleaners found a phone under the couches in one of the booths this morning. It took us all day to charge it up,” Gavin said. The phone’s screen was cracked, but it still worked. Michelle gasped.
“Fuck! No wonder she hasn’t been talking to us if her phone has been here all this time.” Michelle took the phone and examined it. The benefit of being best friends with Aliannah was that she knew her unlock code. The notifications blew up when she unlocked it. Aliannah had missed calls from Michelle, Gavin, work, and a few from a private number. All of Michelle’s and Gavin’s texts were there too.
“Guys, this is not good. It looks like Aliannah hasn’t been to work the past few days, either. We need to swing by the apartment and make sure she is ok! Michelle was worried.
“Look!” Mr Manning pointed to the screen. Michelle and Gavin moved so they could see, too. Their eyes went wide. On the screen, you can see CCTV footage from Halloween. One of the cameras captured Aliannah cornered by Mr Bear, and she was clearly not herself. You could see she was struggling to stand.
“FUCK!” Gavin shouted and banged his fist on the desk as he saw Aliannah go down. Mr Bear picked her up and carried her out; two other men followed.
“Find the next camera angle now! Follow them!” Gavin ordered. The anger was rippling off him.
Mr Manning followed the camera trail. Not a single bouncer questioned why Mr Bear was carrying Aliannah out of the club; they dismissed it as some poor drunk girl who had too many shots and had to go home. The final camera angle available was outside the front of the club.
“NOOOO!” Michelle shouted as she watched the men put Aliannah in the back of a black SUV and take off. There was no more footage available. Since the event was costume-themed, the club had abandoned the traditional guest list system for that night. There was no way of identifying who these men were. Michelle put Aliannah’s phone in her pocket.
“We need to go to Ali’s now,” she ordered. Mr Manning nodded and told Gavin to take the rest of his shift off and go check on Aliannah. They ran down the stairs and back out of Zino’s. They flagged down the first cab they could and shouted at the driver to step on it!
Harry jumped from his desk when Michelle and Gavin burst through the door into the lobby.
“Whoa, kids, where’s the fire?” Harry waved his hands in a slow-down motion.
“Have you seen Aliannah Harry?” Michelle asked, looking at him with panic in her eyes. Harry shook his head. Before Harry could speak anymore, Gavin was already calling the elevator.
Michelle unlocked the door to Aliannah’s apartment as fast as she could.
“ALI!! YOU HERE?!?” Michelle called out. No one answered her. As she moved through the apartment, she realised that the place had not been touched since before they left for the party. There was a mess everywhere. This was not like Aliannah at all. She thrived on clean environments and order. A quick look into her bedroom showed that she was not there either, and her bed was still perfectly made. Aliannah was missing. Michelle screamed.
“WHAT? WHAT YOU FIND?” Gavin roared as he came flying in from checking the rest of the apartment. Michelle was leaning against the wall, sobbing.
“Nothing… I found nothing… she’s not here, Gavin. She is still missing. She has not been back” She struggled to get the words out between her sobs.
Suddenly, the apartment’s front door burst open, and footsteps marched in. They rushed out of Aliannah’s bedroom to see if Aliannah had come back. They froze in the hallway. It wasn’t Aliannah. It was Ivan. Michelle launched forward, grabbing him by the lapels of his suit jacket.
“Where the fuck is she, you bastard! What the fuck did you do to her?” Ivan looked down at Michelle and carefully removed her hands from his jacket. He looked to Gavin to restrain Michelle, but Gavin only glared at him.
“I don’t have her, Michelle. I have been unable to keep tabs on her the past few days until her phone turned back on tonight at the club,” he said, his tone cool.
“Don’t fucking lie to me, Ivan. I know you have been stalking her. I saw the gifts and the notes.” Michelle was still screaming. Ivan looked her up and down before taking in the chaos that was left over from the Halloween pre-game.
“Do you think I would have come here if I knew where she was? She has not been here; she has not been at work. The last my people saw her was going into Zino’s with you two on Halloween. None of my people have seen her since then.” Ivan opened his shirt cuffs and rolled them up as he spoke.
Gavin fidgeted. Michelle debated whether or not to believe Ivan. She thought of all the notes Aliannah had shown her; none had displayed any indication of ill-intent. She decided he would be their best shot at finding Aliannah. If anyone had the money and the resources, it would be Ivan. She looked at Gavin and nodded.
“Here, check this video out. Do you know these men?” Gavin played the CCTV footage on his phone for Ivan. Ivan’s expression grew even angrier as he watched the event unfold. He asked Gavin to play it twice and send it to him. Ivan sent it on to his men.
“Tell me everything you know and timelines. My men are running an analysis of the footage.” Ivan pulled out a kitchen chair and sat down. Michelle and Gavin sat opposite him and told him every detail.
Ivan’s phone pinged just as they finished their account of that night. He slammed his fist on the table before standing up and turning his back on them.
“FUCCKKK!!” He gritted his teeth as he spoke. Michelle and Gavin flinched. Gavin put his arm across Michelle to protect her. He slowly turned back towards them. There was darkness in his eyes that had not been there moments earlier. “I know who has her.”