Jake pushed me down into a crouch and drew his gun. “Stay here,” he whispered in a harsh voice.

I nodded, my eyes wide.

He crept along, barely making a sound even in his work boots.

“Hello?” called an old woman’s voice from the landing. “Kevin? Is that you, dear? Lilith?”

Jake looked back at me as he quickly stuffed his gun away. He went over to the cracked door and opened it all the way. A little old woman was standing there with coke-bottle thick glasses.

Suddenly, I felt very foolish crouched like that on the kitchen floor, and stood up.

“No, ma’am,” Jake said, smiling down at her. “We’re friends of Kevin’s, some people he works with. He hasn’t been into work in a while, and we just came by to see how he was doing.”

“Oh? Did he not tell you he was going out of town? A couple of his friends came by and picked him up. Nice young men, if I remember correctly. So polite. He said he was going on a trip for a little while, but that he hoped to be home before I even realized he was gone.”

“A trip? About how long ago was that?”

“Oh, I think five or six days ago. They went down to the trunk of his car and got some things, then they drove off just before the last snowfall started. Nice young men.”

“And do you just rent to Kevin?”

She nodded and clopped her cane down. “Yes, he’s been living here for a few years now. Always pays on time. His rental checks supplement my social security checks that I get from my dead husband, Wilbur.”

I came out of the kitchen. “Did Lilith go with him, ma’am? Lilith, the girl that was living here?”

She turned her attention to me and peered forward into the dim apartment. Even with the lights on, it was still dark as a cave in here. “Oh no, dear. She left about a month and a half back. She and Kevin had a spat. When I asked after her to see how she was doing, he said she’d gone to Yellow Rose to stay with some mutual friends up there. Are you her sister?”

I smiled and nodded. “Yes, I’m Elise.”

“Oh, your sister was so sweet. She helped Kevin keep this place so neat and tidy.”

Not anymore, she didn’t.

“Anything else you can tell us about who Kevin left with, ma’am?” Jake asked.

She pursed her lips and looked down at the ground, like she was trying to remember all the way back to her childhood. God, I hoped I never got that old. I was honestly surprised she made it across the yard as well as she did without slipping and breaking her hip.

“Both wore all black. Both very polite, even though they had heavy leather jackets on.”

Jake gave me a look.

“Anything else?”

She shook her head. “No, no, I think that’s it. I’ll let him know as soon as he gets home that you came by looking for him.”

“Thank you, ma’am,” Jake said. “Would you like any help across the yard? Or back downstairs?”

“Oh, you’re a dear. Thank you.”

I caught Jake’s eyes and shrugged. He led her from the apartment and started to take her back down the steps.

I looked around the little studio apartment, at the piles of Eve’s clothes she’d left behind. I took off my beanie and tucked it away in my coat pocket. I shook out my curls and ran my fingers through them as I walked over to her underwear and stray bits of clothing she’d left behind.

God, I hoped Jake was right, and that spoon wasn’t hers. I mean, smoking pot or drinking was one thing. But heroin? And getting wrapped up with a guy who would keep a spoon around in his fucking junk drawer? And who were these guys Kevin had disappeared with? Hell, who was Kevin?

“What have you gotten yourself into, Eve?” I whispered to myself.

But maybe that’s what the fight had been about. Maybe she’d just been manipulating the guy like I’d thought, and she left when she discovered what was going on?

Or maybe I was just making assumptions, like Jake had warned against.

I went into the bathroom and looked around some. Shaving cream, razor on the counter, a pump bottle full of soap by the sink. I opened up the medicine cabinet. There was an unopened container of floss, like he’d bought it one time because he thought he should have it. A little bottle of cheap cologne. At least it wasn’t Axe body spray. I don’t think I’d forgive Eve for dating a guy that wore Axe.

There were a few other random odds and ends.

Something seemed missing. Like there was something my mind had expected to see here, but didn’t.

Then it hit me.

No pill bottles.

I closed the medicine cabinet as I heard Jake coming back up the stairs, taking the steps two at a time.

“Elise?”

“Bathroom.”

Jake came in as I was looking in the shower, staring down at a long strand of coal black hair next to the drain. “Whoa.”

I turned around. “What?”

He was looking at me, but I couldn’t decipher his thoughts this time. “Your hair.”

I frowned, went to pull my beanie out.

He made a face. “What are you doing? Keep it out.”

I stopped. “It just gets in the way.”

“It’s gorgeous, though.” He stopped himself. “Sorry, I mean it’s really nice. You should leave it down like that.”

I felt the heat rise to my cheeks. I turned to the medicine cabinet, trying to take the attention off me. “Guess what I found in the cabinet?”

He opened the medicine cabinet and stared at it for a moment. He looked back at me. “What?”

“No pills. Kevin doesn’t have any pills. No empty pill bottles, no full ones.”

“That’s weird, especially when he’s got the business cards of every pain clinic in the neighborhood. You’d expect more, wouldn’t you?” He shut the cabinet.

“You would.”

He smiled a little. “Good work, detective.”

I grinned. “Gracias.”

“Now what else?”

“Get anything out of Granny?”

He shook his head. “Same as what she told us up here. Almost exactly the same. I think she forgot who I was half-way back to the house, so she started to retell some of it when she realized someone was helping her.”

“Where to now, then? Yellow Rose? That’s where she said Eve went, right?”

“That’s what Kevin told her, yeah. Unless he wasn’t telling the truth. That’s always a possibility.”

I didn’t want that to be a possibility, I realized. We’d had our first couple leads today, and I didn’t want them to start drying up all of a sudden. “How far away is it? To Yellow Rose, I mean?”

He shrugged. “Couple hours. We could get there by nightfall, maybe, or just after. We probably need to shower and get a change of clothes, though.”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “Probably.”

He led the way out of the apartment as I pulled my beanie back on and tucked my curls back into a more manageable place. We closed the door up as tightly as possible, then headed back downstairs to the street. When we got to Kevin’s Celica, Jake stopped so suddenly that I almost bumped into his back.

“What’s wrong?”

“Can’t put my finger on it,” he said as he turned to the trunk of the car, “but there’s something that’s off. Remember what Kevin’s landlady said? About how they went out to his trunk and got something, then drove off?”

I nodded as he crouched down right behind the car. He was starting to freak me out with the way he was acting.

“No,” he said, staring at the trunk. “Something’s not right at all.”

I looked from the trunk to him, and back again. I didn’t say a word. I didn’t ask a question, especially when I knew I didn’t want to hear the answer.

“I think Kevin’s in there.”