“What do you mean you haven’t seen him in over a week?”

If The Elk was a dive, then The Nugget was a complete, week-long submersion. The floor was little more than a slab of scuffed up painted-blue concrete, with intermittent chunks gouged from its surface. In all my time coming here for the occasional beer, I’d never sat in a chair or at a table that didn’t wobble like LA during earthquake.

But this place filled up regularly. Not right now, of course. Right now it was as dead as The Elk, but most nights you were hard-pressed to find a seat. The liquor was cheap, the beer even cheaper, and there was never a cover charge even for live music. How the owner kept it open was beyond me. Unless, of course, you listened to the rumors about how he was running un-taxed beer and liquor, as well as a few less savory things.

Annie, the woman handling the bar for the afternoon shift, just shrugged with that kind of weariness you only saw in older service industry people who’d seen it all, and waited on worse. “Just like I said, Jake. Haven’t seen Kevin in a week or so.”

I scratched my head. Wasn’t it kind of weird, even in a small town, to just drop off the grid without even a call?

“Well, did he quit?” Elise asked from beside me. “Or no-call-no-show?”

“Second one. Just stopped showing up, is all. You know how Kevin is, though. I’m sure he’ll come in here round rent time, begging and pleading with old Billy to get his spot back. And the ol’ softy will probably let him, as always.”

“Anyone been by his house?” I asked. “Check to see if he’s alright?”

She shook her head. “Not that I know of. I don’t think anyone much cared one way or another.”

I scratched my chin, the bristles flowing over my fingers in an oddly soothing way. Guy must have been a real piece of work for them to not even go by. I turned and looked at Elise.

“Well, maybe you can help us out anyways?” she asked hopefully. “I’m trying to find someone, a girl named Eve. Someone told us they thought Kevin might have started dating someone by that name.”

“Nope,” Annie said, shaking her head. “Not that I know of. Far as I know, only woman he’s been seeing was one named Lilith. And that’s been a while, maybe a couple months back.”

“Mind looking at a picture of her for us, Annie?” I asked as Elise dug out her phone. I really needed to talk to Lacy about printing up a better copy for us. As much as I was enjoying watching Elise pull out her phone from her tight jeans, I was sure it wasn’t the most efficient way to do this.

And, besides, what happened when her phone died?

“Oh, hell, why not. Ain’t like I got nothing better to do.” She took the offered phone from Elise and looked it over. “Yep, pretty sure that’s her. Hair’s a little different now.” She glanced up at Elise. “You two sisters or something?”

Elise nodded. “Yeah. Lilith, huh?”

“Pretty sure that’s what he said her name was. Kevin’s a real weird one, though. Brought her around but never bothered to introduce her to us. People act like that, but I could care less, you know? Kept her in the back corner drinking screwdrivers.”

“Sounds like Eve.” She turned to me. “Well?”

I shrugged. “Pay Kevin a visit?”

“Sure,” she said. She turned to Annie. “Any idea where Kevin might live?”

She leaned forward on the bar. “Now, come on, Jake. You know I can’t just give out information like that. Old Billy’d have my ass for giving out that kind of thing to any yahoo that walks in. Ain’t saying you a yahoo, of course. Just stating the facts, is all.”

“Uh-huh.”

Elise shot me a look, as if to say, “Pay the woman already!”

I sighed, pulled out my wallet, and grabbed a twenty. Between breakfast, this, and my vacation time, this was turning into one expensive side job. Especially considering I was getting paid in desert smells. I slid the bill across the table to Annie, old Andrew Jackson’s face staring up at me accusingly as the bartender snatched him from the counter and stuffed him down the front of her tank top.

“Why, thanks, Jake. You always were such a good tipper.” She gave us directions to his little garage apartment off on the outskirts of town, and a description of his car. It was definitely in one of the other-side-of-the-tracks kind of places.

“Thanks, Annie,” Elise said gratefully. “This means a lot.”

“Well, hope you find your little sister, sugar. That Kevin’s a fucking loser. Hate to think of any woman that pretty spending too much time with him.”

“Lilith?” I asked when we got outside into the parking lot.

“Never heard the story of Lilith and Eve?”

I shook my head. “I stick to old war novels and non-fiction.”

“You know Lilith fair, right?”

“The music festival?”

“Okay, remember how I told you my mom was a little weird?”

“I believe your exact words were ‘dirty hippy.’”

She hit me in the arm. Hard.

“Ow!” I grinned as I rubbed the sore spot. At least she wasn’t too pissed at me. I had a feeling she could hit a lot harder than that if she needed.

“I think the dirty part was your addition,” she said as she headed for my truck.

“What about it?” I asked as we climbed in.

“Well, she was all into chakras and the mystic feminism.”

I sat there without starting the car. “Okay. Still not following.”

“You know your Bible at all?”

“No, not particularly.”

“Alright, gimme a second.” She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. “So, in the first book of the Bible there’s Adam and Eve, right? Well, Mom believed that Eve was actually the second woman, and Lilith was the first. She wouldn’t submit to him, and walked off one day to live her own life. So God had to make Eve. I mean, it’s just a story she told us.”

“You believe it?” I asked, raising my eyebrows.

She gave me a look. “What do you think?”

I shrugged. “I dunno, that’s why I’m asking.”

“Well, to answer your question, then, I don’t think about it much.” She tucked a long black curl back beneath her beanie. “I’m just living my life, one day to the next. That’s all.”

“So you think that’s why she chose that name, then? Because of that story? Makes sense.”

“Yep. Eve always bought more into Mom’s stuff than I ever did. I took more after Pops.”

“Huh.” I sat there, processing everything I’d learned so far. Why would her little sister have sent a postcard to Elise? And then, just a little while later change her name? Was she hiding from someone? From her family? I started up the pickup pulled out of the parking spot, and took off out of the lot. None of it made sense.

“Think she’ll be there?” Elise asked from beside me. “At this Kevin guy’s place?”

“Want me to be honest?”

“What do you think?”

I had a hunch. One of those kinds of hunches that are basically a ball of raw nerves sitting in your stomach. After so many years on the force, I’d learned to trust them as much as I trusted the clues around me. Sometimes even more. After all, you could always fake a clue, plant evidence so law enforcement would find them. But hunches? No one could fake a hunch in my gut. That was mine. And that hunch didn’t like the sound of this. Any of this.

“What?” Elise asked anxiously. “Tell me.”

I sighed. “I think this is the start of a rabbit hole, Elise. A long, winding, hole. And we’re just now starting to chase the white rabbit down it.”