6
Jade’s confession echoed down the alley, colder than the winter wind whistling between the buildings. Despite her coat, she shivered and wrapped her arms around herself, as if just saying the words out loud had chilled her more than the weather ever could.
“Elissa is my sister, and she’s missing,” Jade whispered, her voice cracking like the asphalt under our feet. “Will you help me find her? Please, Gin?”
Before I could answer, she started pacing back and forth across the alley, her stiletto boots clicking against the pavement. “I know that I have no right to ask you this. It’s not a business favor like Silvio and I agreed on, not at all, not even close. Believe me, I didn’t want to come here. I didn’t want to bother you with this. I’m a professional, and I don’t expect you to solve all my problems for me. Not like the other bosses. But I can’t find Elissa anywhere. I just can’t find her . . .”
Jade kept talking, the words, fear, and worry spilling out of her even faster than her short, staccato pacing. I let her keep talking, expecting her to wind down once she got it all out of her system. Silvio stepped back against the restaurant wall, giving her a wide berth. But after the better part of a minute came and went and she showed no signs of slowing her rapid-fire movements, I stepped in front of her.
“Stop—please stop.”
Jade froze at the sharp command in my voice. She dropped her head and closed her eyes, as if bracing herself for my rejection.
“Of course I’ll help you find your sister. All you had to do was ask.”
She shuddered out a breath, the air frosting around her, then staggered forward and wrapped me up in a tight, fierce hug. I got the feeling that if she’d had the strength, she would have lifted me clear off my feet and swung me around. Even as it was, her shoulder dug into my neck so hard that I could feel my spider rune pendant pressing against my throat even through my heavy sweater. But I didn’t mind the uncomfortable sensation. Jade wanted the Spider to find her sister, and that’s exactly what I was going to do.
Silvio cleared his throat, and the soft sound made Jade freeze again. She abruptly let go of me and lurched back, worry twisting her face, as though she’d just hugged all the help right out of me.
“Come on,” I said in a gentle voice. “Let’s go back inside where it’s warm, and you can tell me all about your sister.”
• • •
The three of us left the alley and went back into the front of the restaurant, where Silvio escorted Jade over to an empty corner booth.
By this point, it was almost two thirty, and the last of the lunch-rush customers were gone, with only a few stragglers still chowing down on their burgers, barbecue sandwiches, and side dishes. As soon as the last customer had eaten, paid up, and left, I flipped the sign on the front door over to Closed and taped up a piece of paper saying that we would reopen in an hour. Sophia and Catalina herded the waitstaff into the back so they could all take an extended break, leaving me alone out front with Jade and Silvio.
The vampire perched on his stool at the counter, his fingers tapping on his tablet, already trying to find out everything he could about Elissa Daniels. Jade sat in the booth, her shoulders slumped, staring out the storefront windows with a blank expression on her face, as though she wasn’t actually seeing anything on the street outside. I worked behind the counter, making a grilled cheese sandwich just like the ones I’d had for lunch. I also dished up a bowl of steaming chili, along with some chocolate chip cookies and a sweet iced tea, put everything on a tray, and took it over to Jade. After setting the tray on her side of the table, I slid into the booth across from her. Silvio pulled a chair up to my side of the booth, propped his tablet on the table, and hooked a small keyboard to it so he could type faster and take better, more detailed notes.
Jade stared at the food, then shook her head and pushed the tray away. “That looks and smells great, but I can’t eat anything right now. I’m sorry.”
I leaned forward and pushed the tray right back where it had been before. “Just have a few bites. You need to keep your strength up. How long has it been since you’ve eaten anything?”
“I don’t know. Maybe dinner last night? That’s how long Elissa has been missing.”
“What happened?” I asked. “Tell me everything.”
Jade drew in a deep breath and slowly let it out. Her hand crept forward, and she picked up the spoon from the tray. She dug the utensil into the chili and started moving it from one side of the bowl to the other, not because she had any intention of eating it but just to have something to do with all her nervous worry and energy.
“Elissa and I are half sisters. Same mother, different fathers. Kelsey, our mother . . .” Her voice trailed off for a few seconds. “Well, let’s just say that she never won any Mother of the Year awards. She was a society broad who flitted from man to man, always looking to trade one guy in for a newer, richer model. She and my dad got divorced when I was five. She took him to the cleaner’s.”
“Where’s your dad now?”
“He lives in Arizona with some yoga instructor.” Jade scoffed. “She’s younger than I am.”
She stirred the chili again. “Anyway, after that, my mom moved from man to man, until she got pregnant with Elissa. Stephen, Elissa’s dad, actually married my mom. He was a great guy, and he deserved much better than my mother. I was thirteen when Elissa was born, and I loved her from the moment I saw her. Despite the age difference, the two of us were always close . . .”
She trailed off again and put down her spoon. She reached out, grabbed the glass, and took a sip of iced tea. Then she put the glass down and started sliding it back and forth on the tray, making the ice inside tinkle-tinkle together. After several seconds, Jade’s hand stilled, and her fingers curled around the glass.
“Stephen and my mom died in a boating accident when Elissa was ten, so I finished raising her. Luckily, Elissa took after her dad. She’s a great kid. Smart, polite, thoughtful, always wanting to help other people.” Jade’s face softened. “She’s everything to me. Surely you can understand that, Gin.”
I did understand that, far more than she realized. For years I’d thought that my younger sister, Detective Bria Coolidge, was gone forever, crushed to death in the falling rubble of our mansion the night Mab Monroe murdered our mother and our other sister. I’d used my Stone magic to collapse our house to try to save Bria, and I’d thought that I’d killed her in the process. That burden, grief, and guilt had weighed down my heart for years, until Bria came back to Ashland looking for me. So I knew exactly how Jade felt when she talked about how precious her sister was to her.
“What happened when Elissa went missing?” I asked. “Was she out on a job?”
Jade shook her head. “No, not exactly. Elissa went to meet one of her regular clients at a charity event in Northtown last night. She loves getting dressed up and going out and meeting people. It’s one of the reasons she works for me, and she says it’s good practice for her marketing degree.”
I nodded. “And the event?”
“Dinner, dancing, speeches, the usual. Nothing out of the ordinary and absolutely nothing dangerous.”
“So what happened?”
“The client came down with the flu, so he called and canceled at the last minute. Elissa was already at the dinner, though, so he told her to stay and have a good time and put everything on his tab. She texted me from the party to let me know what was going on. That was about seven o’clock last night.” Jade paused. “And that’s the last that I heard from her.”
Her fingers curled a little tighter around the glass still in her hand, and she started twisting it around and around on the tray. I could tell that something else was bothering her, so I kept quiet and let her work up to telling me what it was.
“Elissa asked if I wanted to come and have a drink. She even sent me a photo of her champagne glass, trying to convince me. But I had work to do, so I texted her back, told her to have a good time, and went right back to work.” Jade’s lips pressed together, and anguish pinched her face. “This . . . this is all my fault. If I’d just told her yes, if I’d just met her for one lousy drink, she would be here, she would be safe—” Her voice choked off, and she blinked back tears.
I shook my head. “Don’t—don’t go there. You can’t let yourself think like that. It’s not your fault, Jade.”
“Yes, it is,” she whispered. “Yes, it is.”
I knew exactly what she was feeling—the guilt, the shame, the sickening self-loathing. I also knew that nothing I said would change her mind, so I focused on the one thing that would help her right now: finding her sister.
“Tell me the rest of it. When did you first realize that Elissa was missing?”
“When I woke up this morning and she wasn’t home,” Jade said. “I called her, but she didn’t answer. That’s when I started to get worried. I kept calling and texting. I tried all of her friends, including her boyfriend, thinking that maybe she’d crashed with one of them. But no one’s seen or heard from her since last night. She’s finishing up her marketing degree at the community college, so I even went over there this morning, checking to see if she was in class and had just turned her phone off. But she wasn’t there. She never misses class—never.”
More anguish glinted in Jade’s eyes, as bright and sharp as shards of glass. “I can’t find her anywhere. She’s gone. She’s just—gone.” She blinked and blinked, but this time she couldn’t stop the tears from streaking down her face.
“Have you gone to the police yet?” I asked in a gentle voice.
Jade nodded and wiped away her tears. “As soon as I realized that Elissa wasn’t in class, I went over to the campus police office. But they said that there was nothing they could do, especially since I didn’t know if she’d even been on campus this morning. They told me to go see the regular police, so that’s what I did. But when they realized who I was, the cops assumed she was one of my regular working girls. You can imagine how concerned they were about what they thought was a missing hooker.”
“Not very.”
The majority of the cops in Ashland were as corrupt as the day was long. Most of the time, the only way to get them to actually do their jobs was to offer them a hefty financial incentive. But there were a few good men and women on the force, my own sister being one of them.
“Did you ask for Bria? Or Xavier, her partner?” I asked. “They would have helped you.”
Jade nodded again. “Of course I did. But they were both out on assignment, and I couldn’t get anyone to tell me when they would be back. So I filed a missing person report and left. I’ve been searching for Elissa ever since then, checking in with the college and her friends again, but it’s like she’s vanished off the face of the earth. I can’t find her anywhere.”
I leaned back and crossed my arms over my chest, thinking about all of the facts and everything that she’d done so far. I looked over at Silvio, and he nodded back, telling me that he was doing the same, even as he kept on typing.
“What about the client Elissa was supposed to meet?” I asked. “What’s his name? Have you talked to him?”
“That was the first thing I did when I realized that Elissa wasn’t home this morning,” Jade said. “But he sounded awful on the phone. He really was sick, and he said that he never made it to the dinner last night. His name is Stuart Mosley. He’s the president of First Trust bank. Do you know him?”
The name startled me, but I didn’t let any of my surprise show. First Trust was the bank where Finn worked, and Stuart Mosley was his boss. Silvio shifted in his chair, and his fingers slowed their quick, relentless rhythm. He’d recognized the name too.
“Yeah, I know Mosley,” I murmured. “Small world.”
Sometimes it was a little too small for my peace of mind. Suspicion filled me. Stuart Mosley didn’t seem like the kind of man who would be involved in a young woman’s disappearance, but I couldn’t overlook him either. Fletcher had taught me that people, even those you considered potential allies, could always surprise you.
“Why did Mosley need a date for this charity dinner?”
“His wife died almost two years ago, and he’s used my service ever since,” Jade said. “I’ve never had a problem with him, and neither have any of my girls. He’s always been a perfect gentleman. For the past year, he’s only used Elissa. Mosley told her once that she reminds him of one of his great-granddaughters who passed away.”
“What happened to his granddaughter?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. He’s never said.”
Dwarves lived a long time, hundreds of years in some cases, so it wasn’t unusual that Mosley had a great-granddaughter who had passed on before him. Any number of things could have happened to her, including just dying of old age if she had been a regular human. Still, I looked over at Silvio and raised my eyebrows, silently asking him to add Mosley’s granddaughter to his list of things to check on. He nodded back at me, his fingers picking up speed on his keyboard again.
Jade chewed on her lower lip. “Actually, Mr. Mosley is the one who suggested that I contact you. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it myself. He said that if anyone could find Elissa, it would be you.”
My eyes narrowed. “Did he now?”
Stuart Mosley knew all about my being the assassin the Spider, especially since he had been friends—or something—with Fletcher back when the old man was still alive. I didn’t know exactly what their relationship was, but Fletcher had trusted Mosley to look after all those safety-deposit boxes full of information on the Circle. The dwarf knew far more about Fletcher than he’d ever told me or Finn, and he might know more about Elissa Daniels too.
I’d pay him a visit and find out.
“Is something wrong?” Jade asked. “Why are you asking so many questions about Mr. Mosley?”
I shook my head. “Just being thorough. Where was the charity event? Tell me everything, no matter how small and insignificant it might seem.”
Jade let go of her glass, picked up her spoon, and started stirring her chili again, but she gave me all the details about the event, who had sponsored it, and some folks who might have attended. But it sounded like your typical charity dinner, so she moved on to Elissa’s friends, classes, and life in general. I listened carefully, absorbing everything she said, while Silvio typed copious notes.
“Then there’s Anthony.” Jade rolled her eyes. “Anthony Fenton, Elissa’s boyfriend.”
“What’s wrong with him?”
“Nothing, except for the fact that his rich parents have spoiled him rotten his entire life. Elissa thinks that he’s the perfect guy.” She rolled her eyes again. “I think he’s a self-entitled jackass.”
I chose my next words carefully. “Do you think that Anthony could be involved in this?”
Jade snorted. “Anthony’s too lazy and self-absorbed to hurt anyone, if that’s what you’re asking. He can’t even be bothered to crawl out of bed before noon. All he cares about is looking good and partying.”
Silvio asked Jade to spell out the names of Elissa’s friends so he could be sure that he was focusing on the right people. He also got Jade to text him a headshot of Elissa, and then asked her about the dinner again, trying to jog her memory and see if she remembered anything else. While they worked, I thought back over everything Jade had told me.
I could see why she was so worried. Nice, smart, responsible, dependable girls like Elissa didn’t just vanish for no reason. Something had happened to her—something bad. And in a city as dirty, violent, and corrupt as Ashland, the longer she was missing, the worse it most likely was.
If she wasn’t already dead.
Walking down the wrong street at the wrong time of day. Smiling at the wrong person. Carrying a designer purse. Wearing a pretty necklace or sporting a cool leather jacket. Sometimes that was all it took to make you a target, especially in this city. And all too often, death struck in an instant. All it took was one punch, one bullet, one slice of a knife to end someone’s life.
I didn’t share my dark thoughts with Jade because I knew that they had already occurred to her, no doubt a hundred times since she’d started her frantic search. Silvio’s face remained carefully neutral while he questioned Jade, but I could see the pity in his eyes. He thought that Elissa might already be dead too.
Finally, Jade had answered all of Silvio’s questions and told us every little detail that she could think of. She hadn’t touched any of her food, except for the iced tea, and she took one more sip of it before setting the glass down, along with her spoon.
“I know that I don’t have any right to ask you this,” she repeated, looking at me again. “This wasn’t the kind of favor we agreed on. That was all business between us, and my favor should be that way too.”
“But?”
“But Stuart Mosley is right. You’re the strongest, toughest, most dangerous person I know,” Jade said in a shaking voice. “If anyone can find Elissa, it’s you, Gin. So please. Please do this for me. If you want money, I will gladly pay you whatever you want. I will do anything to get my sister back. Anything. Just name your price. Anything that I have or that’s in my power to give you, it’s yours. And if I don’t have it, then I will lie and cheat and steal until I do get it for you—as long as it takes.”
I reached across the table and took her cold, trembling hands in my own. “There’s no need for any of that. I owe you a favor, and I am happy to pay up. Favors or not, business or not, I would have helped you anyway.”
Jade stared at me, a mixture of relief and gratitude filling her face. She exhaled, and some of the tension left her body, although she curled her fingers into mine and squeezed them tight. “Thank you, Gin. You don’t know how much this means to me.” More tears glimmered in her green eyes before streaking down her cheeks. “Just . . . just find her. Please, please find her.”
Before it’s too late.
She didn’t say the words. She didn’t have to. We could all hear the clock ticking, counting down what might be left of Elissa’s life—if it hadn’t stopped already. The faint, hopeful note in Jade’s voice made my stomach clench, but I forced myself to nod at her.
“I’ll find your sister. I’ll find Elissa. Wherever she is at. I promise you.”