Help Me Read Free Page B

returned any results, which I thought was weird. Google is supposed to know everything.
    I got up and walked over to the kitchen counter and leaned on a clean area before calling the first number. I wasn’t sure what I’d say, but I had to do something.
    A few minutes later I was putting the last number in my phone and frowning, dejected. All of the other numbers had been out of service and I didn’t have high hopes for anything different. Until the call went through and I heard the phone on the other end ringing.
    “You’ve reached the Eden Club,” a recording of a woman’s voice said in a smooth, and warm, yet professional tone. “Please leave a message.”
    At the beep I gulped and hung up. What was I going to say, “I don’t know who or what this place is, but have you seen my sister, Katherine Devlin?” Sure, that would work very well.
    Eden Club . Maybe that was the place she worked? Or it could’ve been somewhere she met a friend. It could be anything.
    I groaned and shoved my phone and the slip of paper into my pocket. Standing here speculating wasn’t going to do any good. I went back to searching the apartment.
    So intent had I been in sorting through my sister’s possessions, I didn’t notice how late it was getting until I couldn’t see without turning on a light. That too was more work than it should have been. A line of a dozen switches next to the front door powered the overheads and things I didn’t even see.
    Under the bright lights, my frustration and fear grew. I hadn’t found anything that might help me find Kat. She’d filed away every bill for the past three years but nothing for her cell phone, which struck me as odd. And annoying, since it would at least contain more numbers I could try calling.
    But there was nothing anywhere. Unless I came up with a way to teach the beautiful dresses in her closet to speak, I was on my own. Checking my phone again reflexively, an idea came to me. When I’d searched for the phone numbers I found nothing, but maybe the name Eden Club would lead me somewhere.
    I typed it in and clapped my hands together as a map result appeared. The Eden Club was apparently a private membership club, whatever that meant. The address was fairly close by, in an old and very expensive part of the city. That didn’t surprise me. Anyplace that secretive and vague had to be for rich people.
    After casting one last glance around the apartment I made the decision. I was going out. But two steps from the door I realized I couldn’t just stroll in looking like I’d spent a day traveling and digging through the rubble of Kat’s apartment. If this was where she worked and for exclusive clientele, I had to look presentable enough for them to let me in the front door.
    Not wanting to waste too much time, I hopped in the shower quickly and then put on the nicest thing I had in my suitcase. Something of Kat’s would have been more appropriate, but her tall, willowy frame was the opposite of my short, curvy one.
    So, in the dress I’d planned to wear for our planned graduation dinner, I swiped a bit of makeup on my face and twisted my damp hair up into something approximating a chic something or other. I was as ready as I was going to get.
    I was downstairs and about to find a cab when I remembered I had no money at all. From the map, the club was too far to walk to, especially in heels and no jacket. I walked a couple of blocks and then hailed down a taxi. I had my “for emergencies only” credit card, and this certainly qualified.
    Within minutes I was deposited on a lovely cobblestone street lined with beautiful old-style rowhouses. There was a group of ten or so people heading up the stairs to the door I wanted, and I hurried to join them. They were a strange collection of people, to be sure. Most of the men were pretty old. Gray hair and wrinkles, but clad in beautiful suits even I could tell were expensive. The women were of various ages from mid-twenties to forties, but