Vanishing Act Read Free Page A

features symmetrical. Like her brother, she could have fit into any college campus in the country.
    â€œMay I?” Bryan asked as he reached over and took the flyer from me. He devoured it with his eyes before sighing and handing it back. “She’s pretty, isn’t she?”
    â€œVery,” I replied, noting his use of the present tense. I hoped he was right. I hoped it wasn’t just wishful thinking. “When was this taken?”
    â€œLast year.”
    â€œShe looks happy.”
    â€œShe was.”
    I indicated the house in the background. “Is this your home?”
    He nodded.
    I pointed to the flyer while I tried not to think about how much I wanted a cigarette. “May I keep this?”
    â€œSure. I have lots more.”
    â€œWhere’d you put them up?”
    â€œMostly around campus. You think I should have put them up some other places too?” he asked worriedly.
    I reassured him while I smoothed out the paper and laid it on the table. Melissa looked like someone who would be kind to children and animals, and I hoped she would fall in with the ninety-five percent of missing persons who vanish because they wanted to rather than the five percent who are kidnapped and killed.
    â€œHave the police been through her belongings?”
    Bryan nodded. “I gave them her address book.”
    â€œDo you know if she kept a diary?”
    â€œNo. She always she said she was going to start, but she never got around to it. I suppose you want to see her room too?” His voice betrayed the slightest hint of exasperation.
    â€œIt would be helpful, unless, of course, you have a problem with that.”
    â€œNo,” he replied quickly. “None at all.”
    I tapped my fingers on the table while I gathered my thoughts. I was finding it difficult to concentrate in the surrounding din. We should have gone somewhere else. Bryan opened his mouth to say something, thought better of it, closed it again, and took his hat off, ran his fingers through his hair, and put it back on again.
    â€œDo you have something you want to tell me?” I asked as I got my notebook and pen out of my backpack.
    Bryan licked his lips.
    I opened the notebook. “I can’t help you if I don’t have all the information.”
    â€œTalk to Tommy West.” Bryan spit the name out as if it had been a tack.
    â€œWho’s that?”
    â€œMelissa’s boyfriend.”
    I felt as if I were playing twenty questions. “Okay. What about him?”
    â€œThey were always fighting.”
    I thought about Murphy. And George. “Lots of couples fight.”
    â€œShe was getting ready to dump him and he didn’t like that. He said he wasn’t going to let her go.”
    â€œDid you tell this to the police?”
    â€œOf course.”
    â€œAnd?”
    â€œA detective interviewed him. For all the good it did.” Bryan’s tone was bitter. “Marks ...”
    â€œ... the detective?”
    â€œRight.”
    I wrote his name down and underlined it.
    â€œ... said West didn’t have anything to do with Missy’s disappearance. ”
    I stated the self-evident. “But you disagree. You think he’s involved.”
    Bryan contorted his face into a ferocious frown. “The guy’s a scumbag,” he told me, stretching out the last word. “I told Missy to stay away from him, but she wouldn’t listen. She told me to mind my own business.”
    â€œWhy is he a scumbag?”
    Bryan clenched and unclenched his fists while he talked. “West thinks he owns the world. He thinks he can do whatever the fuck he wants to whoever he wants. His kind always do.”
    â€œHis kind?”
    â€œYeah.”
    â€œCould you be a little more explicit?”
    But Bryan was on a roll and didn’t want to stop to answer my question. “I mean on top of everything else, he’s got that goddamned snake. Anyone who keeps something like