Diners, Dives & Dead Ends (7 page)

“No, really?” Roxy asked,
around a wad of gum.  “Why didn’t you call me?”

To be honest, it never
occurred to me.  I was so used to handling things on my own, I never thought of
calling anyone for help.  Besides, what if the two men were watching my apartment? 
I didn’t want Roxy in their crosshairs, too.

Ma pursed her lips, causing
her wrinkles to deepen.  “Did you call the police?”

“No, this guy made it seem
like a bad idea.  But I am going to report Axton missing.  I’m just not going
to mention anything about this guy.  That’s the right thing to do, right?  But
what if it isn’t?  Oh my God, what am I going to do?” 

“Okay, honey,” Ma led me to
the nearest chair, gently pushing on my shoulder until I sat.  “No more coffee
for you.  Now, do you have any idea who this man was?”  She pulled out a chair
next to me and plonked her bony butt on the edge of it.  She put her hand over
my knee, which was bouncing like a jackhammer.   

“I don’t know.  I don’t know
who he is or what he does, or how he knew everything about me.  I have to find
Ax.”  I reached out and grabbed Ma’s hand.  “And I haven’t heard from him since
Monday night.  I’ve racked my brain, but I don’t know where he could be.”

“It’s going to be all right,
Rose.  Axton’s probably just hiding out somewhere.” 

I shook my head.  “Where?  I
know where Axton goes and what he does.  What if he’s…”  I couldn’t even bring
myself to say it, but it had been circling my brain since last night.  What if
Axton was lying out there, hurt and unable to get to a phone?  What if he was
dead? 

“No, Rose,” Ma said
forcefully, squeezing my fingers.  “He’s just fine, do you hear me?  He’s fine. 
You have to believe that.”

“Okay.”  I wanted to believe
it.

Ma glanced out the window at
the line of people standing outside the door.  “Why don’t you go home today, honey?”

“I’m too wired.  I need to
work.  I need the money.  And I can’t go back there until I get a new lock.”

Roxy, uncharacteristically
quiet, bit her lip.  She looked worried.  And if Roxy looked worried, that was
saying something.

I cleared my throat, got up
from the table, and put a smile on my face.  “You know what?  It’s going to be
fine.”  Neither Ma nor Roxy appeared convinced.  “Really.  Just fine.  I’m
going to find Axton.  End of story.  See?  I have a plan.”  I had no idea what
that plan would entail, but those were just details.  I moved to the door and
flipped the open sign.

I don’t think in the five
years since I’d worked at Ma’s I had ever been quite so speedy.  I felt like I
was on fast forward.  I forced myself to be cheerful to customers as I whirled
around filling coffee, taking orders, helping Roxy and Ma get their food out. 
My tips had never been so good.  But it didn’t last.  Before noon, my
caffeinated high crashed and left me cranky.  When a customer sent back his
omelet for the second time, I nearly burst into tears.

Ma stood next to me at the
kitchen pass through with a carafe of coffee in her hand.  “Roxy and I will
finish here.  She said you can go to her place and get some sleep.  Ray will
come by your apartment later and put on a new lock.”

“Bu—”

“I’m not asking you, Rose,
I’m telling you.  You look like shit warmed over, toots.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“Just telling it like I see
it.  Now get out of here.  I’ll take that jackass his omelet.”

“Okay.”

Roxy came up behind me, took
my elbow, and ushered me into the kitchen where she took her apartment key off
her key ring.  “Take a shower and try to get some sleep.  You can change, too,
if you want.  Sweats and stuff are in the third drawer of my dresser.”

I got a little teary. 
“You’re a good friend, Rox.”

She rolled her eyes.  “Jeez
Louise, you are one hot mess today.”  She spun on her heel and left the
kitchen.

I went to the pantry and
pulled the syrup box off the shelf.  I dug out Ax’s backpack and stuck his laptop
and the shiny computer doodad in my own backpack.  I still needed to take it to
the IT office for Steve to look at.  Then I put everything back and walked out
to the kitchen.

Jorge stopped me before I
left.  “Are you all right, chica?  Do you need to come stay with me and
Marisol?  You’ll have to sleep on the floor in the baby’s room.  Marisol’s
brother is sleeping on the sofa until his wife takes him back.”

“Thanks Jorge, but I’ll be
okay.”

He hugged me with one arm
decorated with colorful sleeve tattoos.  “Let me know if you change your mind.”

Now I really was about to
cry.  I took off my apron, grabbed my jacket and said goodbye as quickly as I
could before I broke down completely.

I let myself into Roxy’s
apartment—well, you could call it an apartment if you were being generous.  I
had a studio with an economy kitchen.  Roxy’s place was a room with a
hotplate.  A rack with wheels held most her clothes.  A sewing machine was set
up along one wall and a
Sailor Moon
poster hung on the door.

Her bathroom was the size of
a small closet with light pink tile that had been popular sometime during the
Eisenhower administration.  But it was clean and organized and the shower felt
good.   

I put my bra and panties
back on, and from Roxy’s dresser I chose a Hello Kitty t-shirt and a pair of worn
sweatpants that were a little short on me.

I sat crossed-legged on the
bed and pulled my hair into a ponytail and wondered what I should do next. 
Quitting at this point was not even an option.  I had to find Axton before The
Bossy Jackass did—or BJ as I was starting to think of him.  Axton had something
that belonged to him.  It had to be related to that club Axton went to.  And it
had to be in the backpack Axton gave me.  The computer stuff was the only
option, unless BJ was jonesing for a used copy of
The Hobbit
.      

Exhausted and out of ideas, I
sighed and crawled under the blanket and decided to rest for an hour.

I must have slept harder
than I thought because when I awoke, Roxy was sitting on the other side of the
bed reading a paperback book with a Japanese anime drawing on the cover.

“Hey,” I said around a
yawn.  “What time is it?”

“After four.  Ray got your
new lock put on and left the keys with your landlord.”  She flipped a page. 
“You make a funny noise when you sleep.”

 “Like what?  Do you mean
snoring?”

“More like a soft humpf,
humpf.  You do it over and over and then you stop for a while.”

“Are you serious?”  I
scanned her face to see if she was teasing me.  She was not.  “So I’m a
humpfer.  That’s what I am I guess.”  No one had ever told me that I made
noises when I sleep.  “Was it annoying?”

“I got used to it after a
while.  So, what’s the next step in getting Axton back?”

“I need to take Axton’s
computer to Steve.”

“Who?”

“Right, I forgot to tell you
about him.”  I filled her in on Mr. Grabby.  “Then I’m going to have dinner at
my parent’s house so my mother can harass me and hopefully give me Packard
Graystone’s phone number.  I doubt Axton told his brother anything, but it
wouldn’t hurt to make sure.”

“Sounds like a plan.”

“Not a great one.”

We sat in silence a few moments. 
The only sound in the apartment was Roxy slowly and quietly—at least for her—
chewing her nicotine gum.  The stillness finally broke when my stomach growled.

“I’m going to go see Steve.” 
I stood up, folded my jeans, and slipped on my jacket, promising Roxy I would
wash her clothes and bring them back.  I left feeling much better than I had
that morning.  The coffee was out of my system, I’d slept for over three hours,
and my apartment had a new lock, thanks to Ray.

On my way to the campus, I picked
up sub sandwiches for Steve and me.  It was the least I could do, since he was
helping me with Ax’s computer.  Plus, I was starving. 

The college was fairly
quiet.  Most of the day students were gone and the night classes didn’t start
for at least two hours.  I snagged a great spot in the parking lot for a
change.

The basement of Blake Hall
was dimly lit with gray concrete floors and ugly green subway-tiled walls. 
Wedged between the men’s room and the supply closet, the tiny IT office was
crowded with multiple desks, numerous computers, and two guys. 

Both men looked up at me
when I opened the door, a sandwich sack in my hand and my backpack over my shoulder. 
Steve sat in the back corner and Eric, whom I had met before, sat in the middle
of the room.  The empty desk at the back wall was Axton’s.  A wave of anxiety
rolled over me when I saw it.  Ax should be sitting there, fiddling with… 
Well, whatever computer stuff he fiddled with.  I missed him. 

I smiled.  “Hello.”

Steve jumped out of his
chair.  “Hey, I thought you’d forgotten.”

“Sorry, I’m just running
late.”

“Rose, this is Eric.”

“Yeah, I know.  Eric and I
sang a karaoke duet at last year’s Christmas party.” 
Islands in the Stream.
 
It wasn’t pretty.

“Where the hell is Axton?”
Eric asked. “We were in deep shit yesterday with that server.”  In his late
thirties, Eric’s spare tire was little bigger than the last time I’d seen him
and his hair was definitely thinner.

I raised my eyebrows at
Steve. “Didn’t you tell him?”

“I kind of forgot.”

I turned back to Eric. 
“Axton’s missing.  He gave me his computer for safekeeping, but I can’t get
into it without a password.”  I tilted my head sideways in Steve’s direction.
“Steve said he’d try to get into Axton’s computer and see if there’s anything
that’ll help me find him.”

“Missing?”  Eric ran his
hand over his stubble-covered cheek and frowned.  “Are you sure he didn’t just
leave for a few days?  He’s done that before, you know.”

“Only for important stuff
like Comic-Con or a Trekkie convention,” I said.  “I always knew where he was. 
Besides, he wouldn’t leave behind his car or his backpack.”

Eric’s frown deepened. 
“Have you called the police?”

“Yeah, but they won’t let me
file a report until he’s been missing forty-eight hours.”

“Are you sure he’s not on a
bender?” Eric asked.

“He is not on a bender.”  Why
wouldn’t he believe me?  Axton wasn’t off on an adventure or out getting
stoned, the guy was missing.  “There’s a strange man looking for him, says
Axton has something that belongs to him.  Do you know what Ax was up to?  Do
you know anything about a club he went to a couple of nights ago?” 

“He didn’t mention it.” 
Eric reached his hands out to me.  “Let’s get a look at that computer.” 

I shrugged at Steve.  He
frowned and shrugged back. 

First I handed the backpack
to Eric, then I handed the food to Steve.  “I brought you a sandwich as a thank
you.”

Steve adjusted his glasses. 
“That was really thoughtful of you.  Thanks.”  

Eric dug Axton’s computer
out of the bag and booted it up.  “Where did this internal hard drive come
from?”  He held up the shiny rectangle.   

“I don’t know.  I wasn’t
even sure what it was.  There’s another sandwich in the sack, Eric.  You can
have it.”

He grabbed a sandwich out of
the bag, unwrapped it, and peeked beneath the bread.  “Bring ham next time.”    

I rolled my eyes.  “You’re
welcome.  How long do you think it will take?”

“Don’t know.  May take a few
minutes or I may have to run a program.  Maybe longer if the hard drive is
encrypted.”  He finally glanced up at me.  “You want to come back tomorrow?” 

I grabbed my backpack from
Eric’s desk.  “Yeah, thanks.  I’ll probably be here around two-thirty.  By the
way, if you find anything about NorthStar Inc., pay special attention to that,
would you?”  I stuck my hand in my purse and brought out all the burned CDs I’d
taken from Axton’s desk.  “You might look at these, too.” 

“Okay.  And Rose?  You
better find Axton soon or he won’t have a job to come back to.”

When I got home I was
disappointed there were no messages from Axton or Dane.  There was, however,
one from Jacks telling me she was excited I was coming to dinner.  That made
one of us.  And yet another message from Kevin, which I deleted. 

Girding myself for dinner
with my parents, I straightened my hair, put on some makeup, and donned a pair
of black slacks and nice flats.  I took one last look in the mirror and made a
face.   

My parents lived in a
subdivision called The Greens, which skirted a golf course—of course.  In an
effort to downsize, they bought this home a few years back.  My childhood home
boasted a two acre plot with easy access to horse trails, which we never made
use of because we had no horses.  My mother was allergic.  This newer, smaller
house had four bedrooms, five baths, a media room, a state of the art kitchen,
and a game room.  But it was less of a home, more of a showplace.  A sterile,
gorgeous showplace.