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  Her thin smile vanished into thin air. “I’m sorry, sir, but if you don’t have a ticket, you ain’t getting in.”

  I stared at her badge, which I thought said Tina.

  “I do have a ticket, Tina. It’s been stolen, and the guy who stole it is inside.”

  I felt a bony finger tapping my shoulder. “Get out of the way. It’s freezing out here.”

  With an irritated glance, I shushed the woman behind me. “Can you please check the list? I won two tickets from the radio station. WJAX. I’m supposed to go backstage with my girlfriend after the show. I don’t have time for this, Tina.”

  “You don’t have a ticket, and I ain’t got no list. Please move out of the way.”

  “I’m not moving until you call someone who knows what the hell they’re doing.” Tina didn’t lift a red-painted fingernail to help me. “Look, either you call someone or I’ll stand here all night and hold up this line.” Another window next to the one Tina manned opened up immediately, and the disgruntled crowd littered me with profanity as they eased out from behind me.

  “You were saying?”

  “I’m not trying to be a pain in the ass, but I’m legit. Please, call your boss. Ask someone. My name is Levi Wallace, and I’m supposed to be on the VIP list.”

  With a sigh of exasperation, Tina removed her earring, closed the box office window and picked up the phone beside her. I watched her every move through the dirty glass. After a full minute of back-and-forth with whoever was on the phone, she told me to wait off to the side. “He is on the way.”

  “Great. Finally. Thanks.” I shook my head and dug for a smoke while I waited. I could hear the dull thump of music and smell the faint hint of marijuana smoke in the fall air. What a horrible day! I paced the sidewalk in front of the box office for five minutes. Just when I was beginning to think that good old Tina had lied to me, a blue-clad security officer approached. Make that two security officers.

  “Sir, how may I help you?”

  “As I was telling Tina, a guy from work stole my ticket. I won a pair of tickets from the radio station WJAX. I gave one to my girlfriend, and I had the other one, which was stolen. My name is Levi Wallace. The guy who took my ticket is in my seat.”

  “You have to have a ticket to get in,” the younger guard informed me. Was this guy thick or what?

  “I have a ticket, but it was stolen from my locker at work. If you check your list there, you’ll probably find my name on it. Levi Wallace.”

  The younger guy held his flashlight up while the older one perused the list. After a minute, he tucked his clipboard under his arm and stared me down hard. “What are you trying to pull?”

  “Come on, don’t give me a hard time. I know I’m on there. I talked to Hillbilly John, and I got the tickets in the mail. Please, I’m wasting time out here. I’m supposed to be with Lisa.”

  “You’ve already checked in, Mr. Wallace. Can’t let you in twice, can I?”

  I rubbed my hands over my face. Okay, this was definitely a Twilight Zone episode. “What’s the matter with you? Obviously, I’m not inside; I haven’t checked in because I’m out here with you two.” I pulled my wallet out of my pocket and flipped it open. “See? I’m Levi Wallace. Whoever checked in as me isn’t me. Capiche?”

  “Hey, I don’t appreciate the swearwords. Not in any language. Clearly, you are trying to run some kind of scam, Mr. Wallace. You let your friend go inside and now you want us to let you in too, but it’s not going to happen. This isn’t my first day on the job. Go home or you can take a ride downtown to explain this situation to the police.”

  “So you aren’t going to help me? My ticket got stolen and you don’t give a damn. That’s it?”

  “That’s it,” the younger man said. “Now go home, capiche?”

  I stared after them as they walked away. After shooting a dirty look in Tina’s direction, I went back the way I had come. This wasn’t the way I expected this day to end. Not at all. I had a ring in my pocket but no Lisa, and I wasn’t getting into the concert. I would never see the Black Knights or hear Elegant Black played live. Worst of all, my dreams of popping the question at that exact moment were shot to hell. And I had Sanja and Bill and Tina and those lazy security officers to blame for that.

  There was nobody on the street. Nobody at all. It was pitch black now; I hadn’t noticed how few lights there were on this side of town when I parked my car earlier. I removed my keys from my pocket and opened the door, then got behind the wheel and did something I never did. I couldn’t remember the last time I cried, but now I couldn’t stop it.

  I cried for a solid five minutes.

  Chapter Eight—Levi

  I didn’t immediately go upstairs when I got home. I held on to the hope that Lisa would come see me once the concert was over. I mean, I was the one who got her the ticket. The least she could do was come and show me how appreciative she was of my generosity. I was kind of pissed that she didn’t leave the concert when she saw I wasn’t there, but what did I expect? Would I have passed up the opportunity to hang out with the Black Knights backstage? Hell no. But Lisa being backstage and me being backstage were two different things.

  More than once an image of Lisa wrapped up in Rex Teaser’s sinewy arms came to mind. I swore under my breath, but my overactive imagination continued to offer up pictures of the two of them kissing, Rex’s petulant lips on Lisa’s, his eyes on mine over her shoulder as if to say, “I’m the man you’ll never be. See what I have now?” I shook the image away and scoured the basement for a pack of fresh cigarettes. Lisa was always leaving hers here.

  Time passed by achingly slowly with no sign of my would-be fiancée. I waited till midnight figuring that the crowds had held her up from coming home. I should’ve stuck around and waited to see if her car was in the parking lot. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that before. Well, it was too late now. The concert was over. I shoved the ring under the pillow and paced the floor; then I couldn’t stand that anymore and began fiddling around with my guitar. That lasted a while, but around midnight I gave up waiting. It was cold in the basement, and I decided to go upstairs to check on Naomi and see if Deb was home yet. I could hear Naomi snoring through her closed bedroom door, so I knew she was okay. I tapped on Debbie’s door, but again there was no answer. I opened it hoping I would see her snoozing away, but she wasn’t there. I wanted nothing more than to hear her yell at me, “Get out of my room, nosy!” To make matters worse, it didn’t look like she’d been here all day. Her purse and book satchel were exactly where they had been this morning. Why hadn’t I checked on her before going to the concert? This was terribly wrong.

  What am I supposed to do?

  No way should Debbie be out this late; she was not the kind of person to sneak out or go off without telling me about it. I slid open her closet door and frowned at the sight of her overnight bag untouched and unmoved. So she wasn’t spending the night with Pamela or anyone else. Deb was missing! The phone rang downstairs, and I raced toward it.

  Debbie!

  “Hello? Hello? Deb?” I waited, but nobody responded. “Hey! Can you hear me?” After a few seconds, I could detect ragged breathing on the other end of the line, but whoever it was didn’t say a word. “Deb? Are you hurt? Are you in trouble?” My desperation rose to new and horrible heights.

  Nothing but breathing. No. It didn’t sound like Deb. Before I expressed my frustration with a litany of swearwords, a familiar voice echoed back to me, “Levi, get your sister and mother and get out of the house.” More labored breathing. “You have to get them out. I’m warning you because I love you, son. I know you don’t trust me, but you have to get everyone out of there now! I wanted to tell you before, but there was no time! No time, Levi!”

  Was he drunk? Why was the Old Man calling me now? I glanced at the clock on the wall—it was almost one in the morning. It wasn’t like him to be up this late…or to be concerned about my welfare. To say I was distrustful was an understatement. But I was a
lso desperate and hoping he might have answers that I didn’t.

  “Dad, Debbie is gone. I can’t find her, and she hasn’t been home all day. I think we need to call the cops!” I heard him whimper at the news.

  “They won’t help us! Oh, God! That means I’m too late. You have to go, Levi. Leave now because they know where you are. That’s all I can say. Please, for once in your life, listen to me!”

  And without another word Dad hung up the phone, leaving me with more questions than I had answers for. And what about Debbie? What a jerk! I held the phone in my hand and listened as the dial tone began to screech. I slammed it on the hook and waited all of ten seconds before making the call I should have made earlier today, dialing the numbers with shaking fingers. I needed to wake up Naomi, but she was probably stoned out of her gourd and would wind up telling me to go to bed like I was a ten-year-old. She’d brush Deb’s disappearance off, but I couldn’t. Debbie was the only good thing in my life, and I couldn’t let her down. She needed me. She needed someone to care about her, and I was that someone—as I had always been.

  “Eugene Springs Police Department. What is your emergency?”

  “I’m calling about my sister. She’s only seventeen, and she’s been gone all day. Her name is Debbie Marie Wallace. I don’t know where she is, and I am worried about her. Please, can you help me?”

  The dispatcher took my information and promised that an officer would come out to the house soon. How long had it been since I’d slept? It felt like a thousand years. As I poured myself a cup of coffee and loaded it with several spoons of sugar, I heard footsteps upstairs. Right above my head, like someone was in Debbie’s room. What the hell? Before I could check it out, a car pulled into my driveway. With one last glance up at the ceiling, I hurried down the narrow hall to the front door and looked out the window. It was a squad car—that didn’t take long. I opened the door and invited the officer in.

  “Levi Wallace?”

  “Yes, sir, that’s me. I called about my sister, Debbie. She’s missing.”

  “May I come in?”

  “Yes, of course.” I closed the door and looked one more time down the driveway, but there was no sign of Lisa. Before I could get into a conversation with the officer, the phone rang again. I raced to it, hoping that I would hear Debbie’s voice on the other end, but she wasn’t there. And it wasn’t my dad this time. I could hear music playing, familiar music. Was that Elegant Black?

  “Why didn’t you come? You were expected. We were all expecting you.” Even though I had never heard the Creep’s voice in my life, I knew this was him. A chill ran through my body, and I felt sick. “Everyone is very disappointed, Levi.”

  “Who are you? What do you want?” I didn’t dare ask the question that was on the tip of my tongue: Where is my sister?

  “You have company,” he tsked into the phone at me. “Bad move, man. They can’t help you. We know where you are and we’re coming for you, Sus-tain-er!” His voice trailed off into a kind of hiss at the end. I heard the sounds of muffled screams, female voices, and I couldn’t stop myself from screaming, “Debbie!”

  “Who is on the phone?” The officer raced to my side, but I couldn’t release the receiver. I couldn’t stop listening to the horrible sounds on the other end of the line. Something terrible had happened to Debbie! The Creep had my sister, but for what reason? I handed him the phone, but there was nothing but the dial tone now.

  With a grim expression, the officer led me to the kitchen table and flipped open his notebook.

  “What is really going on here, Mr. Wallace? Is there someone who has a vendetta against you and your family? Is your sister involved in anything illegal?”

  Sustainer! What the hell did that mean?

  “Debbie is a good kid. She’s a straight-A student. My sister would never be involved in anything illegal. But there was this guy on the bus yesterday…Friday night, I mean. I saw him outside the house too, peeping on Naomi. I think that might have been him on the phone just now.”

  “I think you’d better start from the beginning, Mr. Wallace. Don’t leave anything out.”

  Chapter Nine—Levi

  I thought you had to wait forty-eight hours before filing a missing persons report, since that’s how they always did it on the Rockford Files, but Officer Loomis thankfully took my report seriously. Within thirty minutes he was on the radio giving my sister’s description to his department, and an hour later four more officers were at my house going through Debbie’s things. I managed to roust Naomi from her comfortable bed, but it took her hungover brain a good fifteen minutes to process what was happening—that Debbie was missing and probably in the hands of this weird stalker. But once the seriousness of the situation dawned on her, she was as worried and fearful as I was.

  “You didn’t realize your daughter was missing, Mrs. Wallace? Where is your husband?”

  She clasped her hands together, and her silver bracelets bounced at her wrists. Naomi loved her silver jewelry. “She’s seventeen. I try to give her her space, and I’ve been looking for a job. My husband…my husband left us, officer.”

  “What about this guy on the bus? Tell me again what he looks like.” Loomis set his pencil and notebook down as another guy headed to the basement. There wasn’t anything illegal down there, not anymore, but it still made me nervous.

  I ran through the description of the Creep with Loomis several times without complaining even though I thought it was pretty stupid to continue badgering me about it. I did what he asked, I called Pamela’s house and a few of Debbie’s other friends to see if my sister had slept over without me knowing, but she hadn’t. Nobody had seen her since Friday, and Pamela told me that Deb was a no-show for both chorus practice and their concert yesterday. If I hadn’t been worried before, I was certainly worried now. No way would my sister ever miss a school event. Not even one that she didn’t really enjoy. She was nothing if not a good student and a good sister.

  “I need a recent picture of Debbie. Do you have one I could borrow, Mrs. Wallace?”

  “Sure, there’s one in the living room.”

  “I’ll get it,” I said as I patted Naomi on the shoulder. I couldn’t be angry at her now. It wasn’t her fault that Deb was missing. It had to be mine. I was the one who led the Creep here. But why? Why had he chosen me to harass? I retrieved the photo of Deb from the silver frame. She hated her senior portrait, but I thought it turned out great. She was leaning against a tree on the front lawn of the high school. Her hair was down and shining in the sunlight. You could see so much hope in those brown eyes.

  I’ll bring you home, Deb. I promise!

  “Here. This is the most recent photo we have of Debbie.”

  “This is great. Thanks. Hey, Reynolds…”

  I walked to the door again hoping to see Lisa’s car. She never showed, never called. It wasn’t like her to be so disconnected. Yeah, I guess that was the word I was looking for. It was five in the morning now. I realized that only Officer Loomis was left, and he was packing up his notebook and pencil.

  “The shift is about to change, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t taking your sister’s case seriously. I don’t want to alarm either of you, but there is another case similar to this one. A young girl went missing just a few streets over last week. I’m sure they’re not connected, but we have to look at all the possibilities.”

  I put my arm around Naomi’s shoulders, and she buried her face in my neck and cried.

  Loomis cleared his throat. “The chances of them being connected are so remote, and it may be that your sister comes home. Some kids will surprise you with the things they do, even good kids. Call me if she calls or comes home. I promise you both that if I hear anything I will call you. You guys plan on being home all day? The detectives may have more questions for you.”

  “Yeah, I’m off today. We will both be here.”

  “Very good. Well, try to get some rest but keep the phone handy. Like I said, I will let you know if I hear
anything.” Officer Loomis rose from the wooden chair. He was a tall man, taller than me and I was five eleven. He rubbed his hat in his hands and looked like he wanted to say something else, but he didn’t. He slapped the cap on his head and walked out the back door, leaving Naomi and me alone in the increasingly bright kitchen.

  We didn’t talk much, but eventually I convinced her to lie on the couch while I took Dad’s worn recliner. I hadn’t told Officer Loomis about the Old Man’s phone call earlier since it didn’t seem relevant at the time, but now I thought perhaps that was a mistake. It must be relevant; somehow Dad knew there was trouble coming, trouble for all of us, but once again he’d let us all down. I covered Naomi up with a fuzzy crocheted blanket left over from my late Aunt Gina’s extensive collection. It was soft and comforting, and it had been my favorite when I was a kid.

  I eased down in the recliner and closed my eyes thinking that I’d only sleep for a few minutes. I planned on calling Lisa at eight o’clock just to fill her in on this whole damn situation if nothing else. Even if we weren’t together anymore—I mean, that’s how I interpreted things—I knew that she loved Debbie like a little sister and that she would be concerned for her. Sleep came too easily because my head had barely hit the back of the chair when I woke myself up snoring. No, that wasn’t me snoring but Naomi. But I’d been drooling because the side of my mouth was wet when I wiped my face and pondered going upstairs to curl up in my bed. This chair wasn’t comfortable at all. My back was killing me, probably from lugging boxes out of Sanja’s warehouse for hours yesterday. I decided against moving in case I didn’t hear the phone. I knew for sure that until her pill wore off, Naomi might not hear it. I leaned back a little further in the chair as the springs complained beneath me. Maybe if I repositioned, I could get some relief. After some tossing and turning, I thought I found a spot. Before I could close my eyes, I caught a glimpse of something moving in the doorway between the living room and the kitchen.