Like a Sister(64)

He shook his head. “We didn’t see them again until close to midnight. Things still appeared frosty. They walked side by side but didn’t seem to be speaking.”

“They were alone?” I said since he’d mentioned someone had been inside the room.

“No, Zarah was with them.” He smiled. Sheepish. He’d used her first name. No “Ms.” It meant one thing: he watched her show.

“Sherry said you were having problems with Erin. That you banned her from the hotel?”

“Sherry has been spoken to about being so talkative,” he said. “Look. I have friends at other hotels. Ms. Ambrose has developed a rep for forgetting to pay her bill. There’s always an issue with a credit card, promises her accountant is wiring over money, mock surprise when it doesn’t show up. Just when we’re about to call the police, she appears with a cashier’s check. Or a friend bails her out. So no, she wasn’t banned, but we were going to suggest she not come back. But we haven’t seen her since Ms. Pierce’s things were picked up. She called us that same day to say someone was coming to pick up all her stuff. I didn’t ask where they were taking it.”

It looked like my scavenger hunt was over.





Twenty-One



After I left Javi, I circled the block, trying to figure out what to do next. My first thought was Zarah, so I blew her up any way I could think of. iMessage. Voice mail. Even WhatsApp. No dice. Probably still under doctor’s orders.

On my second trip past an Equinox, it hit me that my only other connection to Erin was her ex Billy. I could take the subway up to Gravity Fitness to see if he knew any other hotels she’d stay at. It was a long shot, but I was still cocked and ready to shoot.

The 14th Street station was a block west. The humidity had followed me to the subway platform like a stalker, clinging in ways my favorite black T-shirt never did. The platform wasn’t crowded. At least not yet. I’d beaten the work crowd by a good hour. A group of Black teenagers with a boom box stood on the uptown side. Their demeanor and outfits were a dead giveaway they had big plans to entertain the masses on the ride up. Kids like that were the sole reason I carried cash.

I dialed Zarah again. She finally picked up. “Terri?”

I paused. She clearly hadn’t checked the ID. “It’s Lena.”

“Oh. Hey. Sorry, I thought you were the assistant at my doctor’s office. I’m in desperate need of more meds.”

I checked the digital display hanging from the ceiling. Two minutes until the next E uptown. My time with service was limited. “Sorry to hear that,” I said, then jumped right in. “Desiree and Erin fought the night she died?”

There was a pause long enough for the countdown to change from two minutes to one. We weren’t on FaceTime so I could only imagine her expression. “Yes…”

I waited for her to say more, then prodded her along when she didn’t. “About?”

She said nothing, so I spoke again. “Maybe Desiree found something out about Erin?”

“I honestly don’t know. Neither said anything. I was running late as usual so I was mostly in the bathroom getting my face together. I don’t think either of them trusted me yet, and since Desiree and I still weren’t back where we used to be, I sure as hell wasn’t going to ask why they were being weird. I did see Erin snatch her phone out of Desiree’s hand.”

Understandable but no less frustrating. “How did they seem the rest of the night?”

“Erin seemed more put out than Desiree. But then Desiree had pregamed hard so there was nothing that’d keep her in a bad mood.”

I glanced at the subway display. “Did Erin ever mention where she was from?”

She thought it over. “Now that I think about it, no. But she definitely name-dropped everything else like she was new money. What’s up with all the questions?”

There wasn’t enough time to explain. “Nothing. It’s just she offered to take me on a trip to LA. Figured I should know who I’d be traveling with.”

The display flashed zero and the uptown train pulled in. One of the Black kids picked up the boom box as the doors opened and the crowd spilled out.

“Don’t do it,” Zarah said. “Naut’s still waiting for her to pay him back for putting a Costa Rica trip on his card. She booked the hotel. Said she’d pay for everything. Of course, her card was declined. A mistake, she said. Told him her accountant would take care of it as soon as we got back…”

“Did Desiree know?”

“Yep. She got defensive when I brought it up, like I was talking about her. Said Erin was good for it. That Erin’d paid her back for a trip they took a few months ago. You know, your sister even had that girl spend the night at my apartment. Something about needing to check out of her hotel. You know she stayed four days? Thought I got rid of her, but she’d left her credit card at my place. Came back and stayed two more nights.”

And just like that I finally knew where to find Erin.

Home. Not alone either.

Shitnuts.

I thanked Zarah and hung up with a choice to make. Stay on the platform with guaranteed cell service to call Aunt E or get on the train. I checked the display again. Eight minutes until the next train. Too long to be idle, especially with a fifty-minute subway ride, double that time for an Uber.