Page 77 of The Liar

“Hmm… no. Nothing stands out.”

I sighed. “Thanks, anyway. Let us know if you remember anything.”

The woman cocked her head. “You’ll be around?”

I nodded. “Probably on and off until she turns up.”

“Okay.” She said a quick good-night and shut the door.

“What next?” West asked.

I considered for a moment. “The building manager. I walked past a room labeled ‘manager’ on the ground floor.”

“They’re probably not in at this time of night,” he pointed out.

“Worth a shot anyway. Do you mind waiting here while I go? I don’t want to leave the room unattended.”

He smirked. “You’d leave your bartender husband in charge of a crime scene?”

“Better you than no one at all. We can’t afford to waste time.” Every second we hesitated was another in which Portia was at risk.

His expression sobered. “I know. Go.”

I hurried along the corridor and down four flights ofstairs. When I reached the door labeled “building manager,” I knocked. To my surprise, the door opened almost immediately. A short woman with long black hair loose around her shoulders, who was wearing a graphic T-shirt, looked up at me curiously.

“It’s nearly midnight.” She sounded confused. “Is there something I can help you with?”

“Are you the building manager?” I hadn’t expected her to be quite so young.

“Yes.” Her eyes narrowed. “You’re not a tenant though.”

“No, I’m not.” I showed her my badge. “Detective Joanna Lee. Chicago Police Department. I’d like to look at your security footage from earlier tonight.”

She arched an eyebrow. “Do you have a warrant, Detective Lee?”

“No,” I admitted. “But one of your tenants has been reported missing by a coworker and her apartment has been trashed.”

Her eyebrow inched up even higher. “An apartment you entered unlawfully?”

“No. The lock was broken, and the door opened as soon as we touched it. Besides, we had reason to be concerned for the wellbeing of its occupant.”

She opened the door wider to reveal a wall of computers behind her, and a laptop on the center of the desk with a gaming console connected.

“What room?” she asked. “If I can confirm that it doesn’t look right, you can watch the security footage. Only the corridors, elevators and stairs.”

“I appreciate that,” I told her. “I’ll get a warrant in the morning to make it official.”

I doubted we’d be catching any judges this late, and hopefully we wouldn’t need to.

“Good.” She offered me her hand. “I’m Kim.”

I shook it. “Nice to meet you, Kim.”

She released me and hurried away—presumably to check on Portia’s apartment. I considered following her but decided to wait instead. West was up there. All would be fine.

When she returned, she was muttering to herself, her face pale.

“Holy shit. I can’t believe no one noticed this. Shit. This is bad. This is so bad.”

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