Page 49 of Hunting Pretty

“But if he won’t talk with us—”

“I’ll make him,” I said.

She called out after me, but I was already pushing through the throngs along the bar.

The bartender groaned when I elbowed my way past a pretty girl with shoulder-length platinum hair, ignoring her complaints as I leaned past her.

The bartender scowled at me. “I told you—”

“Your boss, Mr. Foley…” I said, “I’m good friends with his son, Cormac. And I meangood friends.I’d hate to have to tell him that one of his bar staff was being rude and very unhelpful to me.”

“Fucking rich bitch,” he muttered under his breath.

I softened. “Look, I’m not trying to get you in trouble. I just want to know if you saw anything the night Liath went missing,”

“Like I told the other guy, I didn’t see a thing,” the bartender replied irritably.

“Who? What other guy? The police?”

But the bartender again moved on.

I pushed and squeezed my way through until I was in front of him again.

“Please,” I tried again. “Did Liath say anything to you?”

“Yeah.” The bartender laughed, although it was without humor. “What she always said, ‘another double vodka soda.’”

I ignored his dig and pressed on. “Do you know where she went when she left here?”

He poured a beer, handled some cash, and ditched me again.

I cursed him. Sweat was collecting at my brow. The unmoving air in the bar sweltered. With everyone packed in so tightly, the panic of claustrophobia began to tighten around my throat.

But I couldn’t give up.

Not yet.

When I caught up once more, the bartender threw his hands up in defeat.

“Look, all I know is that Liath was waiting for someone. She kept glancing at the door.”

I nodded. Liath was waiting for Aisling. “What else? How did she seem?”

“She looked… antsy. On edge. She kept jumping every time I came over to ask if she needed anything else.”

“Did you see who she left with?”

He shook his head and pointed to a seat farther down the bar that was currently filled by a guy in a suit. “One minute she was sitting right there. Next minute, she was gone.”

I stared at the seat, imagining Liath sitting there, glancing at the door, waiting for Aisling.

But then her kidnapper showed up instead.

“That’s all I know, okay?” The bartender threw his tea towel over his shoulder and walked down the bar to serve the next customer.

I didn’t bother following.

I didn’t call out after him.

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