Page 6 of A Storm of Nightmares

I need to get myself together before my client shows up. I need the money. I have to look like I know what the hell I’m doing. Another cup of coffee might be pushing it, but I’m really lagging today, and I’ll be damned if I lose out on another client because they underestimate me. So, coffee it is.

I drink down the hot liquid as fast as I can. I hate the taste of coffee, but I need it on days like today. Chugging my third cup like my life depends on it, and I’ve only been up for an hour. Not my finest moment.

A knock at my door sounds through my tiny apartment, and I nod to myself in encouragement before opening it. I can do this. I can look confident and land this client.

What I wasn’t expecting was to open the door to a teenage girl with fresh tears on her sad, hollow face.

“Um, Malerie Davis?” I glance past her down the hallway, looking for a parent or something, but I don’t see anybody else. There’s only this fragile-looking girl standing in front of me, seemingly lost. She has curly red hair and big, round-rimmed glasses over pale blue eyes. She looks nothing short of terrified.

“Yes, hi,” she sticks her hand out to shake mine and offers me a small, nervous smile. “Thank you so much for agreeing to meet with me.”

“Of course. Come in,” I step aside and gesture towards the black dining table in the middle of my little studio. Malerie hesitates, looking over her shoulder, and then follows me inside. I sit down first, and she takes a chair directly across from me, folding her hands together in her lap. She can barely meet my eyes.

“Malerie, are we waiting for anybody else? Are your parents coming too?”

“No. It’s just me,” she whispers. Malerie finally looks at me, and I see tears starting to build in her eyes again.

“Ok then, let’s go ahead and talk about why you’re here. What are you hoping I can help you with?” I try to use my gentlest voice to ease into the conversation. I can tell she’s on the brink of breaking down.

She takes a deep breath and wipes under her eyes, even though no tears have come yet. “My sister is missing. No one believes me. I want you to find her.” She starts digging through her pockets, pulling out crumpled bills and spare change, and pushes it all toward me in a pile on the table. Her small hands are shaking terribly. “I realize this doesn’t cover it, but it’s everything I have. It’s my college savings and some birthday money. My parents want nothing to do with this, but if you find Jess, I’m one-hundred percent positive they’ll pay you’re the rest.”

That’s a fucking coincidence if I ever saw one. Of course, I would get a case involving a missing girl when the anniversary of Betty vanishing is creeping up on me. I have half a mind to turn this poor girl away. To recommend more experienced PIs who might be able to help her. But they’re all busier and more expensive than I am. And when I look into Malerie’s eyes, I see my pain reflected in them. None of my PI buddies understand this feeling of loss.

At this moment, I’m reminded of why I went into this career in the first place. The cops couldn’t find Betty. Everyone around me seemed to accept that she and Dan left of their own free will. But not me. I knew my sister wouldn’t leave like that. And I know nobody else can help Malerie. It has to be me. If I can help find her sister, maybe I can find Betty too. Call it redemption.

I place my hand on Malerie’s shaking ones to ease her nerves. “Keep your money. I’ll—”

“No, please, you’re my last hope!” Malerie cuts me off before the dam breaks, and she can’t hold back the tears. “I-I don’t know who else to turn to for help, and Jess has already been gone for two days. The cops are no use, and my parents just think she ran away,” Malerie manages to choke out in between sobs. “I need somebody to help me.”

“Hey, take a deep breath Malerie. I’m not turning you away.” I offer a smile. “I’m going to help you, don’t worry, but I am not going to rob you of all your savings. I’ll take the case regardless of my fees being met.” I don’t realize what I’m saying until it’s all out in the open, but I can’t take it back now. Sure, I need the money. But I can’t take every cent this girl has. Not when I can see how bad the pain is behind her eyes. Not when I remember feeling exactly like this four years ago. I let go of her hands and lean back in the wooden dining chair. Grabbing a pen and a piece of paper, I say, “start at the beginning and fill me in on the details.”

Malerie doesn’t say anything right away. She just stares at me with wide eyes and her mouth open like she doesn’t believe I’m taking her seriously. “Th-thank you! Oh my god, thank you so much!” An awkward laugh falls from her lips, and then she nods as if to encourage herself to tell me the whole story. “Ok, I guess I should start by saying Jess has this new boyfriend, Roger. I haven’t met him yet. They’ve only been seeing each other for a few weeks. My parents think Jess and Roger ran off, I guess... But I’m telling you, Jess wouldn’t up and leave like her family meant nothing to her. She likes Roger but not enough to disappear with him.”

“Malerie, why don’t you tell me about the day she went missing?” I say, trying to steer the conversation a little.

“It was two nights ago like I said. It was a totally normal day. My parents went over to a friend’s house for game night. I’m sure that’s some lame excuse for them to drink way too much and forget they have children for a few hours. They have game nights way too often, in my opinion. I don’t even think they play any games, either.”

“Malerie, let’s focus for a second. Your parents went out. Then what?”

“Right, sorry. I’m just incredibly nervous. I don’t mean to ramble. I didn’t think you’d actually take the case. I thought you’d tell me my sister ran away, and I should drop it like everyone else has been saying.” Her bottom lip trembles as she thinks. I don’t say anything. I know all too well the overwhelming emotions she must be feeling right now.

Malerie clears her throat and continues. “Anyways, my parents left at six. It was just Jess and me in the house for the night. I wanted to watch movies with her on the couch, eat some popcorn. I just wanted to have some girl time, since lately, all she does is talk to or talk about Roger. I thought, for one night, she could pretend she was single, and the two of us could catch up.” Malerie shakes her head, “but that wasn’t Jess’ plan. As soon as our parents were out the door, she was on the phone with Roger. I didn’t even exist to her. So, I watched a stupid rom-com movie by myself. Pathetic, right?” She looks at me, waiting for an answer.

When I don’t say anything, she keeps going. “I ended up falling asleep on the couch; the movie was that bad. When I woke up, the house was completely silent. I can usually hear Jess when she’s on the phone, she has no awareness of how loud she is, so I thought it was weird that I didn’t hear her. I went to check on her...” She pauses and bites her lip.

“That’s a lie. I was really irritated that she blew off our movie night to talk to her boyfriend on the phone, again, so I was going to play a little prank on her. I figured if she was so quiet, she must have fallen asleep too. I was going to send some stupid texts to Roger from her phone. Nothing inappropriate or anything, just something dumb, so she’d be a little embarrassed. But when I opened her bedroom door, Jess wasn’t in her room. Her window was wide open, which is weird all on its own because she always complains about getting bugs in her room if the window is open. Her phone was sitting on her bed, her dresser drawers were wide open, and all the clothes were gone. Which is why everyone thinks she just ran away.”

Malerie looks defeated after finishing. She must have thought I would change my mind about taking the case once I heard everything. But that could not be further from the truth.

It feels like all the blood in my veins turns to ice as she tells me the details. The open window, the missing clothes. Even the fact that her parents were gone for several hours. Two sisters, alone in a home for the night. Vulnerable to the darkness lurking just outside.

Memories of the last night I saw Betty start coming to the surface, threatening to breakthrough. I stand up from the table with so much force that my chair falls backward behind me and makes a terrible sound when it crashes to the floor. I don’t say a word as I walk away from Malerie and shut the bathroom door behind me.

Chapter 3

The sound of a knock on the door brings me back to reality. “Are you alright in there?” Malerie’s timid voice floats in the air around me, taunting me. I know she means am I alright in the bathroom since I ran off and locked myself in here like a crazy person. But all I hear is, “are you alright in the head, you lunatic?” And I don’t know the answer to that question.

For the past four years, I’ve tried forgetting that night. I so badly want to find Betty to make up for failing her the night she was taken. But I’m not sure that I’m strong enough to relive my worst nightmare. It’s bad enough that my sister haunts my sleep. I don’t want any reminders of her while I’m awake. I’m scared taking this case will be the straw that broke the camel’s back, essentially. Next stop for Kat: Nuthouse.

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