screen.
And the truth was, for some peculiar reason, I wasn't bored at all.
Chapter 9
Griff
“So what do you think happened to her?” she asked as we were sitting at the kitchen table, eating the ziti with meat sauce she had cooked. It was tasty, nicely spiced. She'd whipped up garlic bread to go with it and even a salad. When I'd asked her where she'd found the groceries, she'd reminded me about the supermarket not far from the train station.
She'd neatened up the place, too. The bathroom had been scrubbed. The floors were clean, and I think she might have dusted. She'd even made my bed, which, like, never happened.
“I don't know.”
“You must have thought about it. Developed some theories.”
“Of course I've fucking thought about it.”
“The weird thing is that she disappeared without a trace. No blood. No sign of a struggle. Her place wasn't broken into and her car wasn't taken. They couldn't track her cell phone, which disappeared along with her. That's unusual, you know that, right? Most people don't know they need to disable those things.”
I grunted. I hadn't forgotten the way she had disabled her own cell phone.
“Whoever grabbed her took her purse, too, along with her credit cards, bank cards, and various IDs. But none of that stuff was ever used. It's like she vanished off the face of the earth. Got beamed up by a starship. It makes no sense.”
“The only thing I can figure is that she went for a walk and got ambushed by some wandering serial killer. He drove off with her, dismantled her cell or threw it in a pond, killed her, disposed of her body somewhere clever, and left the area. Someday in another state they'll find the guy and discover that he traveled cross country, killing women as he went.”
“Would she get into a car with a total stranger?”
I looked at her, eyebrows raised. She blushed. “Okay. I suppose it could happen. But the whole thing stinks to me.”
“What d'you mean?”
“It feels wrong. It's like someone committed the perfect crime. People don't just vanish.”
“Actually, people do just vanish. It happens more often than you'd think.”
Rory, obviously following a train of thought, ignored this. “Unless...maybe it was something to do with her wealthy friends. If she pissed off somebody rich and powerful, they could hire professionals to get rid of her, leaving no trace.”
“I thought professionals shot you in the head and left the body.”
“Well, these professionals wanted her to disappear completely.”
“Why?”
“I don't know. Maybe she was into something weird.”
I wondered if she had discovered anything about Hadley's unusual sexual interests. The cops had questioned me hard about that.
“I need a list of everything she was into. Everyone she was involved with. I've already checked out a lot of things. I know about her family, her friends, the places she volunteered at, the places she worked.”
“You found all that out online?”
“Dude, there's not much you can't find out online these days. Especially if you can crack certain databases.”
“The police have been all over this stuff, you know.”
She was stubborn. “Fresh eyes. I might see something they didn't.”
* * *
After supper I went into the living room and turned on the TV. There was a basketball game on that I wanted to watch. Rory stared belligerently at the speakers, loud with exuberant commentary and revved-up crowd noises, but she didn't comment. She planted herself in front of the computer again. I popped open a beer and set about trying to ignore her.
This proved to be difficult. I wasn't used to having girls around the place. Especially if they were doing something other than fucking me. Unlike some of my friends, I didn't grow up with sisters and I wasn't that close to my mother, so I'd never been too comfortable with women. Hadley had been my only long-term girlfriend, and our relationship hadn't been conventional.
There'd been other girls
And the truth was, for some peculiar reason, I wasn't bored at all.
Chapter 9
Griff
“So what do you think happened to her?” she asked as we were sitting at the kitchen table, eating the ziti with meat sauce she had cooked. It was tasty, nicely spiced. She'd whipped up garlic bread to go with it and even a salad. When I'd asked her where she'd found the groceries, she'd reminded me about the supermarket not far from the train station.
She'd neatened up the place, too. The bathroom had been scrubbed. The floors were clean, and I think she might have dusted. She'd even made my bed, which, like, never happened.
“I don't know.”
“You must have thought about it. Developed some theories.”
“Of course I've fucking thought about it.”
“The weird thing is that she disappeared without a trace. No blood. No sign of a struggle. Her place wasn't broken into and her car wasn't taken. They couldn't track her cell phone, which disappeared along with her. That's unusual, you know that, right? Most people don't know they need to disable those things.”
I grunted. I hadn't forgotten the way she had disabled her own cell phone.
“Whoever grabbed her took her purse, too, along with her credit cards, bank cards, and various IDs. But none of that stuff was ever used. It's like she vanished off the face of the earth. Got beamed up by a starship. It makes no sense.”
“The only thing I can figure is that she went for a walk and got ambushed by some wandering serial killer. He drove off with her, dismantled her cell or threw it in a pond, killed her, disposed of her body somewhere clever, and left the area. Someday in another state they'll find the guy and discover that he traveled cross country, killing women as he went.”
“Would she get into a car with a total stranger?”
I looked at her, eyebrows raised. She blushed. “Okay. I suppose it could happen. But the whole thing stinks to me.”
“What d'you mean?”
“It feels wrong. It's like someone committed the perfect crime. People don't just vanish.”
“Actually, people do just vanish. It happens more often than you'd think.”
Rory, obviously following a train of thought, ignored this. “Unless...maybe it was something to do with her wealthy friends. If she pissed off somebody rich and powerful, they could hire professionals to get rid of her, leaving no trace.”
“I thought professionals shot you in the head and left the body.”
“Well, these professionals wanted her to disappear completely.”
“Why?”
“I don't know. Maybe she was into something weird.”
I wondered if she had discovered anything about Hadley's unusual sexual interests. The cops had questioned me hard about that.
“I need a list of everything she was into. Everyone she was involved with. I've already checked out a lot of things. I know about her family, her friends, the places she volunteered at, the places she worked.”
“You found all that out online?”
“Dude, there's not much you can't find out online these days. Especially if you can crack certain databases.”
“The police have been all over this stuff, you know.”
She was stubborn. “Fresh eyes. I might see something they didn't.”
* * *
After supper I went into the living room and turned on the TV. There was a basketball game on that I wanted to watch. Rory stared belligerently at the speakers, loud with exuberant commentary and revved-up crowd noises, but she didn't comment. She planted herself in front of the computer again. I popped open a beer and set about trying to ignore her.
This proved to be difficult. I wasn't used to having girls around the place. Especially if they were doing something other than fucking me. Unlike some of my friends, I didn't grow up with sisters and I wasn't that close to my mother, so I'd never been too comfortable with women. Hadley had been my only long-term girlfriend, and our relationship hadn't been conventional.
There'd been other girls
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