I call down the stairs, “Mia? Rose? Can one of you guys watch Mikey? I may have a lead on my missing teen.”
Mia’s head appears, she runs up, and sweeps my son into her arms. After tummy kisses, she puts him down and looks at me. “Why are you still here? Go.”
I throw on my jacket and as I run down the stairs, Suds rings my phone. “Chrissy called Selena. She’s in trouble and wants someone to meet her at ‘The Bistro’ a few blocks south of Houston.”
“On it. Tell her to stay put. I’ll be there in twenty. Doesn’t Slate have anyone closer?”
“I’ll check and call you back.”
Rush hour over, I make good time through the tunnel but traffic grinds to a halt in Manhattan.
C’mon, c’mon.I urge the car in front of me to move.
Around thirty minutes later, I arrive at my destination, double park near a restaurant, and hop out of Suds’ SUV.
“You see this girl?” I show my phone to a gorgeous waiter with high cheek bones and dread locks down his back.
He nods and points down the street. “She just left.”
Shit. “Did she look scared? Was someone with her?”
“No. She was alone. She only sat for a moment.”
There’s plenty of alleyways and narrow streets where there are no security cams. She’s avoiding high traffic areas but why? If she was abducted, why not tell the first person you ran into to call nine-one-one? Why hide?
I ping Jason but he still sees no sign of her. As a last resort, I enter all the restaurants and stores in the area, but no one has seen her or the madam. When it gets late, I make the drive back home, discouraged.
Dammit, I was so close.
