“Come on. Let’s find someone more willing to give information.”
They headed back downstairs and walked over to the elderly man who had tried to flag them down. He at least had wanted to talk to them.
“Hello,” she said with a smile.
“Well, hello there,” he said with a toothless grin. “I’m Harold.”
“Nice to meet you. We are looking for our friend June. She used to live here, and we haven’t heard from her in a while.”
“June, June, June,” the man said as if looking deep into the recesses of his mind.
“Our other friend, Jodie, came looking for her last week.” Reyna gave him the same description she’d given the woman upstairs.
“Oh, I remember her,” the man said. He moved a backgammon piece before turning back to them. “She came around asking the same questions as you.”
“Yes, we’re worried about our friend June.”
“Oh, June?” another man asked, glancing up. “She worked at the pie place. I go every week. Best pie in the city. Try the cherry cobbler.”
Reyna sagged with relief. A lead.
They got instructions from the men, relieved to find it was onlya few blocks away, and then hurried from the horrid apartment complex. She and Gabe didn’t speak as the anticipation coursed through them. After botched mission following botched mission, they needed this win. They needed to prove that they could get one person back. Because if they could get Jodie, then maybe they could save everyone else too.
This joint would have answers. She was sure of it.
The pie place was actually named Pie Place. It was a simple diner. Not exactly clean, but it had waitresses in vintage yellow dresses with white aprons over them. None of them looked too pleased to be there.
She and Gabe pulled out red-cushioned stools and sat at the bar. A woman roller-skated up to them from behind the bar, holding a pen and notepad.
“Welcome to Pie Place, where we have the best pie in the city. Can I recommend the cherry cobbler?” she said with little enthusiasm.
The backgammon guys must come all the time. They even had the spiel down.
“Cherry cobbler would be great,” Gabe said. Reyna shot him a look. He shrugged. “Who turns down pie?”
Gabe waited until he had his pie in front of him before grinning wickedly at the waitress. Reyna watched with admiration and disgust as he charmed his way into conversation with this woman who clearly hated her job. She giggled and flirted, came back twice for drink refills, and ignored her other tables to talk to Gabe.
“Be right back,” he said with a wink and then followed the waitress through to the kitchen.
Reyna huffed in frustration, finishing off the rest of his helping of cherry cobbler. She had to admit it was really good. Damn. She’d been hoping it was an exaggeration.
After five long minutes, Reyna was ready to head back into thatkitchen herself and bust up whatever was going on. She couldn’t believe that he’d basically abandoned her for some waitress.
Then Gabe appeared, looking grim.
“What?” she asked, glancing around to check her surroundings. “What’s wrong?”
“You’re not going to like this.”
“Well, I didn’t like you abandoning me out here either.”
He glanced at the bar. “You ate my pie.”
“You were gone forever.”
Gabe sighed and threw down a twenty. “Come on. I know where Jodie went next.”
“How the hell…?”
