“Hi,” a cute young woman said, leaning her back against the wall beside them. “If you’re looking for Gabby or Zoe, you won’t find them there. Gabby is up on three in a friend’s room cramming for a final tomorrow and Zoe is kind of not taking classes any longer.” She smiled at them, her gaze bouncing between them.
“Thank you,” Tessman said, returning her flirtatious smile. “And you are?”
“Ashley, Ashley Green,” she said, reaching a hand to him.
Tessman cupped her hand in both of his. “So nice to meet you, Ashley. And so nice of you to take the time to let us know we wouldn’t find Gabby here. Do you know the room number of where she is?”
“Oh, I don’t know if I should give that information to two random guys, strangers.”
Ashley somehow maintained her seductive pose, which had her chest lifted up and off the wall and her stomach sucked in. It didn’t look like a very comfortable position to Burke. “I’m Rich, and this is Carter. We’re not strangers now. It would be very helpful if you knew the room number, and we’d really appreciate the help.” He gave her his best smile from the days before he was old enough to join the Marines, when he modeled, which was something his fellow Marines never let him live down. His callsign of Handsome was a direct result of his previous modeling career.
“So, a bunch of us are going to a party tonight over at the Alpha Delta Phi frat house. Maybe I’ll see you there?”
“Maybe,” Burke said.
“The room number where Gabby is, is three forty. But I didn’t tell you that,” Ashley said.
They thanked her and headed for the stairs. They both chuckled as they mounted the stairs. “I haven’t been hit on by a college coed in a long time,” Burke said quietly to Tessman.
“I imagine Becca will have a good laugh when I tell her about it,” Tessman said.
They found the room Gabby was supposed to be in and knocked. A young woman opened the door and past her, they could see four other young women in the small room. “Can I help you?” she asked.
“Yes, we’re looking for Gabby Struck,” Tessman said.
She looked over her shoulder. “Gabby, they’re here for you.”
One of the young women got up from the bed where she sat and came over. Her hair was much shorter than in her driver’s license picture they had in the file, but it was her. Her gaze bounced between the two of them. “I’m Gabby.”
“Hi, can we have a private conversation with you about Zoe Reopelle?” Burke asked.
“Zoe? Who are you, more cops?”
“No, we’re private investigators hired by her parents to try to get a message to her,” Burke said. “They just want to talk to her to be sure she’s okay. They’re willing to pay a finder’s fee to anyone who can help facilitate that conversation, and they have money for Zoe too, to prove that their intentions are good. They care about their daughter and just want to be sure she’s okay,” he repeated.
Gabby looked skeptical. “Her parents were real dicks. Not sure how well you know them, but I’m sure she’d be suspicious that they have money for her. When she talked to them last, they told her they cut her off.”
“It’s amazing what time passing and the holidays approaching will do. They already missed Thanksgiving with her. They don’t want to miss Christmas too,” Tessman said. “And to answer yourquestion, no, we don’t know them personally; we're just hired to deliver a message.”
“We’re not looking to jam Zoe up. We don’t know the full circumstances and know that every disagreement has two sides. As far as we’re concerned, she’s an adult and can make her own choices, as long as she’s okay, that is. And if she indicates she’s not okay, we’ll help her,” Burke said. He had his phone out and the pairing app opened, but he was unable to isolate a phone to pair with.
“So, the question is, Gabby, can you get a message to her or help us find her or a person who can get a hold of her?” Tessman asked.
“You said something about a finder’s fee?” Gabby asked.
Both men smiled. “We did. We have one hundred dollars from her parents for the person who gets us in contact with her.”
“One hundred? Now that sounds like her parents. They can afford more. Make it two, and I’ll see what I can do.”
“We can do that,” Tessman said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a card. Like all the business cards carried by the Operators, it had only a phone number on it, the phone number to a second phone line.
“No name,” Gabby remarked. “And I didn’t catch your names.”
Burke flashed his best melt a girl’s panties model smile at her. “He’s Carter and I’m Rich.”
She smiled too. “It’s nice to meet you, Carter and Rich. I’ll call you later tonight.”
“Oh, one more thing,” Burke said. “Her parents really wanted us to take a look at her room and see if anything jumps out to us, and since they pay the room and board, they technically have the right to allow anyone into the room they want.”
