“I pay them online like everyone else. If it makes life easier, I probably use it. Who has time to actually go to the bank?”
He tapped the microphone button on the screen and told the car where he wanted to go, then pulled out into the flow of traffic while it calculated the best route. “Back to your neighbors… Do you know anything about the Dreamers on the floor below you?”
She let out an audible sigh, just like her mom did. A kind of pressure release. Letting go of tension. “Not much. I keep to myself and I watch out for Patience. The guy creeps me out.”
“Good plan to steer clear of them.” He didn’t want to tell her this but figured she should be forewarned. “There have been some violent crimes across the city recently. Less than half a dozen so far involving Dreamers high on their Elysium. Whatever the app showed them interacted with the drug in their system in a way that turned them violent. People got hurt, and a guy even died.”
“I thought Elysium was supposed to be bliss. This immersive, customizable experience that may in some cases lead to psychosis.”
Carlos caught the irony in her tone. “Sounds like some people in the hyperrealistic dream state the drug gives you ended up reacting to it. Maybe it’s an allergy, or it’s a suggestion from the app. Either way, the brass is worried that more users will wind up hurting people.”
The substance, like a lot of narcotics, was legal but incredibly addictive.
“That’s really sad.” She glanced over. “Maybe that’s what happened to Doctor Splitfield. Someone on Elysium could’ve killed him.”
“Could be. Good thinking, I’ll mention it.”
She might want nothing to do with the case, but he intended to make sure there wasn’t a killer stalking the halls of the Shrine. After all, if he did nothing and Eliana was hurt? He would be the next victim, courtesy of any one of her family members.
Eliana shifted in her chair and looked out the windshield. The Chicago skyline stretched behind them as they traveled west out of the city. “Tell me about this place where we’re going?”
Carlos had been expecting this. “I don’t know for sure that she’s there. It could be a long shot.” He changed lanes and took the turn that spat him out onto the three-lane highway, a concrete barrier separating them from oncoming traffic.
Gray clouds in the sky dampened the whole world, as if there was no sun anywhere.
He shook off the morose thoughts. “I spoke to her roommate. She was staying with this guy in West Englewood. He said she got into a women’s group that was all about feminine empowerment, and after that she was hardly ever home. Eventually, she never came back.”
“How’d you find the location?” Eliana sipped her coffee and glanced over.
Even just that look was enough to reassure him that bringing her was better than coming alone. In the end, she would do what was best for the family. It was everything up to then that he had an issue with.
“Carlos,” she prompted.
“The guy remembered seeing a map on her phone. She was looking up a location, figuring out how to get there. It was right before she left and didn’t come back.”
“Did she leave her things or take them?”
“She packed for a few days.”
Did Eliana want to hear that he thought she would’ve made a half-decent investigator? Instead, she was poking her nose around at the Shrine. Wearing a wig, like that was enough to keep people from finding out who she was.
He continued, “It’s a compound or resort type of place. Owned by a corporation that has it listed under shell companies owned by other shell companies. I was thinking about sending the information to Maizie. Or Zeyla. Seeing what they could find out.”
“Maizie flat out refuses to break the law since she’s a police captain, suburban soccer mom these days. It’s incredibly disappointing to the rest of the family.”
Carlos smiled. “Cop to cop, that could work for me.”
“Zeyla is on a job with Ramon. If we told them about it, they’d rush right over to blow the place sky-high. It’s basically date night for them.”
Carlos chuckled. “Not my idea of a good time.”
“No? Could be interesting.”
“Have you…had an interesting dating life lately?”
All the humor in the cab of his truck evaporated, and Eliana shifted in her seat. “Do I have to answer?”
“Not if you don’t want to.” Why had he asked?
