Бентли Литтл - The Disappearance

He loved her.

And she loved him.

All the pieces of his life were falling into place, and while he knew there were bound to be some setbacks and minor inconveniences in the future, he’d seen no storm clouds on the horizon. As far as he was concerned, looking ahead, it was going to be clear sailing from here on in.

How wrong he had been.

When the police arrived at Joan and Kara’s dorm room, Gary was standing next to the window looking out at the side of the adjoining building. Brian was sitting in Kara’s desk chair, and Reyn and Stacy were seated on Kara’s bed. They had opened the door, and though a number of curious students had peeked in as they passed by, none of them had come inside or asked what was going on. It wasn’t until the policemen showed up that the four of them had to explain what they were doing there.

There were two officers, and they knocked on the doorframe, identifying themselves as LAPD before entering. One, a heavyset guy in his mid-fifties wearing street clothes, handed out a business card and introduced himself as Detective Williams. The other, younger man, wearing a uniform, did not introduce himself but typed nonstop into a small handheld computer.

“I’m the one who called,” Gary said, stepping forward. “I’m Gary Russell.”

“What relation are you to the missing woman?” the detective asked.

“Uh… boyfriend,” Gary said.

The detective turned toward Stacy.

“Friend,” she announced.

Reyn and Brian nodded. “Friend,” they both said.

“And her name is Joan Daniel?”

“Daniels,” Gary corrected. “With an s .”

“Told you,” the younger cop said without looking up.

“That’s her stuff there.” Gary motioned toward Joan’s side of the room. “We looked around a little bit when we first came in, but we’ve stayed away since. In case there are clues or evidence or anything.”

“Tell me what happened.”

He explained about their weekend trip to Burning Man, leaving out the story of Brian’s smuggled contraband, and described how they had been drugged and then awakened from unconsciousness to find Joan gone. After he told Williams how he’d reported her disappearance to the local Nevada police before returning to check whether she had come back to her dorm room, the detective asked, “How do you think this drug was administered to each of you?”

Gary looked over at Reyn, who gave him a bemused Jim Halpert shrug. There had to have been something they’d all eaten or drunk, something they had in common, but he could not figure out what that might be. Perhaps there’d been a spray of some sort, something airborne, an aerosol mist that they had all breathed. Whatever it was, it had been very localized. The campers to either side of them had been gone when they’d come to, which probably meant that they had not been affected.

“I don’t know,” Gary admitted.

“Excuse me.” The other officer looked up at Williams from his handheld device. “There’s no Joan Daniels listed on the UCLA student database.”

“What?” Gary exclaimed. He leaned over and tried to peer at whatever was on the cop’s screen but could see nothing. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Joan is a student at UCLA and she is missing,” Reyn said calmly. “You must have accessed the wrong list.”

“It’s a listing of all students currently attending this university. And there is no Joan Daniels on it.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Stacy said.

“I’ve checked it twice. She is not signed up for any classes; she is not registered.”

“Then we have a problem,” Detective Williams said, turning toward Gary.

“Yes, we do,” Gary agreed.

“Yes, we do.”

“Because my girlfriend is missing, and it looks like you don’t believe she even exists.”

The older man’s face was set and serious. “I don’t know what kind of prank you’re pulling here, but it’s a crime to file a false report.”

“He’s not lying!” Stacy said.

The detective looked around. “Maybe all of you are in on this.”

“No,” Brian said, speaking out for the first time. “She really is his girlfriend and she really did disappear. But…” He took a deep breath. “Maybe she isn’t who she said she was. Maybe she was conning us and wasn’t really a student.” He ignored the glares of his friends. “I mean, none of us really knew her for that long—”

“She was in my music appreciation class last semester,” Gary said angrily. “You can check with the instructor, Dr. Katz.”

“Besides,” Reyn pointed out. “We’re standing in her room. This is her stuff, her computer, her desk, her bed.”

“Her roommate might be missing, too,” Gary said. “No one’s seen her for two days. Her name’s Kara… .” He suddenly realized that he didn’t know Kara’s last name. He glanced around the room. Her things were here. Her name had to be printed somewhere .

He felt frustrated, and even as his eyes searched the room, he was still trying to figure out how Joan’s name could have disappeared from the school’s records. The detective on the computer had to have made a mistake, he decided. It was the only explanation.

“Look through their desks,” Gary suggested. “There have to be letters there, forms, papers, things with their names.”

“Yeah,” Reyn said. “Whether or not you think she was a student, she’s still missing. Maybe Kara, too.”

“And it’s your job to find them!” Stacy glared at the policemen.

“I don’t think you realize—” Williams began.

“She could be dead!” It hurt him to say it, and speaking the thought aloud somehow gave it more credence. Gary’s mind was racing. He wished he had a photo of Joan, but he didn’t. The relationship was too new, and they hadn’t taken any pictures together.

Her Facebook page!

“She has a Facebook page,” Gary said with relief. “And a MySpace page. You can find out all about her. You can see what she looks like.”

Williams looked over at the other policeman, who shook his head. “Dedicated equipment. I can’t access that.”

“Then use her computer. Or Kara’s.”

“No. If there has been a crime committed, those may be evidence.”

“Fuck!” Gary said, kicking the foot of Kara’s bed.

The detective stared at him for a moment, then sighed. “I don’t know what’s going on here, but I’m willing to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you’re not intentionally misleading us. I don’t know who this young woman is, but we will continue to investigate. None of you are allowed back in this room, though. Do you hear me? This dorm is off-limits. I’ll need contact information from each of you: names, addresses, phone numbers. I want to see driver’s licenses and student ID cards. If everything checks out, if you’re right and Ms. Daniels is missing, we’ll keep you updated. If you’re lying, I’ll haul all of your asses in and charge you. Do I make myself clear?”

Gary nodded. Already he felt better. At least the cops were going to look into the situation. And once they did, they would find out the truth and start looking for her. And Kara.

But would it be too late?

He tried not to think of that.

Ten minutes later, all four of them had shown ID, submitted to questioning, provided information and been kicked out of Joan and Kara’s room. At the last minute, Gary had remembered the phone number for her parents and had shared that with the police, although he kept the original scrap of paper.

They retreated down the hall under the curious eyes of other dorm residents.

“What the hell do we do now?” Reyn asked when they’d exited the building. They stood on the sidewalk as students strode around them, past them.