More Tales From the Crack Whore Market

She was minding the store as a couple of young girls were browsing through the miscellaneous t-shirts and talking to each other about a old tie dye hippie bed spread that hung on one wall. It had been a week since Brandy Carlton, a local college student, went missing. Like everyone, Stella was interested in the case.  She didn't know the young woman or know anyone who did.  Stella was never one to go out of her way to read the news coverage nor did she attend any of the vigils for the girl, but yesterday, she had this strong feeling that there had been some sort of development in the case.  As she was frantically trying to get her belongings collected so she could head home, she found herself distracted.  Checking and rechecking the local paper's website for the tiniest tidbit of information, it took her forty-five minutes to get out of the store.  She had never been the least bit psychic, but the hairs on the back of her neck were telling her something was about to give, it was a feeling Stella just couldn't explain. 

She finally left the store around quarter to six, gave Joe a kiss, he could deal with checking the girls out if they decided to purchase anything, and headed home, in a round about way.  Stella had always been particularly been scornful of lookie loos, but tonight she just couldn't keep herself from driving past the young woman's apartment.  As she drove by, other than a ribbon tied to a tree out front there was no sign of anything going on, it was as if the city had devoured all remnants of what happened.  On her way home she pondered the fear and terror that poor girl must be feeling if she was still alive, and what her family must be going through.  A week is a long time.  She even scanned the a.m. talk radio stations looking for local news.

Stella finally arrived home sometime after seven-thirty.  Joe had been home for fifteen minutes already and was smoking a cigarette, drinking a coke and settling into a game of online Texas Hold'em. The feeling continued to nag at Stella well into the night.  She kicked Joe off the computer to check the online news, and finally went to bed.  She couldn't get to sleep, she lie there tossing and turning till finally somewhere around two in the morning she drifted off into a restless sleep only to wake with a start and six a.m.

Stella jumped out of bed, Brandy Carlton was the first thing that entered her mind, even though there are far more pressing things she should have been concerned with.  As she logged onto the local paper's website the hair on the back of her neck started to stand up as she waited for the page to load.  A body had been found in a crawl space in the basement of the apartment building at approximately 6:15 p.m. last night.  It was identified as 22 year old Brandy Carlton.  Stella was stunned, she had driven by about 6:30 or so.  Apparently, all the activity must have been in the alley behind the building...

To be continued...