Three Days in Seattle

by Debra Burroughs

  “Miss McAllister, this is Detective Will Porter.” As Patel introduced them, the senior detective reached out and shook hands with Kate, a serious look on his face.

  “Will,” Patel said, “Miss McAllister has just filed a missing person report for her sister. I told her we’ll do everything we can to find her.” Patel handed the file to Porter.

  “Miss McAllister,” Porter started, glancing over the forms she filled out.

  “Call me Kate, please.”

  “Okay, Kate. Detective Patel and I will read over the report. We’ll be in touch. Oh, and make sure we have your cell number so we can reach you.”

  “It’s on the top form, there,” she told him, pointing at the file. “I’d appreciate being kept in the loop.”

  “Certainly,” Porter promised, opening the folder. “I don’t see a photo of your sister in here.”

  “Oh, sorry, I forgot to ask about that,” Patel apologized. Kate frowned at the critical oversight.

  “We’ll need one we can use to get the word out, Kate. We’ll scan it, send it to our network of law enforcement agencies, the news media as well,” Porter told her. “Do you have one with you?”

  “Yes, I think I have a couple in my wallet,” Kate replied, opening her bulky leather handbag and rummaging around inside. She pulled two different photos out of her wallet and handed them to Porter. He clipped them inside the file.

  “Do you know if your sister has a computer or iPad or anything?” Porter asked.

  Kate rolled her eyes up, then side to side, searching her memory. “Oh, yes, I remember seeing a laptop in her bedroom.”

  “We’ll need that. I always like to start with checking the subject’s calendar and e-mails. Can we come with you right now and pick it up?” Porter asked.

  “Oh, I’m sorry guys,” Patel interrupted sheepishly, “I, uh, have a lunch appointment in a few minutes.”

  Porter frowned at him.

  “Will, can you go with Kate and pick up the laptop? Then I’ll meet you back here in about an hour, and we can start going through it.”

  “Well, I am headed back to my sister’s apartment, but I don’t have a car. I was going to take a cab.”

  “No problem.” Detective Porter gave a sideways glance a Patel. “We can take my car. It’s out front.”

  “I’ll walk out with you guys,” Patel offered.

  Once outside the station, Kate paused at the bottom of the front steps. She wanted to thank the detectives for their help, but before she could utter a word, she heard a man’s voice calling her name.

  She turned, to find out who it was, and was stunned to see the handsome man from her flight.

  “Kate, what a surprise!” Ryan’s pleasure in seeing her was evident on his face.

  “Ryan? What are you doing here?” Kate asked.

  “You know each other?” Detective Patel interjected.

  “Yes, we met on the plane from Boise this morning,” she answered.

  “Small world. Ryan is my lunch appointment,” Patel said. “He’s helping me buy a condo.”

  “It is a small world,” Kate commented, grinning.

  “I missed you at the baggage claim area...I wanted to get your phone number so we could have that coffee you promised me.” He winked at her.

  Kate pulled one of her business cards out of her purse and handed it to him.

  Ryan’s expression quickly changed, as if it had just dawned on him that she was coming out of the police station with a couple of detectives. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt anything.”

  “You didn’t,” she replied.

  “Is everything okay?” Ryan inquired.

  Kate looked at Patel, then at Porter, wondering how much she should divulge. She didn’t find the answer in their faces, so she went ahead and told Ryan.

  “No, not really. My sister is missing. That’s the real reason I came to Seattle.”

  “Oh, Kate. I had no idea. I thought you were just here to visit her.”

  “I wish—but no.”

  “If there’s anything I can do to help, anything at all, just ask.” Ryan pulled his business card out of his shirt pocket, too. “My cell phone’s on there.”

  “We’ve gotta go,” Porter spoke up, tapping his wristwatch. “Time’s a-wasting. I’ll see you back here in about an hour, Raj. Take it easy, Ryan.”

  Chapter 4

  Back at the apartment, Kate turned Suki’s key in the door, letting herself and Detective Porter into the loft.

  “Nice place,” he said, looking around the main living area and open kitchen of the small loft. “Where’s the laptop?”

  “It’s in Whitney’s bedroom. Wait here and I’ll get it for you.”

  “Do you mind if I take a look at Whitney’s bedroom? Maybe I can see if there’s anything that would give us a clue to where she went.”

  “Sure, it’s right this way.”

  Porter followed Kate down the short hallway and stepped into Whitney’s bedroom. His eyes surveyed the room.

  Queen-sized bed, neatly made, with a couple pieces of luggage on it, a chair with a coat thrown over it, a dresser with a plant and some framed photos—nothing out of place, as far as Kate could see.

  “Have you moved anything since you arrived?” he asked.

  “No. We just put the suitcases on the bed,” she answered. “Oh, I’m sorry. Actually, I did make the bed and put a few of her clothes and shoes away.”

  “Hmmm. Hopefully that won’t matter,” he said.

  The open laptop sat on a small desk, a few sticky notes adhered to the desktop and a couple of pens next to it. Porter seemed to be reading one of the sticky notes. He frowned and tilted his head.

  Kate wondered if that meant something.

  “Who’s Suki?” he questioned.

  “My sister’s roommate,” Kate replied. “Why?”

  He pointed to one of the notes. On it was written ‘Suki & guy (?)’. “Because your sister wrote her name on this sticky note with a question mark. It’s probably nothing, but I’m going to take the note with me.” He put on a latex glove, gently pulled the sticky note free and placed it in a small plastic evidence bag that he took from his jacket’s breast pocket. After sliding the bag back into his pocket, he closed the laptop and picked it up.

  “I hope you can find something, anything, in that computer that’ll tell us where she is.” Kate was desperate for any clue, no matter how small.

  “I’ll get one of our forensic techs on it as soon as I get back to the station. And if you think of anything else, let us know right away.” The detective began to walk toward the door, and then he stopped and turned back to Kate.

  “Do you know the roommate’s full name?”

  “Suki Gorman. That’s what my sister told me.”

  “What can you tell me about her?” he asked.

  “Not much. Whitney didn’t talk about her very often, and I’d never met her until I arrived today. Why do you ask?”

  “We just want to be thorough and cover all the bases. She was the last one that we know of to see Whitney—I’ll run a background check on her, just to be safe.”

  Kate walked Detective Porter to the door and said good-bye as he walked out. She closed the door, and rested her back against it, wondering if Suki could have been somehow involved in Whitney’s disappearance. It didn’t seem likely, but at this point, she couldn’t rule anyone out.

  * * * *

  Suki worked the afternoon shift at Seattle’s Underground Tour. A tourist attraction sitting about twenty feet below a portion of the current downtown area, known as Pioneer Square, it gives visitors a look at parts of the original city of Seattle. Her final tour of the day was over, and she watched the last of her group go into the basement-level souvenir shop. She looked around to make sure no one was watching her, then ducked back into the tunnel and went back into the underground city.

  Making her way through the web of corridors, she came to a locked door that she had blocked with an old diner�
�s sign. The word Dino’s in broken blue light bulbs outlined the marquee.

  As a tour guide, she was familiar with all the tunnels and boarded-up areas not open to the public, except a tour guide didn’t get keys to the buildings and locked areas. So, in order to carry out her part of the scheme, she had needed to get her hands on the keys. She and her brother, Ethan, had spent a long time setting up their revenge on Kate—those keys were an important step in that plan.

  Thinking back on how she had had to flirt with surly old Gus, the forty-something head maintenance man, to get his keys, she felt a little sick to her stomach, but it had to be done. Once she had him sufficiently interested, she invited him to have drinks at the nearby Lucky Shamrock Tavern, a bar she knew he frequented. After snuggling with him in a booth and plying him with liquor, she actually found it rather easy to lift his keys.

  She had heard through the grapevine that when Gus showed up for work the next day without them, and confessed he didn’t know where they were, he was fired. Too bad for Gus, Suki thought. He was nothing more than collateral damage to her.

  She dragged the heavy, metal sign out of the way and unlocked the door. Pulling a small flashlight out of her jacket pocket, she switched it on and crept into the dark, hidden storage room.

  The place ran about thirty feet deep and half as wide. Originally, it had been a shop of some sort in Seattle’s early days. The room now held mostly old equipment and discarded boards. But back in the farthest rear corner, was an old metal twin bed covered with a thin, dirty mattress. A large rusty bucket sat beside it.

  “Whitney?” Suki sang her name softly as she stroked her cold hand against her captive’s cheek. The girl flinched from the icy touch, but it didn’t seem to wake her. Suki gently shook Whitney’s shoulder. Still she didn’t rouse. She swept her flashlight over Whitney’s body, shook her again.

  “Whitney, wake up!” Suki said with hushed forcefulness.

  The woman on the bed stirred. Her hands and feet were bound with rope, which was then tied to the bed frame at both ends. A piece of duct tape covered her mouth. Her blue jeans and black sweater were rumpled, likely from writhing against her restraints. Her gray hooded sweatshirt was folded under her head into a makeshift pillow.

  Suki yanked the tape off.

  Whitney yelped. “Ouch!” She woke with a start and tried to sit up, seeming unaware that her hands and feet were tethered.

  “Where am I?” Whitney questioned, struggling to pull an arm in front of her face to shield her eyes until they adjusted to the harsh and sudden light. Her short blonde hair was mussed, her mascara smudged. Whitney went limp against the mattress, trembling.

  This was not the first day Suki had come to check on her and tend to her needs, yet the total darkness and drugs continued to cause the confusion that Suki had intended. “It doesn’t matter,” she answered.

  “How long...have I...been...here?” Her words came slow and slurred, as if she was drunk. She seemed to be struggling to wake up.

  “That doesn’t matter either,” Suki said.

  “I don’t understand. Why am I here?” Squinting, she once again tried to shade her eyes from the light, directing her gaze toward her captor. “And what is that awful smell?” Whitney grumbled.

  “I’d say peanut butter,” Suki replied, trying to redirect her attention, not wanting to give away where she was being held. Anyone who had been to the Underground Tour knew there was always a damp, musty smell in the underground city.

  “I assumed you must be hungry, so I brought you another peanut butter sandwich. I can’t have you dying on me.”

  “What? What do you mean?” Whitney asked, still straining to look up at the shadowy figure behind the flashlight. “Please? Tell me what’s going on.”

  Whitney didn’t appear to recognize her roommate’s voice, thanks to the cloudy, drug-induced state. Suki needed to keep her sedated enough that everything would just be an undecipherable fog. She couldn’t have Whitney saying anything to the police—if she survived, that is.

  “Um, well...just don’t worry about it. Everything’s gonna to be okay, and you’ll be outta here before you know it.”

  Setting the flashlight down on the ground, she pulled the flattened sandwich out of her denim purse. She had again ground up several sleeping pills and mixed them into the peanut butter. It was easier to control Whitney if she was weak and sleepy. It was Ethan’s idea, of course, but Suki had agreed.

  She also brought a partial bottle of water so Whitney wouldn’t get too dehydrated, but she wanted to minimize her fluids. She didn’t want to have to help her to use the facilities very often to relieve herself, which was what the rusty bucket next to the bed was for.

  “Let me help you sit up.” She untied Whitney’s hands from the bed but left them bound at the wrists. “You need to eat something.”

  Suki assisted Whitney to sit up as best she could, with her feet still tethered to the iron bed.

  “I’m not hungry,” Whitney slurred, barely able to keep her eyes open. “Why are you doing this to me?”

  “Never mind.” The less Whitney knew the better—for all concerned. “Now, eat this sandwich or I’m going to force you to.” Suki shoved the sandwich toward her mouth. It had to be done. Force-feeding was not out of the question. “Eat!”

  Whitney’s eyelids were heavy and even sitting up was an effort. Suki would make sure Whitney did not have the strength to fight, and she would eat the sandwich.

  Suki tore off pieces and shoved them into Whitney’s mouth, pouring water in after to make sure she swallowed.

  Then, when the entire sandwich was gone, she applied a fresh piece of tape over her mouth and laid her back down on the filthy mattress, retying her hands to the frame.

  “Now, go back to sleep, and it’ll all be over soon,” Suki promised as she walked away, leaving Whitney protesting weakly.

  She opened the door slightly, peeking out and listening to see if anyone was out there. Not seeing or hearing anything, she quickly snuck out of the storage area. After securing the secret door, and dragging the Dino’s sign in front of it once more, Suki slipped out through the busy souvenir shop and left unnoticed.

  She drove back home, wondering what happened with Kate and the police. Managing to find some street parking a couple of blocks away from her building, she walked home and took the elevator up to her apartment.

  “About time they got that thing fixed,” she mumbled under her breath, as she fumbled with the spare key.

  * * * *

  Kate was on the phone, sitting at the dining table, her shoulders hunched and her hair pulled up into a large hair claw. “You didn’t find anything at all on her computer?” Kate asked, her voice quivering. “Every hour that passes is an hour lost, Detective.”

  She shook her head in disbelief. “I had hoped there’d be some clue on Whitney’s computer, something in her calendar or in her e-mail, anything that would give us a place to start. Nothing?”

  Kate sensed someone in the room and spun around to see Suki standing just inside the door, apparently eavesdropping on Kate’s side of the conversation.

  “Thanks for letting me know.” Kate clicked her cell phone off and set it down hard on the table, next to her cup of tea. “Yeah, thanks for nothing.”

  She looked at Suki as she walked in. “That was the police. They haven’t found anything yet on Whitney’s computer.”

  “Nothing?” Suki shrugged her coat off and hung it on the back of a chair. She didn’t seem too concerned. “I’m sorry to hear that,” Suki said, but her words sounded hollow and meaningless.

  She put a patronizing hand on Kate’s shoulder and patted it a couple of times. “It’s going to be okay, they’ll find her.”

  That seems rather gratuitous, Kate thought, shrugging off Suki’s hand.

  “Too much time is passing. What if they don’t find her? What if she’s—” Tears welled up in her eyes. Kate dabbed her tears with a napkin and took a shaky sip of her tea.


  “They said they’d keep trying, didn’t they?”

  “Yes, but...” Kate replied weakly.

  “Don’t give up. I’m sure they’ll come up with something.” Suki turned and went to the stove to pour some tea for herself.

  Kate stared after her, wondering if she detected a spring in her step. Just then, her cell phone rang. Startled, she pulled in a deep breath before answering it, expecting it to be the police again.

  “Hello.”

  “Kate? This is Ryan.”

  “Ryan? Oh...hi,” she said, sitting up straight in her chair.

  “I’ve been thinking about you all afternoon,” he told her. “Ah—I mean, because of your sister...you know?”

  “I know.” She secretly hoped that wasn’t the only reason.

  “Has there been any word on her yet?”

  “No, not yet, although we are not giving up,” Kate said.

  “Absolutely not. You’ve got to hang in there and keep that optimistic attitude.”

  “Thanks, Ryan. I needed a little pep talk right now. It’s hard to just sit here and try not to worry, waiting for a call from the police.”

  “I thought maybe I could help you out a little, Kate.”

  “Help me out? How?”

  “Well, I was wondering, if you’re not doing anything tonight, maybe you’d let me take you out to dinner, take your mind off of things for a while.”

  “I don’t know. I want to be available in case the police find anything.”

  “Raj, I mean, Detective Patel, has your cell phone number, doesn’t he?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then, he’ll call you if they discover anything.”

  “Hmmm. I guess you’re right—I could use a break from just sitting here fretting.”

  “I’ll come by in a few minutes and pick you up. What’s your address?”

  Kate gave him the address and thanked him for the invitation. Suki had brought her cup of tea to the table while Kate was on the phone and had leaned in, as if listening to her side of the conversation.

  “So, I guess you won’t be here for dinner tonight?” Suki remarked. “I didn’t know you knew anyone else in Seattle.”