The Case of the Sin City Sister

by Lynne Hinton

  She yelled back, “There’s some people here looking for Dorisanne!”

  The man said something in reply, but Eve couldn’t make it out. Abruptly, the door closed. Eve turned to Daniel, who stood watching. She was about to knock when the door opened completely and the woman came out onto the landing very quickly and closed the door behind her.

  She was wearing a thin robe that was open and barely covering a skimpy one-piece outfit. It was gold and studded with sequins. Her blond hair was in curlers and she had on a pair of large fuzzy slippers. She had long red fingernails and dark red lips that had stained the end of the cigarette dangling from the corner of her mouth. Her makeup appeared fresh, and Eve assumed she was getting ready for work.

  “Dorisanne and Robbie left last week. It seemed like they were in a hurry. She told me they were going on a trip and would be back soon and not to let anybody in their place.” The woman took out the cigarette and blew a puff of smoke above Eve’s head and looked nervously toward the door behind her.

  “She didn’t tell you where they were going?” Daniel wanted to know.

  The woman looked up at him. She seemed to be studying him. “I’ve seen you here before,” she said. “You’re the cop that worked with Dorisanne’s old man.”

  “I’m Daniel,” he introduced himself.

  She didn’t respond but rather eyed him suspiciously. She took another drag from her cigarette and gave a slight nod.

  The man’s voice yelled from inside the apartment. “Pauline! Where you at?”

  She jumped. “Look, I got to go. I ain’t supposed to be talking to no cops,” she said and turned back to her apartment.

  Eve caught her by the arm. “Is there anything else you know?” She knew she sounded a little desperate.

  Pauline pulled her arm away and shook her head. “Just a trip, they said.” And she opened the door and headed back inside, leaving Daniel and Eve standing at the closed door.

  TWENTY-TWO

  “Let’s go get something to eat,” Daniel suggested.

  Eve glanced once more at her sister’s locked apartment and the one next door, feeling torn about wanting to try to have a longer conversation with Pauline. She blew out a breath, chose not to knock once more on the neighbor’s door, and followed him down the stairs to the car. They got in and he started the engine. They both sat watching the building.

  “She knows more than what she’s saying,” Eve finally said, shaking her head.

  “Yeah, well, I don’t think we’ll hear anything else while her boyfriend is in there.” He pulled out of the parking place and stopped at the end of the driveway and looked in both directions before pulling out onto the street. “Did you see the bruise under her eye?” he asked.

  “Yeah, and the ones on her arms,” she answered, thinking about the blue-black marks covered with a thick layer of makeup on her face and the other ones forming a kind of chain around both wrists. Eve had noticed them when she took the drags off her cigarette, the sleeves of the robe dropping away for a clear view of the wounds.

  Eve pulled at her seat belt, stretched out her legs, and slid down a bit in the passenger’s seat. “We have a lot of abused women come to the convent. I guess since we’re right off the highway, we’re an easy place to get to. We usually try to bandage them up and get them to the hospital or the shelter, but sometimes they stay with us for a while.” She shook her head. “When we offer to call the police, most of them ask us not to.”

  “Yeah, even when we’re called, a lot of the women don’t want to file a report. Of course, now New Mexico has an ordinance in place that if the police are called to a domestic dispute, somebody’s getting in the backseat of a cruiser. We’re taking somebody to jail. It’s helped a lot, but still, in the end, usually the victims won’t follow through.” He tightened his grip on the steering wheel.

  “How can a woman stay in a relationship like that, especially in this day and time where there are more options for victims?” She crossed herself as she thought about the girls who showed up and left the monastery. “I just don’t understand,” Eve confessed.

  “Well, most people don’t,” Daniel explained. “But once you get in a relationship like that, it’s really hard to get out. It’s like the women get stuck or their brains freeze. I don’t know what it is, but I’ve seen more women stay with the guys who beat them up than I’ve seen leave.” He paused, seemed to be thinking. “Sometimes if there are children or somebody else gets beat up, they’ll find what it takes to leave, but even then . . .” His voice trailed off.

  Eve thought about the women who arrived at Our Lady of Guadalupe in the middle of the night. The calls she had received from somebody at the front gate, the women standing there, begging to be let in, claiming that they were running from a husband or a boyfriend that everyone at the convent hoped hadn’t followed them to Pecos.

  Since she had been in community there, she had probably opened that gate after midnight a hundred times, sometimes even to the same women over and over. She had tried talking them into going to a shelter or getting them a bus ticket to go somewhere to be with family, but most of them would nurse their wounds for a day or two, and then, before one of the sisters or monks could meet with them to discuss their options and make a plan of action, they would leave. Secretly, during a worship time or when most everyone was sleeping, they’d sneak away without any of the help they needed. They would exit in the dark of night in the very same way they had arrived.

  Eve thought about one girl, Trina, who came to the religious community at least three times one year, each time more bruised, each time requiring more care, the abuse growing more and more severe. Several of the sisters and even Brother Oliver had tried to talk her out of going back to her abusive boyfriend, promised her a place to stay, help in finding work, money, anything to keep her away from the man who beat her. But Trina would always go back. Finally, Sister Mary Edith had discovered Trina’s name in the obituaries. She had taken her last beating. She had been killed.

  “Wait a minute.” Eve spoke up, trying to shake the memory of Trina from her thoughts.

  Daniel quickly turned in her direction.

  “You don’t think Robbie beats Dorisanne, do you?”

  Daniel glanced back at the road and didn’t respond right away. Eve could see that he was driving slowly and carefully back to the center of town.

  She waited, hoping for some confirmation that her sister wasn’t another statistic, wasn’t in a domestic abuse situation, wasn’t like her neighbor Pauline and spending her evenings trying to cover up the wounds and scars. She closed her eyes and then felt Daniel’s hand on her shoulder. She looked up.

  “I don’t think so,” he finally replied. “I’ve seen them together, and she doesn’t seem afraid of him. She doesn’t have that look in her eye that you usually see.” He pulled his hand away and shook his head. “The look that Pauline had when the guy from the back of the apartment yelled her name. You saw that, right?”

  Eve nodded.

  “But I’ll be honest,” he continued. “There’s really no profile for an abuser. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been surprised by the men I’ve brought in and even more surprised by their victims. So I can’t really say for sure,” he said. “But I don’t think he’s threatened her or hurt her. I don’t think he’s made her go with him. I just think he’s in money trouble again, and she’s taken off with Robbie for her own safety.”

  Eve agreed. At least what Daniel was saying felt like some reassurance. And yet, even as she felt some comfort in Daniel’s opinion, when she thought about it, it didn’t really seem to matter at this point whether Dorisanne was in a physically abusive relationship with her husband or not. Because even if he didn’t beat her, it certainly seemed as if he had brought her into something dangerous, some kind of unsafe situation; and whether he meant it to be this way or not, he had put his wife at risk. Eve didn’t know the details, but it appeared as if he was responsible for her quick departure from their home
and her lack of contact with her neighbors or her family. She leaned back against the seat and closed her eyes.

  For the first time since she’d actually begun to worry about her sister, Eve felt a sudden rush of anxiety, her hands starting to sweat. She wished it wasn’t so, but her intuitions had been correct: Something was terribly wrong with Dorisanne.

  She reached up and removed the rosary from the rearview mirror and began reciting the familiar prayer: “Hail Mary, full of grace . . .”

  TWENTY-THREE

  They stopped at a diner on the edge of the Strip, a place Daniel knew and liked. They ordered their meals and sat in silence. Eve was at a loss. She realized she didn’t know anything about Dorisanne’s life in Las Vegas, and without any knowledge of Dorisanne’s friends or hangouts, she had no suggestions as to where they might search for her sister. At least Daniel knew where she lived and how to get to her place of work, but it was feeling like they were quickly coming to a dead end.

  “We can go to the Rio when we’re finished eating,” Daniel said. He seemed to read Eve’s thoughts. “Or I can drop you off at the hotel if you don’t want to go,” he added. “It’s late. I don’t mind going by myself.”

  “No, I’d like to go,” she responded. She shook her head. “But I doubt anybody there has anything new to add to the fact that she’s been gone a week. The guys I talked to on the phone didn’t seem to know much more about where she might be.” She stirred some sugar into the cup of coffee the waitress brought. She took a sip.

  “She might have called,” Daniel suggested. “She might have called her boss again to tell him exactly when she’d be back. You never know.”

  Eve could tell that he was trying to sound encouraging, and she smiled at her friend. “You’re right,” she agreed. “We don’t know until we ask.”

  Eve watched as a few more customers entered the restaurant. A young woman wearing a warm-up suit came in by herself, but with lots of makeup and her hair teased and sprayed, it didn’t appear as if she had just come from the gym. Eve assumed she was either going to or coming from work at a casino or bar. She sat alone on a stool at the end of the counter, ordered something from the waitress as they chatted like old friends, and then she pulled out her phone and appeared to make a call.

  Eve glanced away.

  “I feel awful that I don’t know where Dorisanne could be,” she confessed. “I don’t know her friends. I don’t know her daily routine, whom she trusted, or where she went for dinner.” She looked back over at the woman sitting alone. “Now that we’ve gotten to this place where she’s lived for more than a decade, I realize I know nothing about her life.” She shook her head and glanced out the window. The streets and sidewalks were full of cars and people. “I’ve never visited her here, not once.”

  “You’ve sort of been busy,” Daniel commented.

  Eve turned to him. “I should have come to see her place,” she said. “She tried to get me to come out here, and I always found a reason not to come.”

  “You’re here now,” Daniel said.

  “It’s a little late.”

  He shrugged. “I’d say it’s the most important time.”

  “I don’t know anything about what she does, where she might be.”

  “There’s no need to beat yourself up about that,” Daniel responded. “Most adults don’t know much about the lives of their siblings. I mean, unless you live in the same town. And even then, sisters don’t always know all the details of each other’s lives. That’s the way it is for most people.” He reached for the sugar and poured two packs into his glass of iced tea. He stirred it and took a long swallow.

  “You still close to Thomas?” she asked, remembering that Daniel had a younger brother living in Texas. She had met him on several occasions when he came to visit.

  Daniel smiled and nodded. “I don’t know if I could find him if he went missing,” he said. “We’re close, talk on the phone every week, but that doesn’t mean I’d know where to look for him on a Friday night.”

  Eve studied him. “You’d know,” she said. “You’d have a better idea than I do about Dorisanne.”

  He glanced away and she knew it was true. Daniel probably had phone numbers and contact information for his brother’s friends and coworkers. He more than likely had gone with Thomas to his favorite hangouts, helped him move, visited his place of employment. He probably knew his neighbors, where he played ball, and where he went for groceries. She knew he’d have a much easier time tracking down Thomas than she was having trying to find Dorisanne. She thought he was going to say something more, but before he could give some reassuring remark, their meals arrived.

  Eve bowed her head for a short prayer and started eating. She didn’t realize how hungry she was until she took the first bite and then remembered that she hadn’t eaten since the late breakfast they’d had just as they crossed the border into Nevada. The clock on the wall by the kitchen read ten o’clock. No wonder I’m hungry, she thought, reaching for the basket of rolls.

  “What do we do after the Rio?” she asked, shaking aside her disappointment in herself. They were in Vegas to find Dorisanne, and that’s what she intended to do.

  Daniel grabbed the salt and pepper and seasoned his food. “We’ll figure that out tomorrow,” he replied, taking a bite. “I think Pauline could tell us more. Maybe in the morning the boyfriend will be gone and she’ll talk to us.” He wiped his mouth with his napkin.

  Eve nodded. “I think she’ll talk to me before she’ll talk to you,” she noted. “Maybe you could just drop me off there.”

  “That’s fine. I’ll try to find the apartment manager, see what he knows, see if he’s gotten a rent check for the month or whether or not he heard from Dorisanne before they left.”

  “Sounds like a good plan,” Eve responded, feeling a little more encouraged.

  They ate their dinners and when they finished Daniel went to the restroom. When he left, Eve picked up their check and walked over to the register to pay. While she stood waiting for the waitress to come and take her money, she again noticed the woman sitting at the counter.

  She was young. Probably not much older than twenty-one, Eve thought. And she was pretty, reminded Eve of Dorisanne from a few years earlier. She wondered if the girl was in Vegas trying to fulfill a dream like her sister. Maybe a dancer or actress who’d come to Vegas to try to make it big.

  She turned to Eve, who was staring. “Hey,” she said.

  “Hello,” Eve responded.

  As the girl shifted on the stool to face Eve, her jacket opened a bit so that Eve could see what she was wearing underneath. It looked very familiar. Where had she seen that design?

  “You visiting?” the girl asked.

  Eve nodded.

  “You like the city?”

  “I don’t know,” Eve answered. “I just got here.”

  The girl smiled. “I bet you’ll like it,” she responded and turned back to her meal in front of her.

  Eve was still staring. Suddenly the thought came to her of where she had seen the same gold-sequined top. “Do you mind if I ask where you work?” she said.

  “Caesar’s,” the young woman replied. “On the casino floor,” she added. “It’s not the showroom, but at least I’m inside. I started out poolside. It was terrible in August.”

  “I bet,” Eve responded.

  The girl seemed to be waiting. “You need a job?”

  “What?” The question surprised her.

  The waitress walked up before she could answer and took the receipt from Eve’s hand. “You could still sling cocktails,” she said, having overheard the conversation and taking a long look at Eve. “I had to quit last year because of my feet.” She rang up the meals and Eve handed over cash. “Couldn’t wear the heels,” she added. “But you look like you could still do it.”

  “Yeah, those are killers,” the girl at the counter agreed. “But I’m trying to get in practice because if I get in a show I’ll have to wear even taller he
els.”

  Daniel came out from the back and walked to where Eve was standing. “I was going to get that,” he said, referring to the check.

  “That’s all right,” the girl said with a smile. “She’s going to get a job serving drinks and stay here. She’ll have lots of money then.” She winked at Eve, who blushed.

  “Take care,” Eve said as she headed for the door with Daniel following.

  “What was that about?” he asked as they reached the car.

  “She serves drinks,” Eve answered, not revealing what she had just discovered. “At a casino on the Strip. She thinks I’d make a good cocktail waitress.”

  Daniel grinned. “Well that would be something.”

  TWENTY-FOUR

  Eve could hear the loud music coming from the lounge at the Rio before she could see the place. They stopped at the door situated down a hall from the machines and tables. There was a line of people ahead of them, all waiting, it appeared, to go in. There were lights flashing and a strong bass thumping. It was like nothing Eve had ever experienced, and as she looked around at the others in line, the women dressed in short cocktail dresses and high heels, she suddenly felt completely out of place. Daniel, noticing her discomfort, told her she didn’t have to hang around, that he would ask the workers about Dorisanne and she could head back to the car and wait, but she stuffed the ends of her shirt in her jeans, slid her fingers through her hair like a comb, checked her boots to make sure they were clean, and said that since she was there, she might as well stay.

  They decided to try to find a table, be actual paying customers, and start asking their questions of the server who waited on them. That actually took longer than they expected. It seemed the manager was still having difficulty filling the positions of missing cocktail waitresses. They paid the cover charge when they entered and walked through the large crowd. The noise was so loud, Eve was unable to hear Daniel asking her where she wanted to sit. She just kept walking toward the front where there was a small stage. A couple got up from a table near the stage and Daniel headed for it, beating out two college-age girls who weren’t quite fast enough. He pulled out a chair and Eve sat down. She looked up at the stage, saw the instruments of a band, a few bottles of water sitting near a stool beside the set of drums, and figured that the performers must have taken a break. She glanced around the busy lounge as the two of them waited. It was about fifteen minutes before a server finally arrived.