Stevie lifted his chin. “Hey.”
“Hey,” I said, pulling my gloves from my hands and shaking them out.
“That’s Amanda,” he said, pointing to the girl closest to the fire. “That’s Mary.”
I nodded at them both. They stared back at me, their arms locked tightly around their knees.
“They know Jessica,” Stevie said.
Boyd sat down next to Stevie, holding his hands out to the crackling flames. I joined him on the floor, which felt nearly as cold as the air outside.
“But they think you’re a cop,” he said.
I looked at each of the girls. “I’m not a cop. I promise. I used to be. I’m not anymore.”
They exchanged anxious looks, unsure of how to take that.
“All I want to do is find Marc and Jessica,” I said. “That’s it. And I don’t want to hurt them. They aren’t in trouble. If they need help, I’ll help them. But I need to find them first.”
Amanda whispered something to Mary. Mary’s eyes darted toward me, then back to her lap. Her cheeks glowed in the firelight.
Mary nodded and rocked a bit.
Amanda studied me. Her eyes were small beneath a thick, red wool cap. She had an oversized green ski jacket on over jeans and dirty black boots. Strands of greasy blond hair peeked out from the cap.
“Stevie said you had money,” she said, her voice low, raspy.
I looked at him.
“Took all we had to get to them,” he said, shrugging. “But we’re here and they know her.”
“Tell me what you know,” I said to Amanda. “Then I’ll pay you.”
She shook her head. “I need to see the money or we can all sit here and pretend to roast marshmallows.”
Her stony expression told me she was serious. I yanked out my wallet and pulled out all of the cash. “Here it is.”
She held out her hand.
I shook my head. “No way. Talk first.”
She folded her arms across her chest. “Hope you like imaginary marshmallows.”
There was no way I was handing over money until I knew what I was getting. But she didn’t trust me and I didn’t blame her. She had no reason to.
“Let’s meet halfway,” I said, then reached across Boyd and handed the cash to Stevie. “He holds. You tell me what you know about Jessica, then he gives it to you.” I nodded at Stevie. “Give them each twenty now.”
He pulled off two bills and handed them both to Amanda. She quickly handed one to Mary and the money disappeared into their jackets.
“She’s a junkie,” Amanda said. “Heroin.”
I nodded.
“Guy named Laser, he’s her dealer,” she continued. “She was buying on credit. He finally cut her off, told her it was time to start paying. She didn’t have the money. He beat the shit out of her, told her she had two days to get it to him or it was gonna get worse.”
Mary rocked a little quicker.
“She’s new out here,” Amanda explained. “She didn’t know better.”
“What about Marc?”
“Tall guy? Dark hair, that helper guy?”
Sounded close enough, so I nodded.
“Yeah, she’d been hanging out with him,” she said, the fire crackling and popping next to her. “I guess he was her boyfriend or something, but I’m not sure. I know she was hiding the heroin from him, though.”
“How?”
“Careful about her tracks,” she said, shrugging. “Not doing it when he was around. Like I said. She’s new out here. She still looks new.”
I wondered if Marc really hadn’t known about her drug habit but didn’t say anything.
“He told her he could get the money,” Amanda continued. “And he did.” She nodded at Stevie and Boyd. “From Gino. He gave it to Jessica to pay off Laser. But she didn’t.”
“Why not?”
“I dunno,” she said. “Probably went in her arm or nose.”
I nodded. “Okay.”
“So he said he’d get more and cover her and get her out of here or something like that,” she said, scratching at her jaw. “I don’t know. So he went to go get it from wherever. He comes back and she’s gone.”
“Comes back to where?” I asked. “Where were they staying?”
“About four blocks from here,” she said. “House like this.”
I nodded at Stevie and he handed her two more twenties. She gave one to Mary and they disappeared again.
“Pretty sure Laser took her,” she said, glancing at Mary. Mary nodded. “That’s his thing.”
“His thing?”
“Girls don’t pay, he comes for them,” Amanda said, squinting. “They go to work for him. Dealing, hooking, whatever.”
“What’s he do with the guys?”
“He doesn’t deal to guys,” she said. “Only girls.”
Laser sounded like a real champ.
“He’s one of those guys who pretends to be tougher than he is,” she said, frowning. “Mouths off, pretends to be a bad-ass, but only around people he can handle. Like junkie girls.”
“Where do I find Laser?” I asked.
Amanda started to say something, then looked at Mary.
Mary cleared her throat, kept her eyes on the floor. “Old office building near the grocery store, maybe half a mile from here.” She looked at Stevie. “You know?”
He nodded. “Yeah.”
“There’s a guy there,” Mary said. “Nate. He’s like Laser’s bodyguard. You have to get past him.”
I nodded. “That’s fine.”
“But there’s a bunch of rooms there,” Mary said, her eyes staring into the fire. “Used to be offices and he turned them into rooms. If he has her, she’s probably there. He can lock the rooms from the outside.”
“Would Marc know this place?”
Mary shrugged, but Stevie nodded. “Probably. People don’t know what goes on in there, but they know the building. He probably knows it.”
Which meant there was a good chance he might be there, too.
“How do you know all this, Mary?” I asked.
The fire popped and hissed. Her eyes stared into the middle of it. “I’ve been there.”
We all sat there in silence, the fire the only noise in the room.
I finally turned to Stevie. “You can get us to this place?”
He nodded.
“How much do you have there?” I asked, motioning at the cash.
He counted the bills. “Two forty.”
I nodded and tilted my head toward the girls. Stevie held it out to Amanda. She hesitated, then reached for it. She stared at it for a long moment, then looked at me.
“You’re giving all this to us?” she asked.
“Yeah. Thanks for telling us what you know.”
She glanced at the money. “This is a lot of money.”
I pushed myself off the frozen floor. “Not really. I wish it was more. But it’s yours.”
“What’s the catch?”
“No catch. You helped us and we promised we’d pay for the info. That’s it.”
Amanda glanced at Mary. Mary was still staring into the fire. She looked back to me.
“No catch? At all?”
I shoved my hands into the pockets of my coat. “Stevie. Tell them there’s no catch.”
Stevie stood and so did Boyd. Stevie shrugged. “No catch. He’s for real. He says it’s yours, it’s yours.”
Amanda stared at me for a long moment, then counted out the money and handed half of it to Mary. They shoved it into the same pockets as the other money we’d given them.
“Thank you,” she said.
I nodded. Either of them could’ve been Elizabeth. Alone. Cold. Suspicious of everyone they came into contact with. Hoping to make it to the next day. I hated seeing her face in theirs.
“You’re welcome,” I said. “You hear anything else, let Stevie know. He knows how to find me.”
Both girls nodded and we headed for the door, the cold floor permeating the soles of my shoes. I pushed open the front door and flecks of snow pelted my cheeks.
We stepped down off the porch, the snow billowing around my feet as we hit the walk. I motioned for the two of them to get into my car and we hurried into it, shutting the doors against the cold. I shoved the key in the ignition and cranked the heat all the way up. We sat in silence, waiting for it to warm.