I was shaken. My eye ached. My clothes were torn. And all I wanted to do was get back to my room at Mamma Jo's and lock the door behind me. Maybe put a chair in front of it. Or perhaps the dresser.
But Tina was missing. Kidnapped perhaps. Perhaps she was being forced to be with a man like my heavy-handed attacker. For her sake, I ignored my watery knees and shaky hands and stayed out until dawn, asking every woman I could find about Tina and what was happening in these forgotten back streets.
The women, especially the younger girls, were nervous and unusually chatty. They all had similar stories. Business was slow. Guys were jerks. And thanks to the missing women, the pressure from the police was mounting, especially from Officer Kevin Blakely. Blakely was Pete's former partner. He'd remained pounding the streets while Pete had moved up the ranks.
According to the upset women I'd interviewed, Blakely had been pestering them to tell him everything they knew about the missing girls. Perhaps he'd finally developed a case of ambition. Or perhaps he just got his jollies from harassing scantily dressed young women. Either way, none of the women seemed to have any idea what had happened to Tina or the three other girls who'd vanished from the streets. If anyone had seen anything, they weren't talking to me...or to Blakely. Most assumed the missing girls were dead by now. For Tina and her sister's sake, I prayed they were wrong.
YOU ARE READING
Birds in Paradise
Mystery / ThrillerA street-savvy P.I. with a big heart. A missing sister. And a hunky detective who is nothing but trouble. Things are about to heat up in Honolulu! (short novella-length cozy mystery)
