Page 71 of Mission: Possible

"How life has changed," I said as I smiled. "Remember when we used to eat pizza at three in the morning after hitting the clubs? And the only time ducks featured was when autocorrect changed our text messages?"

"I still eat pizza at three in the morning, only now it involves finishing the night shift and taking inventory at the bar. Man, I earn that pizza."

"Got pizza?" yelled the man inside apartment C.

"No," we yelled back.

I rapped my knuckles against D's door and the D on the door swung around so that it hung upside down. "Would you look at that," said Lily. "It's still a D."

"No, it's not."

"Almost."

"It's backwards." I was saved from further explanation by a young woman with short spiked hair with cute blue tips opening the door, a games controller in her hand.

"Hi," she said, looking from me to Lily quizzically.

"Hi. We're looking for Sophie Gallo. I think she used to live here."

"Not here, but once a Sophie used to live down the hall," she said, pointing the controller towards Zach's apartment. "She left a few months ago but the dude she lived with is still there."

"We're a little worried about her," I said.

"Oh? Is she dead?"

The question surprised me. "No!"

The young woman relaxed and blew out a breath. "I thought you were going to tell me he killed her," she said, not overly concerned.

"He?"

"Zach. The guy down the hall. Always yelling at her and telling her what to do. I could hear it through the wall. If my guy treated me like that, I'd drop his ass in a heartbeat."

"Me too," said Lily. "No one should tolerate being treated like shit."

"I hear you," said the woman. "I have to get back to my game. There's a bunch of guys who need their asses handed to them. Anything else?"

"Did anyone strange ever come around looking for them?" I asked.

Spiky hair frowned. "Strange? Like what?" she asked.

"People that appeared to be in trouble. I think Sophie might have had some money problems. Or Zach did."

"I don't think so but I'm not here a lot. As a mobile hairdresser, I work all over the city and some of my clients like to get their hair done after work when most people are at home. I don't always get back until late." She paused as a train rumbled past. "I'm saving up to move out of this dump."

"You said you could hear them through the wall. Could you hear what they were arguing about?" I asked.

The young woman nodded. "The last few weeks Sophie was here, they kept arguing about Texas. Maybe they were planning to move there."

"Texas?"

"Sure. Austin, specifically. I guess if you're looking for her, you could try there? I hope she doesn't ever come back to that jerk."

I thanked the woman and she asked me to tell Sophie “congratulations” for leaving Zach if we ever caught up with her before shutting the door.

"I don't think they were arguing about that Austin," said Lily. "Although it's a nice city. My parents took me there once."

"Was that the time they flew back without you?" I asked.