Monday, February 11, 2013

Aura - Pt. 3


            The back office of Ragnarok was a disappointment to say the least. Plain white walls were stricken with age old advertisements for past performers to the club and brown stains that were about as attractive. The overhead fan was broken, the light flickered every now-and-then, and no one had changed out the coffee in the pot for a couple of days, which had generated an odd smell. An old metal desk and four filing cabinets were against the wall, surrounded by old booze boxes, now filled with paperwork, advertisements, and promotional materials for the club. On the back wall there was a large wooden sign that had the word ‘PURSUIT’ on it with dark blue, pink, and purple letters. Richtor thought about how much he hated this office as he adjusted his tie and waited for the first person to be sent in.
            No one could read Dwight Richtor’s notes except for him. The short hand wasn’t the problem, it was the fact that he seemed to ignore lines on the page and write over other notes that he thought needed to be grouped together. Sometimes there were doodles that made no sense but somehow triggered responses in his mind that were important for solving them. Back in ’99 when he had just transferred there was a cute and kind young secretary named Sara Hoffstead who had volunteered to transcribe Dwight’s notes for him. The detective knew this wasn’t a good idea, but she was so eager to please that he gave her the chance. Later that day when he was getting ready to leave, he heard Lilly crying at her desk, upset that she couldn’t make up or down of the fourteen pages he had handed her that morning. Since then Dwight did his own notes and barely bothered to type them up until the case was over.
            He was tapping his pen against the yellow pad when the door finally opened. Dwight sat with his back to the desk and another folding, much more uncomfortable chair, in front so that the person could face him.
            Hunter Stuart, the first bartender, entered slowly. The old wooden door was shut softly behind him. Richtor raised an eyebrow.
            “So you’re first?”
            “Callie didn’t want to go first,” Hunter responded with an uncomfortable look himself. “I think she is a little shaken up by all of this.”
            Dwight nodded, “and you’re protective over her?”
            “Well,” the bartender paused. “I guess. She’s a friend.”
            “Just friends?”
            Hunter was unsure what to say at first but he quickly nodded.
            “You get along with everyone here Hunter, are you guys like a family?”
            “Sure.”
            “No problems with anyone?”
            “No,” he paused again. “I mean, bosses are bosses I guess, but they are alright. The security guys kind of hang out on their own you know, even outside of the club but I don’t have any real problems with anyone.”
            Dwight nodded and wrote down two letters at the top left of the page and then underlined them individually.
            “So tell me about Aura Johnson.”
            “She’s,” Hunter stretched the word out as he questioned himself, “a friend.”
            Detective Richtor raised an eyebrow at him. He didn’t even have to say the words.
            “We were involved off and on…sexually, but she was my friend.”
            “I see.” He paused to make a small symbol that could have been the letter S. “Is that why you reported her missing after going over to her apartment?”
            “Yeah,” Hunter said, exhaling.
            “Why were you heading over there, or was that routine?”
            “No, she had asked me to come over. I hadn’t seen her in a few days but she made it sound like she wanted to hang out.” He shook his head. “With Aura though, that could have meant anything from having sex to her asking me philosophical questions while I hung picture frames for her.”
            “When you two did have sex, was it over at her place most of the time?”
            Hunter nodded and looked off at the wall to one of the old posters.
            “Yeah, I have an annoying roommate.”
            Dwight made a few more notes up near the corner, underlining everything he had written so far. He eyed Hunter, keeping him under his watch for a bit before his next question.
            “Who all here at the club knew Aura, more than in passing I mean.”
            Hunter thought.
            “Katie knew her. I think they went out a couple of times, shopping or something. Callie and I knew her of course, we all hung out a few times and we probably saw her the most while she was in the club. She and I would give Aura free drinks sometimes.” Hunter sighed. “I don’t know how much she knew Chris and Josh, the security guys, but I know she and Rick dated. Don’t know how serious it got.”
            “Did that bother you?”
            “What?”
            “That she was Rick?”
            “No,” Hunter’s lip curled. “No I mean, I don’t think they-“
            “You know for sure?”
            “No, I don’t-“
            “So they could have?”
            “Yea, yeah I guess.”
            Dwight nodded and made another note, placing Hunter and Rick closer.
            “So when was the last time you saw her Saturday night?”
            Hunter took a deep breath before he began.
            “Like I told the police officer, she was dancing in the back room here.” He jerked his thumb towards that door that led to the secondary dance floor. “She told me she gets bothered less back here once the place gets going. I came back to ask her if she wanted to get food afterwards, since I knew she wanted to see me, but she just wanted me to come over and told me that if I got hungry she had food at her place.”
            “What was this conversation?”
            “2:30, maybe 2:20, I didn’t look at the time. The club was getting ready to close at 3:00 and I was trying to hurry.”
            “And then you went to her apartment at what time?” Dwight asked as he wrote down 2:30 a.m. on the pad.
            “Well no. I looked for her here first. She usually waits for me, but when she wasn’t there I thought maybe she had go home to make food or she was just really upset about something. She danced to get away from everything so I didn’t,” he trailed off.
            “What time did you make it to her apartment?”
            “Almost four in the morning, I buzzed, I called. I finally got a guy to let me in the building but nothing.”
            “Then you came back the next day.”
            “Yeah,” Hunter sighed. “I thought maybe she had just gone home with someone else, I don’t know.” He began to stay something but shook his head. “The building manager knows me. I got him to open the door but she wasn’t there, her phone was gone, it looked like she hadn’t even made it home.”
            Dwight nodded and wrote a few more notes, the top of his page looking more like an artist’s canvas now. Eyes rising, he searched for Hunter’s attention. The young man was obviously uncomfortable, concerned, and perhaps a little worried for his own safety, with reason.
            “We are going to want to speak to you again, Mr. Stuart.”
            “Alright,” he said weakly.
            “Just stay where we can reach you if you don’t mind.”
            Hunter stood up from the chair and looked towards the door. His eyes showed he wanted to ask something though. Dwight cocked his head to the side waiting.
            “You think she’s fine…I mean…you think you’ll find her?”
            After a pause, “I’m sure we will.”
            Hunter gave a slight nod before exiting. He wasn’t sure what to say, what to think. The door shut behind him though, giving a small bounce against the frame. Dwight looked back over his notes, drawing a short line from one set of letters to another scribbling. He waited for whomever Carter sent back next, his hand absently going to the Rubick’s cube in his pocket. He stopped himself though as he heard heels clicking across the floor.
            The other bartender Callie Wright entered. Hunter wasn’t wrong, she did look shaken up. She was shivering it seemed at first, thought it was summer and muggy. She sat down and crossed her legs before trying to force a semblance of a smile.
            “You can relax.”
            “Easy for you to say,” There was the soft smile finally.
            Dwight returned it. “Just tell me everything you know.”
            “Just about Aura, right?”
            Dwight nodded. “If I want anything more than that, I’ll ask.”
            “She was cool.”
            There was a pause as Callie’s hands clenched together in her lap and she looked down, trying to find her words.
            “Well, something a little more concrete than that.”
            “No, I know I just… you know we didn’t know each other that well but we had started hanging out more, talking. I met her last week to go shopping at the boutique a couple of blocks from here. She seemed so nice and laid back I just… “
            Dwight nodded.
            “She danced in the back room a lot. I was bartending back here until almost one. I saw her dancing for a while. When it isn’t super packed though we pack up the back bar early, I had gone back up front. I waved at her but I thought I’d see her when the club closed, I didn’t think to go talk to her.”
            “So you didn’t see her leave?”
            “No.”
            “Did you see her with anyone?”
            “No, I mean I’m sure she had some guys hitting on her, she usually does. I didn’t notice her dancing with anyone though, or talking with anyone at any real length, nothing out of the ordinary at all.”
            “You think she left out of the double doors by the office door back here?” He motioned to them with his pen.
            “That would make the most since. There isn’t an alarm on them or anything so she could have gotten out of here if she wanted to. She has never done that before though. She usually hangs around and grabs food with me or one of the guys.”
            “Which of the guys does she like to spend time with?”
            “Hunter mostly,” she thought. “Sometimes she will talk to Rick or Christ, but I don’t know. The only guy she’s really talked to me about is Hunter.”
            Dwight put a few notes down, more interested in the doors now as he looked to the wall, imagining them, imagining her walking through them. Callie watched him for a moment, his silence making her more uncomfortable.
            “Sir?”
            “Do you like working here, any problems?”
            Callie shook her head. “It’s not bad, they work around my school schedule.”
            Dwight nodded, his pen tapping the pad as he looked back down at it.
            “Have you been inside her apartment?”
            “No.”
            “What about the dance studio she works at?”
            “She showed me the outside one day when we were passing it.”
            “She talk about her job a lot?”
            “No, not really.”
            Dwight scratched the back of his head absently as he pondered her answers.
            “Hunter say anything to you about Aura on Saturday?”
            She thought for a long moment, frustration building. She didn’t want to get anything wrong. Her nervous gestures showed it. Dwight figured she didn’t know anything or she was a damn good actress. Callie was forming beads of sweat across her brow, just a bit. The office was a bit muggy though.
            “I asked him if he had plans, he mentioned possibly seeing her. He didn’t go into any details though, he often didn’t with her.”
            “Why is that?”
            “I think because she had a tendency to flake out on him some. I know at least once she was supposed to be with him but ended up hanging out with me instead.”
            Detective Richtor pursed his lip just a fraction as he wrote the new note and put a line through it.
            “We may want to talk to you again if we have further questions.”
            “Of course, sure, yeah,” she said standing. “Anything I can do to help.”
            Dwight nodded, allowing her dismissal. She couldn’t have made it out of the room any faster if she were trying to.