Page 5 (1/2)

He s? Her name’s Melissa Her full name is Melissa Anne Blaine”

I jotted down the na

Chapter Two

Before I left Blaine’s palace, he dredged up a photo of Melissa It was her high school senior photo, so she ht have dyed her hair or who-knohat in the five years since she graduated In the photo, her mousy-brown locks were brushed back from a perfect oval face that featured full lips and her father’s green eyes

Blaine also gaveone with a full-color photo of Blaine and Slava Kandinsky sitting side-by-side Kandinsky had longer legs, knees sticking out at aard angles compared to his shorter partner’s He had a swarthy coleamed like wet tar

I left the house and crossed a driveway that led to a three-car garage, slipped into my blue Fiesta, and fired it up I lowered the s to let in the warm, early September breeze Then I drove to the local library, took hts on paper while they were still fresh

When I start a case, I like to create a flowchart In this case, I had to find two people who may or e in my notebook Yes, I use paper and pencil for this stuff I refuse to go all digital

I penciled in the na an oval around it Under her name, I wrote “MICA”, the acronym for the art school, pronounced “mike-ah” On the left, I wrote “Slava Kandinsky” and drew a rectangle around that, then added the few additional names I’d squeezed out of Blaine I put e and underlined it, then drew arrows between that and each of the others, noting the relationships along the lines

With the preliminaries out of the way, I turned on the laptop and scoped out Melissa’s last-known address and socialher on Facebook wasn’t surprising, since teens and young adults are apparently fleeing the site However, Melissa’s friend Katie Saunders was there and was identified as a graduate of Daical place for a young artist And Pinterest But there was no sign of Melissa on either one

I needed to delve deeper by using a subscription database—one of the few I can afford I avoid using those outside my home, because I’m concerned about wi-fi security (or lack thereof) The downside is that some of these databases are often weeks or months out of date I would have to rely on ather the hts on Katie Saunders first

I looked online for all the Saunders listed in the Damascus, Maryland, area There were only five—Da down the numbers and addresses, I left the library, returned to

I punched in the first nu

“Hi,” I said “Is Katie there?”

“Who? Kaley?”

“No Katie”