Jonah took a seat opposite the women. “Do you have any idea where we can find Christina?”
“Is she in trouble?” one of the older women asked.
“No, Christina isn’t in trouble.” Jonah explained. “But her friend is trying to find her. They share a special bond.”
“Oh, that’s nice.” The smaller of the women turned to the other. “Martha, didn’t Christina live with that teacher friend?”
Martha leaned her head back, thinking. “That’s right. I remember her. She had funny hair and she sniffed her food.”
“Right. I had forgotten about that, but where did they live?”
Martha was quietly shaking her head as if to say she didn’t know.
“I’m sorry.” Marie held her hands to her head. “My memory isn’t as good as it used to be.”
We prodded them for a few more minutes, asking them about the bike, which was our only clue.
“We never see her outside, only in here, and no one bikes indoors,” Marie explained patiently.
My shoulders fell when I realized we had hit a dead end.
“May peace surround you,” Jonah said in goodbye to the women before we all left.
My steps were heavy walking back to the drone. Christina was somewhere in this city and I needed to find hernow.
“We’ll just have to circle the area and look for the bike,” David said but was interrupted by a female voice from behind.
I turned to see Marie standing all winded right outside the entrance to the senior center, waving her hand to get our attention.
Quickly I ran back to her. “Did you remember something?”
She nodded and waved me closer with a crooked finger.
I leaned in.
“Closer,” she said with a twinkle in her eye and when I complied, she said, “I apologize for being such a forgetful old woman, but there was a time when we made a beautiful quilted blanket for Christina’s birthday.”
“And?”
“And we wanted her to have it on the day so we had it brought to her.”
I held my breath. “Please tell me you have her address?”
“I do.” She smiled. “And I’ll give it to you, if you do two things for me.
“Anything,” I said quickly and smiled.
Three minutes later, I was back in the drone facing Magni, who gaped at me.
“What the fuck was that?” he asked with his hand in the air.
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Oh, we’re gonna talk about it.”
“No!” My lips were tight. “I have Christina’s address and that’s all you need to know.”
He shook his head with disbelief but let it rest for now.
