At that, Heather giggled delightedly. I noticed, with even more irritation, that she was looking up at him with more than just a little interest. The next day, I called Mark and told him what I'd learned about Vicky Sanchez. He said he'd look into it, and that was pretty much the end of the conversation. Neither of us mentioned the previous night at all, and I headed off to work, wondering if he'd felt as awkward as I had.
After having worked roulette, walking around as a two-foot cocktail girl was no trouble at all. In fact, it was a piece of cake. I barely noticed my shift passing at all, and when it was over, I didn't even notice the time until Heather showed up.
"Hey, Ashley," she said as she walked over to me. "I'm just gettin' finished. Wanna grab a drink?"
"What, it's four already?" I asked, looking at the clock. It was actually five minutes after. She'd come looking for me once she'd finished, and hadn't bothered to get restored or change clothes first.
"Yeah," she replied. "I gotta study tonight, but not right away."
"Okay," I agreed. "Come on, let's get out of these uniforms."
We started walking towards the exit door, but before we could get there, I saw Mark was waiting for me. I stopped cold, glancing around to see if there was somewhere I could hide before he saw me, but it was too late. He walked over to us, looking down from above like a walking mountain.
"Hello, Mark," I called up to him, not bothering to hide my irritation. "What brings you by?"
"I just wanted to talk to you, Ashley," he replied, kneeling down in front of me. "Sorry to interrupt. Who's the cute little thing with you?"
At that, Heather giggled delightedly. I noticed, with even more irritation, that she was looking up at him with more than just a little interest.
Both of us pretended like he didn't already know her name. "This is Heather Andrews," I told him. "Heather, this is Mark Powers, my ex-boyfriend. He comes here occasionally because no matter how hard he tries, he just can't get over me."
Mark laughed weakly and turned slightly red, which seemed to delight Heather no end. "Hi!" she yelled at him gleefully. "Pleased t'meetcha! Hey, you don't wanna talk to us way down here! Why don't you put us up on that table so we can be eye to eye?"
"Heather!" I protested, knowing full well she just wanted to be picked up for her own pleasure. "We'll be just fine down here, thank you. What is it you wanted, Mark?"
"Well," he answered, "it's really kinda private..."
That probably meant it was business, but I rolled my eyes and pretended otherwise. "Oh, very well," I said with feigned exasperation. "Heather, would you excuse us? I'll see you in the bar in fifteen minutes, okay?"
"All right," she replied, disappointed. She turned back to Mark. "Are you sure you won't put me up on that table?"
"I'd rather not, sorry," said Mark, and to my even greater annoyance, he also looked disappointed.
"Well, it was nice t'meetya!" Heather concluded, and with that she went through the exit door and disappeared.
Mark watched as she left, his eyes following her carefully. "She really is a little cutie," he told me, grinning.
"She's way too young for you, Mark," I said firmly. "You know she's only twenty!"
He laughed. "Yeah, yeah, I know. Besides, I wouldn't--oh, never mind, let's just get on with it. I checked out Vicky Sanchez after I got the rest of my stuff transferred to the new hotel."
That's right, I'd forgotten he had to move everything to a closer place. He'd managed to do that, and check on Vicky, in the last four and a half hours? Busy man! "What'd you find out?" I asked.
"She's gone," he told me. "She lived in an apartment about two blocks away from yours. All her stuff is there, but she's not. There's no evidence she's been there for the last two days. I checked her bank records, and she made a big withdrawal this morning, but her car's still outside and she still has suitcases in her closet."
"Maybe she took a flight somewhere," I suggested. "Could be a job interview in another town."
"No one with her name left through the airport or on the LA maglev," he answered. "I scanned the photo IDs, too, and got no matches. Of course, 'Vicky Sanchez' could have been an alias all along. I'm still looking into it. It'll be a few days before we know anything for sure, but it's looking like this'll be another mysterious disappearance to add to the file."
"Well, keep digging," I told him. "I'll see what I can find out here. I just wish I hadn't told Beth I hadn't met Vicky. Now it'll just be harder to be interested in her whereabouts."
"Don't worry about it," said Mark. "You wouldn't have been able to fake knowing her, anyway. What if she'd asked you what her hair color was or something?"
"Yeah, well, I won't make that mistake again," I said. "While you're digging around, see if you can get me some photos of anyone you know is on the payroll here. And records, too. If anyone else disappears, it'll help us try to narrow down a pattern."
"Already working on that," he replied. "Come by tonight after your drink and we'll go over what the computer found."
"All right," I agreed, somewhat reluctantly. "Maybe in an hour or two. Heather has to study tonight anyway."
"Good, see you then," he replied.
As he stood up, I went through the access door and got myself restored to normal size. When I got to the dressing room, Heather was already gone, which was surprising. I hadn't taken more than a couple of minutes talking to Mark. How had she changed so fast?
I shrugged it off as unimportant and got into my street clothes. As I changed, I thought back to Heather's reaction to Mark's presence. She had flirted with him openly, and even though he'd admitted she was too young for him, he'd seemed to enjoy the attention. For some reason, that bugged me, and I didn't know why.
When I finally got of the stupid costume and back into my comfy jeans and T-shirt, I headed out to go to the bar. As soon as I entered the main part of the casino, though, I came up short. There, near the door I'd used just moments before, I saw Mark talking to Heather!
I saw at once how she'd gotten out of the changing room so quickly. Instead of getting out of her costume after being restored, she'd simply pulled a blouse and sweater on over the outfit, then cruised out to wait for Mark and I to finish our conversation. Although I couldn't see the top part of the uniform, she was still wearing the cowboy boots and dark hose that gave it away.
Now what the hell were they talking about, I wondered? I wanted to storm over there and break into the conversation, but even as I started to step forward, I stopped. Yeah, the way she was flirting with him was annoying, but he might have been pumping her for information about Vicky. Against my will, I forced myself to give him a chance to do his job.
I waited about a minute, watching the two of them talking and laughing with each other, and then decided he'd had plenty of time to get whatever data he wanted. I walked over, pretending like I wasn't looking their way, then acted like I'd just seen them for the first time. "Hey," I said by way of interruption. "I see you ran into Heather on the way out, Mark."
"Yeah, well, she kind of ran into me," he admitted sheepishly. "She just wanted to, um, ask me a couple of things before I left."
"He's awfully nice, Ashley," Heather told me with a laugh. "Why'd you ever let him get away? Take'm back before I grab 'im!"
"I'll think about it," I said through clenched teeth. God, this was infuriating! If I didn't like Heather so much, I'd have smacked her right there. "Come on, let's have a drink so you can study!"
"All right, all right!" she replied. Then she grinned and actually batted her eyes at Mark. "I'll see you later, big guy!"
Mark waved and I hustled Heather away. She kept looking back as we went, and I glanced back once as well, seeing Mark watching us go from the distance. When his eyes met mine, he quickly turned and left the building.