Chloe and Alan had their moment in part 1. We now join our protagonist as he confronts a worried older sister.
*****
As predicted, my apartment door buzzed, seven minutes after Chloe rushed to pull on her clothes.
There is much privilege and many advantages to occupying the top two floors of a 3 story building in Manhattan. I have plenty of space, and no one complains about noise. That's especially true since my ground floor tenant is a clothing boutique that sells thrift store items at astonishingly high prices; they'd been closed for a couple of hours.
By the time the buzzer rang, Chloe was long gone. I'd cleaned up the apartment and taken a quick shower. I'd put on a jeans and a t shirt. I'm efficient under pressure.
I knew when she'd be arriving because Chloe's "find my phone" app had provided a fairly clear passage of the sister as she moved from west 110th street down to my apartment.
The young woman was angry. She wore some sort of long coat, but she seemed trim, athletic. She had subdued reddish brown hair, cut short and straight. The family resemblance was obvious.
"Where is she?"
"Who?"
"My sister."
"Who's your sister?"
"You know my sister. She's the teenager you've abducted."
I considered my options, including suggesting that I abduct so many teenagers that it's just damn difficult to keep them all straight.
"Are you talking about Chloe?"
"Yes, where is she?"
"You must be Irene, her superstar sister who is being recruited to Columbia before getting rich, saving the underprivileged, and joining the Supreme Court."
"Where is she?"
Irene's neck veins were sharply distended. Like her sister, she had freckles and beauty.
"I assume she's back at your hotel. She left an hour ago."
"Bullshit. She's here."
"Do you want to check?"
She paused.
"Seriously. you know my address. Text a friend. Tell them you're going up to a potential crime scene. Here's my driver's license. Send it out. Tell them to call the cops in half an hour if they haven't heard from you."
She looked at me, appraisingly.
I pulled out my phone and tapped.
"Here I am. I'm a partner at a law firm your future classmates will kill to join. Recognize the face?"
She nodded.
"Come upstairs, and you can see for yourself."
We walked.
My second floor is one large room. An old factory where they made shoes back in the old days. 14 foot ceilings. There's a kitchen on one end. At the other end, floor-to-ceiling windows or floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. I have a lot of books. Chloe, anticipating a once-in-a-lifetime fucking, did not notice the books. Irene, obsessed with bookish success, noticed.
No one, obviously, was hiding behind the couch.
Irene bounded up the stairs to my 3rd floor lair. I followed her slowly and watched her look around. A sitting room, bathroom, and very large bedroom. No handcuffs, no candles, and obviously no Chloe.
She turned to me. "Where is she?"
"Come back downstairs."
She did.
"Why don't you call her?"
"I've been calling for two hours."
"Try again."
She did.
The phone rang, muffled by having wedged itself into a couch cushion.
Irene grabbed the phone, stared at it, and turned abruptly to me.
"Why didn't you fucking answer?"
"I walked Chloe downstairs, and then went to a local watering hole for a beer. I just got back. She must have left it here."
She glared at me.
"Hey, I'm happy to walk you over to the bar to verify my alibi."
Actually, I wouldn't have wanted to walk her over to a bar that didn't exist, but I didn't think she'd check.
"Hey, Irene, superstar older sister. I'm sure she's fine. Let's call the hotel. She should be there by now."
Irene called. Chloe answered. Muffled confirmation.
Irene looked at me.
"So, it seems that you're not a serial murderer."
I shrugged my shoulders and answered, "yet."
"Ha." She pursed her lips. "What are you doing bringing a teenager back to your apartment?"
I looked at Irene.
"I was working on an abacus problem at a diner."
"C'mon. You've got to be kidding."
"I'm allowed to be quirky." I smiled reassuringly at the 22-year-old law school applicant who was multiple levels below me on the power grid, who'd been drinking at a law school function, who'd just been reassured that I hadn't converted her younger sister into a sex slave.
She smiled back. "Let me reframe, counselor. What were you intending by bringing a teenager back to your apartment?"
"Irene, I love to teach, so I thought I could teach her to use an abacus and relate it to 21st century law."
"Really? Sex didn't enter into your thinking?"
We made steady eye contact.
"Can I offer you a drink? Water, wine?" She hesitated. "Maybe champagne since we're celebrating."
"What are we celebrating?"
"That you've saved your sister and also made a new friend."