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“The guy was loaded. Custom suit, gold Rolex. And a full head of hair. He was good-looking. In that Hollywood way. You know.Suave.”
“I’ve shown you this photo before.” Sade takes out the picture of Nico Drakos—one printed off Google. “Could you confirm again that it wasn’t him with Lizzie that night?”
“No,” Jim says immediately.
“I wish it had been Drakos,” Terry adds wistfully. “I’ve always wanted to meet him.”
“Are you positive she didn’t leave with either of these men?”
“Yes. It wasn’t Gerry—I know Gerry well. He’s in the industry. Likes to come here when he wants to get away from his own place, listen to some music…And we both would have remembered Nico. He’s a legend in this business.”
“But Gerard was here that night?”
“Yeah. He came in late. Left around one, an hour after the other two.”
“He did chat to Lizzie for a bit,” Terry says. “The other guy went to take a piss, and Gerry moved in real quick.”
“They have an altercation when he got back from the restroom?”
“No. Gerard owns a bar.” Terry explains, “He knows how it is. He’d never deliberately cause a fight or make more work for us.”
“So how did the interaction end?”
“Lizzie introduced them. The guys shook hands, bought drinks, chatted for a few minutes. Gerard moved off first, back to one of the tables near the stage.”
Sade begins gathering the photographs and sliding them back into the folder. “Thank you. You’ve both been very helpful.”
“Yeah. No problem.”
“Anytime,” Terry seconds.
Sade leaves her card with them in case anything comes up. As we walk back to the cruiser, I wait for her to sift through the information we’ve gathered. She’s good at her job, and I know she’s trying to figure out why it doesn’t make sense.
“Jim said Elizabeth and the suspect left at midnight. He said ithadto be because he was just coming off his break.”
“Go on.”
“The video of Elizabeth with Gerry Munson is taken two hundred yards that way,” she points over her shoulder, “at one in the morning.”
“So, we have an hour where Elizabeth left with our suspect, ditched him, found Munson, and left the area with him.”
“Exactly.”
“Options?”
“Well, Munson left the bar an hour later. So, either he had plans to meet up with her already, or Elizabeth was outside, he ran into her by chance, left with her from there.” She stops and turns a slow three-sixty on the sidewalk. “There’s nothing here except the bars,” she points out. “All of these businesses are daytime establishments.”
“So, Elizabeth disappeared with the suspect for an hour.”
“You think he was a John?”
“It’s not improbable. He asks her what she does, she tells him she’s an escort, and he pays for something. There’s any number of dark alleys this part of town. And our guy allegedly had clout.”
“And then Elizabeth leaves and runs into Gerard on his way out?”
“Maybe.”
“We need to find this guy. I feel it in my stomach.”
