Bay City Runaway

Chapter 25

I was waiting outside when Kyra arrived in her beat-up Nissan Sentra. She pulled up next to me, rolled down the window, and said, "Get in. Oh shit, James. Have you seen your face?" she asked, "And are you drunk?"

"I just want to get her out of there. Go! Go! Go!"

"Where are we going?"

"I don't know, just go. We'll figure something out."

She gunned it, blowing the first stop sign. The next block down, a trolley was stopping to pick up passengers. She slowed down until they were all on, and then she gunned it again. She went as fast as possible, blowing as many stop signs as she could and dodging trolley traffic.

"Maybe North Beach. I met him there once!" I said, and she took a hard left, right in front of a trolley.

As we approached North Beach, she said, "James, this is crazy. We have absolutely nothing to go on. Did you see his car?"

"Yes. It was a white Camry."

"Oh, like there aren't a million of those."

"Just look for a white Camry, ok?"

"Turn here!" I said, seeing some apartments

She turned hard, and it threw my face into the window, reminding me of my sore jaw. There were rows of cars in the parking lot. We rolled around the complex until we saw it; a white Camry.

"Look! There!" I said.

She pulled up behind the car, and I got out.

"Stay in the car. I'll check it out."

I began knocking on doors. One door opened. It was a young man with a beanie propped far back on his head.

"I'm looking for a man...fifties...a girl seventeen. Drives a white Camry."

"The Camry out there is owned by a little Chinese dude."

"Shit. Sorry to bother you!" I said, running back to the car.

I got in, and Kyra said, "Look, we're not going to find her this way. Can you think of anywhere or anyone that might at least give us a clue?"

In a flash of inspiration, I said, "Farid! The guy went to Farid's a couple of times. Maybe he went there looking for her."

"Ok, let's go, then."

She put the car in reverse and made a tight turn around between rows of cars and began heading for Union Square.

When we got to Farid's, I said, "Ok, stay in the car. Keep it running. I'm just going to see if there's anything he can tell us."

I climbed out of the car as fast as my drunk legs would take me and blew into Farid's place.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, my friend!" Farid greeted me, "What is the rush?"

"Amy is in trouble, Farid. She's been abducted by her father."

"By her father?"

"Yes. Look is there anything you can think of—anything at all—that could help me figure out where he might have taken her?"

"Well, I don't know. Let me think about that. You know that man was here again--the one with the ball cap and paper. Is that her father?"

"Yes! When was that?"

"Oh, yesterday morning. Wait a minute. He left something. I was just about to throw it out, but maybe it will help you."

He hurried back to his office and returned with a newspaper. "I was working the crossword puzzle." He opened it to the front page and turned it around so that I could see it. "Look at that!"