Chapter V

Making Headway

Sara rested her head in her hands and held in a groan. There were at least three hundred manufacturers, handlers, and buyers for neon gas in Vegas...and that didn't include private holdings and the city's holdings. It wouldn't be impossible to track down the neon...but it was going to be damn hard. To add to that problem, she'd still not identified Jane.

Her mood had gone from aggravated to pissy, Greg's words, not her own. So when Sofia called her, her brusque answer of "Sidle" was a little sharper then usual.

"Did I catch you at a bad time?"

Sara cursed herself, "No, sorry, Sofia...I'm just hitting a brick wall every time I turn around here."

"I think I might be able to help."

Sara leaned back to rest against the back of the computer chair. "If you have a lead I'll buy you a cup of coffee, the good stuff."

Sofia snickered over the line, "Oh the irony."

Sara rolled her eyes, "Was that supposed to mean something to me?"

"Melody Wendell."

Sara frowned, "Never heard of her."

"She's our vic."

Sara felt a grin steal across her face, "You're sure!"

"The missing persons report was just filed by her boyfriend. The officer who took it down sent it strait to me. I want to bring him in to identify ASAP...but we can let Brown handle that. I want you to meet me at 14th and Vine."

Sara blinked, "And the significance of that intersection is..."

A low chuckle came over the phone, "Well besides buying me that cup of coffee, we need to interview the last people who had contact with Melody, her coworkers at the Java Hut."


The Java Hut was a growing national chain of deli style cafes that specialized in healthy food and gourmet coffee, Greg swore by the place. It, honestly, did not impress Sara. It was a coffee shop, there was nothing overly special about it...except that one of it's Assistant Mangers had been Melody Wendell. Sofia was standing on the sidewalk by the door, waiting on her. "Sara." Sara smiled and they went in together. Much like coffee shops all over the country, there was some quiet jazz coming form discrete speakers somewhere, college students were attacking their laptops with a vengeance and the place smelled strongly of coffee beans.

They approached the counter, behind the register was a twenty-something year old woman with brown hair and a bright smile. "Hi, welcome to the Java Hut!" Sofia flashed her badge, "I need to speak to the manager." The girl went pale, "JAKE! GET OUT HERE!" Another twenty-something came out of a back area. "What?" The girl turned, "These cops want to talk to the manager and last time I checked you get to wear that hat." The acne-ridden, freckle faced blonde looked at Sara and Sofia and swallowed a few times. "Sure, let's just go back to the office."


He looked from one of them to the other. "Meli's dead!" If he'd been pale before, now the young assistant manager was ashen. "I can't believe this." Sofia nodded, "I understand you're upset. We'll need to see any thing she has here, a locker perhaps...and we need to talk to anyone who worked with her on the night of her disappearance. He nodded, "Yeah. I'll show you her locker...and Harper worked with her on Tuesday...she's in back."
Harper Tennyson was in the small kitchen area, her hands flying around preparing food. Her mop of red curls was pulled back in a bun and she was singing along to the Rock music that poured out of the small stereo that someone had shoved in the kitchen. They followed the manager, Jake, into the small area. "Yo, Harper." She looked up, obviously very busy. "Jake, I'm moving as fast as I can here." He frowned, "Well, get Andrew out of the dish room and he can take over. This is Detective Curtis and CSI Sidle, they're here about Meli." The woman pushed a strand of sweat damp hair out of her face, "What about her?"

With Meli's locker emptied into a series of evidence bags, all that was left was to talk to the last person to see her alive, Harper Tennyson.

"She's dead, Melody's dead?" Sofia nodded, "You didn't report her missing when she just dissipated before the end of her shift?" The girl shook her head, "Melody gets...got...Oh God...away with...mur-allot." The redhead looked from one of them to the other, "We didn't get along, but I certainly didn't want her to die!" Sara nodded, "No ones saying you did, but just walk us through the evening." Harper nodded, "We were getting ready to change shifts, the cafe never closes...I mean it's Vegas...anyway. We had just set the coffees to rebrew when she decided to go out for a smoke. We'd already shared...words that evening so I was kind of glad she left. About twenty minutes later I took out the trash and she wasn't in the ally. I figured she left me high and dry so I held down the fort until Reanna, the graveyard assistant manager and Todd came in. I reported that she'd left early but that was it."

Sofia nodded, "Now, you mentioned that you and Melody had words...what were you fighting about?" The red head sighed, "I wasn't fast enough for her, wasn't efficient enough. Basically I was her scape goat. We didn't like each other from day one, she was working pretty hard on getting me fired." Sara nodded, "So you were mad at her?" The girl crossed her arms. "Well of course I was I have bills to...Oh My God, you don't think I did this do you!" Sara kept her answer diplomatic, "We're just investigating right now." They got the girl's contact information and sent her back to work. It was clear, though...Harper may not have been Melody's best friend, but she certainly had not killed the other woman.


They ordered coffee. Sara, who had yet to eat, got the vegetarian wrap and went ahead and bought Sofia one of the cream cheese danishes she knew the blonde was fond of. They balanced out the food between them and when they got to a table, Sara grinned when Sofia pulled a chair out for her. "My, my, Sofia, you're acting like this is our first date." The blonde snagged her cup of coffee and grinned, "If this is a date, why did I pay for my own coffee?" Sara sat down across from her and grabbed at her own coffee, "Hey, I got you the danish, didn't I!" Sofia's blue eyes twinkled, "So you did."

Author's Note: If there is such a place as the Java Hut, I didn't know about it and the use of the name is sheer coincidence. So no harm meant, please don't sue. The place is, actually, slightly based on the place I used to work at. On a brighter note, Sara and Sofia on a "first date". It's about damn time I had some fun in this fic!