CHAPTER THREE
Two weeks later, Brad had returned from his trip to Arizona. He had tracked the missing runaway he was searching for to a Phoenix suburb called Mesa where he found her working as a dancer in a strip club. He tailed the girl for several days, finding out where she was living and taking several pictures of her both at work and in the neighborhood where she was living with her boyfriend. He would forward the information to the girl's parents and let them decide where they wanted to go from here. After making copies of the reports and the pictures, he put the originals in a packet to send to the girl's parents in San Diego.
He gave the girl's folder to Alice to file away. Juggling an armload of files, the girl's folder slipped from her fingers and fell to the floor, scattering pictures and papers on the floor.
"Shoot," she muttered as she sat the stack of files on the desk and bent down to collect the scattered contents of the other folder. "I've been dropping things all morning..."
"No sweat." Brad told her with a grin. "Just make sure you don't lose any of those pictures."
Alice smiled sweetly as she gathered up the papers and photos. She straightened up and began putting the material back into the file. Suddenly, she stopped, a strange look on her face as she stared at one of the pictures that she held in her hand. Alarmed by her startled expression, Brad said,
"Alice, are you okay?"
"What?" She said, turning to look at Brad blankly, the picture still clutched tightly in her hand.
"What's wrong, honey?" Brad asked in a concerned voice, taking in her pale face and her trembling hands.
"Oh, nothing." Alice said, hastily stuffing the picture she was holding back into the folder. "I guess my mind is just somewhere else today."
"You sure that's all it is?" Brad asked, not entirely satisfied with her answer.
"I'm sure." Alice assured him with a bright smile. "I better get these filed right away."
Brad nodded and shoved himself to his feet. Grabbing his jacket from the back of his chair, he said, "I'm on my way to meet Shane so we can go talk to a guy who thinks he saw one of our missing girls. I'll probably be gone most of the afternoon."
Alice nodded. "I'm gonna file these and then take off for the day if that's okay." She told him.
"Sure, go ahead. No problem." Brad told her as he left the office.
Once she was positive that Brad was gone, Alice grabbed the file on their latest case and took out the picture she had strategically placed on top of the pile. She squinted her eyes as she examined the picture more closely. It had been taken in the club where the girl was working as a dancer and showed her on stage strutting her stuff. But, that wasn't what had attracted Alice's attention. It was one of the faces in the crowd behind the stage that had intrigued her.
It was the profile of a man with short dark hair. The picture was grainy and the image wasn't clear, but something about the man's face looked vaguely familiar, familiar enough anyway to make Alice's heart race. She frowned as she looked at the picture. Suddenly, she smiled. She may not work the streets anymore but she still had some connections and people who owed her a favor. It was time to call in one of those favors.
Stuffing the photo in her shoulder bag, she left the office, locking the door carefully behind her. Thirty minutes later, she was entering a small photography studio in downtown Bay City. A skinny man with glasses was working behind the counter. He looked up as Alice entered and grinned broadly.
"Alice, baby," he cooed "Long time no see."
"Hi, Charlie." Alice said with a brilliant smile. "I need a little favor and I thought you could help me out."
"For you, darling, anything."
Alice pulled the picture out of her bag and handed it to him. "See that man in the crowd?" She said, pointing out the face in the picture that had caught her attention. "Can you blow it up for me so I can see his face better?"
"I don't know," Charlie said examining the picture closely. "Blowing it up probably isn't going to help much. His face isn't very clear to begin with."
"Can you do it for me anyway?"
"For you, baby, sure I can. It'll take me about an hour. You wanna wait or come back?"
"I'll just run down the street and grab a bite to eat and then come back." Alice said pleasantly, trying not to let her anxiety show.
"Okay. I'll get right on it." Charlie promised.
Alice nodded and left the shop. Her stomach fluttered nervously as she strolled down the street towards the tiny café on the corner. She knew what she was thinking was impossible but, despite her years on the streets, there was a part of Alice that still believed in miracles.
A little over an hour later, she returned to Charlie's shop and went inside. He smiled at her arrival and handed her the picture she had requested. "I told you I didn't think it would help much," he said in a disappointed voice "But, I did what you asked."
Alice took the new picture and looked at it closely. The image of the man's face was even more blurred than it had been in the original photo but she could clearly see the dark hair with just a hint of a curl at the nape of his neck and what could have been either a smudge or a mole on his left cheek.
"Thanks, Charlie." Alice said "I owe you one."
"Anytime, doll." Charlie said with a leer. "Too bad you're not a working girl anymore. I could take it out in trade."
Alice ignored his remark as she hurried out of the store. She had one more stop to make. She caught a bus at the corner and took it further downtown, getting off a couple of blocks from The Pits.
Since it was close to two in the afternoon, Huggy Bear and his staff was enjoying a mid afternoon lull in business before the supper crowd started coming in. Huggy grinned when he saw the petite blonde with the sunny disposition come in the door.
"Sweet Alice," he drawled in an exaggerated southern accent "To what do I owe the honor of this visit?"
"Can I talk to you…alone…" Alice said pointedly. "It's important."
"Sure. Let's go upstairs." Huggy suggested. He came out from behind the bar and lead the way to a hidden stairway at the end of the bar that led to the second floor of the building that housed the bar. At the top of the steps, Huggy opened the door to a tiny room that he kept for friends who needed a place to stay or who had drank too much to drive home and needed a place to crash for the night.
As he closed the door behind them, he looked at Alice with mild curiosity. "Okay, Alice. What's got you so worked up that you're acting like a long tailed cat in a room full of rockers?"
"Take a look at this and tell me what it looks like to you." Alice said, taking both pictures out of her bag and handing him the original picture first.
Huggy took the picture and examined it closely. In a confused voice he said, "It looks like some chick dancing to me."
Alice smiled faintly and pointed to the man's face in the crowd. "What about him? Does he look familiar to you?"
Huggy looked at the picture again, a deep frown creasing his face. "Don't know…can't really see much of his face." He said.
"Try taking a look at this one." Alice said as she handed him the blown up picture she'd had made.
Huggy took the second picture and looked at it intently. Shaking his head, he looked back at the tiny blonde and said, "You still can't really see the dude's face. What's this all about, Alice?"
"Take another look," Alice encouraged him. "Look close…and try to keep an open mind."
"I still don't see what you're getting at." Hutch said in a puzzled voice.
"Don't you think he looks like Starsky?" Alice said anxiously.
Huggy took another look at the picture and then at Alice. In a gentle voice, he said, "Honey, you know that's impossible. You were at his funeral…so was I."
"I know that." Alice said in an exasperated voice. "But it was a closed casket. How do you know it was really Starsky in there?"
"How do you know it wasn't?" Huggy countered smoothly. He reached out to cup Alice's face in his hand. "Baby, I know you'd like for the guy in this picture to be Starsky…hell, so would I. But, it's not. It can't be. He's been dead for almost ten years. Where did you get this picture anyway?"
"Brad went to Phoenix looking for a runaway…that's the girl in the picture. He found her dancing in a club in a suburb of Phoenix called Mesa." Alice explained patiently. She looked at Huggy somberly. "What do you think Hutch is going to do if he sees that picture?"
"He'll go off on another wild goose chase looking for a ghost that doesn't exist." Huggy said with a snort.
"Exactly and he'll come back even worse than he is now when he finds out that this guy isn't Starsky."
"So what's going on in that devious little mind of yours?" Huggy asked cautiously.
"Well…I thought maybe we could take a little road trip and find out for ourselves." Alice said persuasively. "Then when this guy turns out not to be Starsky, I'll destroy this picture and the negative and Hutch will never even know they existed."
"Girl, are you crazy?" Huggy said "I can't just pick up and go to Phoenix on a wild goose chase."
"Then I'll go by myself." Alice isaid in a fiercely, determined voice. "But, either way, I'm going to find out who this man is."
"Yeah, and Hutch would have my ass in a sling if he ever found out that I let you do something like that by yourself." Huggy grumbled.
"Does that mean you'll go with me?" Alice asked with a sly smile.
"Somebody has to stop you from barging in there half cocked and getting yourself arrested for invading this guy's privacy." Huggy told her with a disgruntled grunt.
"Terrific! When can we leave?" Alice said in an excited voice.
"Give me a couple of days to set things up with Diana and Anita to keep an eye on the bar." Huggy said in a defeated voice. "We'll leave Thursday morning. Is that good enough for you?"
"Good enough. I'll see you Thursday morning." Alice said with a bright, relieved smile. She gave Huggy a quick kiss on the cheek and left the room, hurrying down the steps and exiting the bar. Although she knew that this trip could very well be nothing but a wild goose chase, something deep inside was telling her that she had to do this. She had to find the man in the picture.