>part four<
�O! Please come in, Mr. Orcot!� The petite, mousy-haired woman pushed the door open to the wall and stepped aside. She smiled up at him, but it was clear that she didn�t feel it at all. He could see Alissa in Catherine, but only in the angles of her phantom-smile. Leon was mystified a moment, when had Alissa Owens become simply Alissa?
�Can I get you a drink, Mr. Orcot?�
Leon nodded once, �If it isn�t too much to ask, and please, call me Leon.�
�No problem at all. Be right back� and she was off, moving at a hurried yet graceful pace. If he didn�t know better�he would have thought that she was a little nervous---not suspiciously, but in a schoolgirl type style. Normally he would have been flattered, but of late he hadn�t felt anything remotely close to �normal�. He didn�t care. He wanted only to talk about Alissa, to learn about her, and to explain this fascination he had with her.
He made his usual rounds about the living room, trying to piece together the personality using only what he could see. There were no personal photos�of Alissa or family, but there was character in the colours, the slight movement of the drapes. His eyes traced over a few hanging plants, a portrait above the television of peculiar swirls and streaks. A calendar on the far wall caught and held him. He approached it with definite steps, flipped through it in hopes of catching a glimpse of her handwriting, but it was clearly only a decoration. In fact, he realized it was four months behind.
At the onslaught of footsteps he nearly flew to the couch and situated himself. He was making a show of picking lent off his jeans when a tray appeared on the table before him, it�s clatter causing him to jump. Catherine smiled down at him, apologetic.
�Here you go,� she handed him what he thought was coffee, but further inspection proved him wrong. Tea. It took all his worth to choke down a sigh.
�How much sugar would you like, Mr.�Leon?� She quickly corrected herself, the bowl and spoon already in hand. Leon shook his head, trying to keep his eyes trained on platonic.
�None, thank you. So, can you tell me when you first noticed that your sister was missing?�
Catherine almost blushed. �To be honest�her landlord was the first to bring it to my attention. Mr. Glenn, that�s her landlord, he contacted me when she missed a payment�Lissy never misses a payment.�
�Then you and Alissa aren�t close?�
Catherine�s eyebrows drew together. O god, he hadn�t meant to hurt her feelings. But she sighed, sat back in her chair and tried to smooth over her features. �It�s not like that, we�re professionals. Both of us, it�s just�balancing a career and family, it gets tricky. You forget that your sister hasn�t called in a couple days, or you remind yourself that she�s probably just as busy as you are. It never crossed my mind that something could be wrong��
�I�m sorry, a question like that was insensitive.---�
�No, no.� She smiled, it almost as pale as it was small. �You are a Detective, any questions you ask I am sure are necessary. Lissy and I were close once, but in some ways we have slipped so far away from each other.�
*Great, Leon!* he chided himself. *You are so smooth.* But her words had become his thoughts, and he was having trouble keeping them from taking root. He wasn�t here to identify with and soothe this woman, his purpose was purely work. He had to make that statement true. But all the standard questions he asked received only standard answers.
Catherine Owens knew no more about her sister�s disappearance then the fact that she had disappeared. An hour more of very thought out questions gave him no more information than he already had, but he began to define Alissa.
She was a dreamer, but rooted in reality, even going so far as to sound pessimistic. She loved music and books of all kind, wrote her own stories but kept them to herself almost selfishly. Catherine described her most prominent feature as honesty. According to her sister, Alissa never lied. Not even to be polite. Leon drank up these small tidbits almost greedily.
But he left Alissa�s apartment with a heaviness in his step. Knowing the woman better brought her closer to him. And he felt an actual pain, sadness�like someone precious to his own heart had simply vanished. But he pushed it down; he had one more appointment to attend before he could give in to gravity.