“Well, I came in from Philadelphia this morning”—she started slow and then her speech came fast, real fast, the way young girls talk—”and we’re supposed to go to a show tonight. I know it’s weird but we got tickets to Beauty and the Beast, we saw it when we were really young and loved it and now it’s closing, so that’s why we want to see it, but she didn’t answer her phone all day yesterday or this morning, but I came in anyway, it was our plan, I figured she’s just not picking up or it’s not charged, she always forgets to charge her phone, but she’s still not answering and now her voice mail is full, and no one at her dorm has seen her for a while and the guard let me in, but she’s not in her room, the door is locked, she has a single, and I don’t want to call my parents and freak them out, but I have a weird feeling, she’s got this sleazy boyfriend, and I don’t know what to do, and I’m at this Internet café and I always use craigslist for everything, so I typed in ‘missing persons’ and found you.”

This was a lot to digest. I tried to break it down.

“Your sister lives in a dorm? Where?”

“Twelfth Street and Third Avenue. It’s an NYU dorm.”

“And where are you?” I asked.

“This café. On Second Avenue. I don’t know the cross street, let me look out the window… Third Street.”

“What’s your name?”

“Rachel.”

“Last name?”

“Weiss.”

“Your sister’s name?”

“Lisa… Weiss.”

“And I’m Jonathan… Spencer, by the way… You can call me Jonathan. And you live in Philadelphia?” The lies were coming fast and easy. Spencer was my strange middle name. I’m Jewish but my parents loaded me up with a WASP assembly of names, Jonathan Spencer Ames.

“Yeah, I go to Temple,” she said. “I’m a freshman.”

“What year is your sister?”

“Junior.”

“And where are your parents?”

“Maryland… Can you help me? I don’t have anywhere to stay tonight, if I can’t find her, and she has the tickets to Beauty and the Beast, and so I think I should just go back to Philly but I’m not sure what to do.”

“I think I can help you. I can come meet you in about thirty minutes. I’m in Brooklyn, but it’s a very quick subway ride. I know the café you are in… I charge one hundred dollars a day, but I bet I can find her by tonight or at least tomorrow. Can you afford a down payment of at least one hundred dollars to cover the first day?”

“Yes,” she said. “I have money. I can go to an ATM.”