The Glass Group head office was on the 51st floor of Briarleaf One. Simon sat in the waiting room, under the watchful gaze of the secretary over her computer monitor. He was the only one here. 

Some magazines lay on the table. Simon had been in many corporate waiting rooms, and this was one of the more discreet ones. 

They had managed to get surveillance footage from three of the shops around the area, and the city one in the laneway. Fern was responsible for combing through all of that. The nightclub staff, after some discussion, had directed him to this office. At the same time they had gone through her mobile phone records. She had received a call around 8:30 that night. Something must had happened in the backyard, or in the alleyway. Or so his hunch went. He went through the possibilities in his head. They were still working on his hunch that nothing odd or suspicious had happened during the store hours. 

"He will see you now," she announced, standing up from behind the desk to escort him in. Simon entered the wood-panelled office after the secretary, who discreetly disappeared, leaving him with Achim. 

***

Achim positively radiated power. He was dressed in a well-tailored suit, behind his desk, peering intently at a computer monitor. 

They shook hands. His handshake was firm, solid, the hand dry. He was younger than him. He had the spark in his eye that Simon remembered in himself. They would be able to get on. 

The floor to ceiling windows behind him allowed a panoramic view of the city. Looking behind him, Simon's breath was taken away for a short moment by the tableau in front of his eyes, until he gathered his wits. 

"I'm glad our schedules could align," Achim said. "I'm usually on site or back at the pack, coordinating stuff. I like to be hands on. It's the way us southern packs do things."

He had his full attention. He relaxed. 

"You are looking for a missing person, I believe, going on the message you sent me?" 

Simon nodded. "She worked in a pharmacy down the road. The rear balcony of your nightclub overlooks the rear courtyard. I was wondering if I could-" 

"I understand." Achim nodded, his grey eyes drilling into Simon. A lesser person would have been intimidated by him gaze. Simon did not flinch. "Julian has been very shaken up by it."

"Julian works for you?" 

"He's one of my most popular DJs." Simon's ears pricked up. 

"Was he, by any chance, working on the night?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact," Achim replied. "I was there on the night. As I said. I like to be hands-on." 

Simon nodded. "There's photographic proof of that, I assume?" 

"There was a photographer at the event, that's correct.""Do you have his details?" I'll have to look into my records." Achim typed on a keyboard. 

"Caleb. Caleb Byers. He has a studio in the Seven Hills."

 Simon wrote it down. "I'll look into it." 

"Do you know how much this nightclub means to me?" Achim leaned forward. "I built it with my bare hands. I didn't have the money to hire people to do it for me. People still look down on us from the southern packs. We were the poorest. They looked down on us. They would abduct our members into their packs to do as they bid. Do you know how degrading that is?" 

"I had a grandfather who was from the south," Simon said. "He emigrated to escape his pack."

"An all too common story," Achim sighed. The sad thing is that it's still happening, a whole century later. I have plans. We will rise again." His demeanour changed suddenly. "We're happy to cooperate fully. Anything to let you find her." His body language was open. 

He escorted Simon to the door. "Katrina will see you out." 

"Thank you," Simon said, shaking hands once again. He didn't know what else to say. He hated to admit it, but he was more than a little star-struck.

 ***

As Simon descended in the lift he thought back on what had been said. He had a hunch that Achim fitted into all of this. He couldn't figure out how but he couldn't shake the feeling.

*** 

The university campus looked stunning under a blue sky, like a photo from one of the brochures. Students milled about in the courtyards, underneath light filtered through the foliage of mature trees. 

Wythaven didn't have anything like this, being a city that had only been built up in the 1950s. The campus she had attended was heavy handed, drab. Her university life had played out on a drab collection of brutalist buildings set in lawns that had been yellowed by a ten-year drought that had lasted her entire school life. She wondered what would have been different had she moved here to study. 

She had finally moved into her new apartment a few days ago, after nearly a week of couchsurfing at her aunt's. It was just as well as they were starting to get on each other's nerves. They had very different ideas of what loud music was. 

Watching all the young people around her also reminded her of her own mortality. She was turning thirty-four this year. She had long blocked out the questions her family asked her every year without fail. In her twenties she had barely disguised her indignance but now the endless questions about finding a mate no longer inspired anything other than mild anhedonia. She felt numb. 

She worked too much. What was the point of working if you weren't saving to some kind of grander goal, like a family or something? 

She looked at the brochure she had taken at the reception, retracing her steps on the campus map. She watched students streaming out of the building. She felt out of her depth here, but this kind of needle-in-a-haystack thing was one of her talents. According to her sources this was where he hung around.

As it transpired she need not have worried. She spotted him easily from the photos. Tall, lanky. What people called dark and handsome. She approached him. There were a few students around him. "Emmer?""How do you know my-""I'm Detective Inspector Elise Wu. She flashed her badge. People stepped around them.

"I didn't do anything," he said. Then he seemed to realise the abruptness of his manner. "Sorry. I'm Emmer. Nice to meet you, Inspector." He proffered his hand. "It's been a really tough few days. It's not like her at all. I hope you can find her." 

Elise took it. His handshake was crisp, firm, his hand dry. "You were working with her on the night she disappeared and the last person to see her." 

He nodded. "I was hoping you could give us more information about shift. What she was like. Anything you can remember. Anything that might be important." 

"No," Emmer said. "Nothing weird happened. It was a completely normal shift. We alternated between the front counter and stacking shelves, as usual."

"Think about it," she said. "Did you see anything out of the ordinary? Even the tiniest thing." 

He shook his head. "I can't really think of anything. It was just our usual customers. 

"What about breaks? You take breaks in the back courtyard, right?" 

"Now that you mention it. She went for a longer break than usual that night," he said. His eyes had glazed over. "Usually she takes less than five minutes. This was longer than that."

Elise perked up. "How do you know exactly how long she took?" 

"I've been her coworker for over a year now. After a while you get a feel for these things." 

Elise thought back to her first job stacking shelves at the grocery in the shopping strip of her childhood suburb. She had certainly never had thoughts like this. 

"When was this? "Around 8:30." 

Kernalie had received the phone call around the same time. It made sense. 

She thought about her next question. "Was she acting differently from usual? Did she seem..."

"No. Not at all. She was just her usual self."

"What about after she came back?" 

"She was completely fine. It was as if nothing happened. There was one thing, though, now that I remember. She was wearing a necklace." 

"What kind?" "Gold, I think. I'd never seen it before. I didn't think much about it at the time." He glanced behind him. "Sorry. I need to leave for my next lecture. I'm so sorry. He locks you outside if you're even a little late." 

"Thanks for your time," Elise replied. "You've been a great help." 

He nodded and left, disappearing into the throngs of students passing them by. She eased herself into the sea of students, letting them guide her to the entrance where her car was parked. 

She left the throngs of people behind as she entered the deserted carpark. The sky was still shining with the same intensity, but something in the air had changed. She felt oddly put off by his demeanour. He was on guard, and she could feel it. What was it that he wanted to hide?