Seven Minutes to Noon

the room, there was one of these old relics.
    “I haven’t seen a typewriter in years,” Alice said.
    “Old habits die hard. We have a state-of-the-art database but we still type our reports. Maybe they printed up too many forms, like, twenty years ago.” Frannie stopped at a desk near a long, shallow cell whose black iron bars covered half the expanse of one wall. A skinny,pallid-looking man was draped across the cell’s single bench. She glanced at the sleeping man, then spoke to the other detective. “Hey, Jose, anyone in the interview room?”
    Jose glanced up, smiled and shook his head. “Nope, baby, it’s all yours.” He continued typing.
    Frannie sucked back a little hissing sound. Baby. Alice got the feeling the PDU wasn’t used to girl detectives.
    “Let’s go in there. It’s more private,” Frannie said. She picked up her mug of half-finished coffee. “You want some? We’ve got decaf too.”
    “No thanks. I’m good.” The mere thought of coffee made her want to throw up.
    “Come on, then.”
    Frannie and Alice wove between desks to cross the room. The interview room announced itself as such with a computer-printed label affixed with yellowing tape to the door. Inside was a drab box of a room, with a table pushed against one wall and four uncomfortable-looking straight-backed metal chairs. Again, the blinds were fully drawn, giving the space a cramped, murky feel. A small, rectangular window sat three-quarters of the way up the opposite wall. One-way glass, Alice guessed by its dull, mirrorlike glaze.
    They sat across from each other at the linoleum table, scarred across the middle by a deep, jagged scratch. Alice wondered who had done it and how. With a key? She could see it. Left alone in this suffocating room, staring at the blind eye of the one-way glass, you would be desperate for something, anything, to do. It was an awful room, she decided. Or maybe the myopia of her exhaustion was plunging her mood into darkness.
    Frannie reached across the table and touched Alice’s hand. She hadn’t realized how cold she was until Frannie’s touch sent a jolt of warmth through her. Alice took a deep breath and began.
    “There’s something I need to clear up.”
    Frannie’s face was free of expression, the dark swathsbeneath her eyes the only indication of strain on her pale skin. No smile or furrowed brows or clenched jaw. Just the open channel of her listening.
    “Yesterday, at the store, we told you Lauren didn’t know the sex of her baby.”
    “Maggie told us that, yes.”
    Frannie was giving her a little out, nudging her off the hook. It was true, Maggie had said it. Alice simply hadn’t contradicted her. She felt herself begin to relax, the words now flowing a little more easily.
    Alice looked squarely into Frannie’s black eyes. “It isn’t true.”
    Frannie waited. Listened. Reached out for Alice’s other hand.
    “Lauren’s known for months her baby’s a girl.”
    “A girl,” Frannie repeated softly.
    “Her name’s going to be Ivy. Or is Ivy. Or—” Alice pulled one of her hands away to cover her eyes.
    “Thank you, Alice. It might help to know.”
    Alice wiped her eyes dry and finished. “There’s one more thing.”
    Frannie nodded.
    “Tim doesn’t know.”
    “About the name?”
    “The name or the sex,” Alice said. “He didn’t want to know. He wanted to be surprised. That’s why Maggie didn’t want to tell you.”
    “I can understand that,” Frannie said, her gaze sweeping from Alice’s face to her fingers. Alice now realized she had been tracing the scratch in the linoleum, back and forth, for at least a minute.
    “Are you going to find Lauren?”
    “Yes.” The deep confidence of Frannie’s voice was an island of hope. Irrational, but necessary, hope. “I won’t give up on her, Alice, no matter what.” Frannie’s lean arms tensed as she shifted her chair closer to the table. This woman was strong, Alice thought, stronger even than she looked. “The task force is going out again today. They’re knocking on every door, talking to everyone.There’s a transient element to the area, a lot of young people moving in and out, folks coming for the restaurants. You never really know who’s going to turn up one day to the next.”
    “You should go home and sleep,” Alice said, not meaning it at all. She wanted Frannie out there every minute of every day and every night until Lauren materialized back into the world.
    “I can’t sleep