Chapter 10

Damn, Jack thought when he drove home that night, that’s the second girl who has slipped through my fingers.  First a dynamite singer, now a stunning beauty; he could have kicked himself for not walking up to her and introducing himself right there and then in the salon.  He could have given her Bill’s number.  Bill would have been overjoyed with a face like hers.  Not to mention hair like hers.  Any cosmetics company would love to have her promote their product. She was worth a small fortune.  If only he had just walked up to her and asked for her name and number.   Damn, damn, damn.  He still owned Bill a favour for finding Amanda.  Amanda had a great voice and she had a great future as a solo singer but he couldn't stop thinking about the mystery woman, the hypnotic voice he had heard on the street.  Jack smiled to himself, he now thought of this woman as the angel with the beautiful voice.

He had almost reached the onramp to the highway that would take him downtown when he changed his mind and drove east.  Before he knew it he reached the Kennedy and Becker intersection.  He parked his car at the fast food restaurant, got out and walked up Kennedy Avenue.  There it was again, that voice, that heavenly voice.  It stopped him cold.  He looked up and closed his eyes, trying to determine where the voice was coming from.  It was impossible to tell.  He had to find her.  If he had to go to each and every building and go from floor to floor, he had to find this singer.

On an impulse Jack pushed open the door to one of the apartment buildings and went inside.  Almost immediately he realized how difficult if not impossible his mission was.  Now that he was inside he couldn’t hear her anymore.  He had no idea if she was a resident in this building or in one of the other buildings.  Thinking he had to start somewhere, he took the elevator to the top floor and decided to work his way down.  Judging by the buttons in the elevator, the building had thirty floors.  When he stepped out of the elevator he found himself in a red carpeted corridor that stretched on either side of the three elevators.  He listened, the area was completely quiet. 

He walked the entire length of the corridor on his right, turned back and walked the entire length of the corridor to the left.  He heard nothing, not a sound from any of the suites.

Jack went one floor down and continued his search.  This time, along the right hand corridor he could hear a television behind one door and a child crying behind another, but no singing.  In the left hand corridor he was subjected to the very vocal and heated argument between the occupants.

He continued searching each floor but to no avail. An hour later, Jack was back on the ground floor.  He had been on every floor of the building and walked every corridor.  He had learned nothing.

This isn’t working, he thought as he crossed the street.  If he was going to find this girl, he needed a plan.