Max's codependant girlfriend, as she had once said to Maria.

She was going to do something to make a difference with the new part of herself. And she was going to start right now.

"Bell, what do you think is going on with the disap- pearances?" Liz asked.

Liz watched a cloud cross Bell's face. She didn't speak for a long moment, and then said, "I really don't know.”

Then she paused again and said, "There have been about a dozen in the last three months.”

"About?" Liz asked. "Doesn't anybody know exactly how many?”

"Well, people don't need a reason to leave this town, a hole-in-the-wall with few jobs anymore. And a lot of people have taken off in the middle of the night over the years. Sometimes they're in trouble, running from the law or their beau. Sometimes they're looking for something that they won't find in Stonewall. And sometimes they don't leave a forwarding address.”

"So some are missing and some are escapees?' Maria asked.

Bell gave them a thin smile and said, "Probably.”

That didn't explain all of it, though, Liz knew. And it definitely didn't explain her vision of Jimmy's future.

"In the last three months, how many of the people who have 'left town' have been guys?" Liz asked.

"None," Bell admitted.

"What do the police say?" Max asked. Liz could sense that Max didn't approve of her interest in the town's strange business, but she was glad that he was helping.

There was silence from Bell for a moment, and then she said, "The sheriff was one of the first ones gone. She disap- peared, and no one has heard from her since.”

A chill ran down Liz's spine as she remembered the room that wasn't a room and the screams. She was sud- denly sure that no one would be hearing from the sheriff ever again.

"The state police don't believe what they're hearing. They think the girls just ran off," Bell said.

"Jimmy said that a few girls turned up later," Liz said.

Bell nodded. "Three more that we thought were miss- ing turned up five days later. They were pretty shook up and didn't remember anything about where they had been. The doctors couldn't find anything wrong with any of them.”

Liz didn't want to ask her next question, but she couldn't back down now. "How long has Jimmy's sister been gone?" she asked anxiously.

"Seven days today," Bell said.

The entire table was silent. To Liz's surprise, it was Sam who broke the silence. "She was a nice girl," he said, and then went back to his food.

Bell nodded. "Actually, she had some wild years, but she always took care of Jimmy. Their parents died when they were young, and they were living with an aunt who doesn't much care about either of them. Jimmy still lives there.”

"Jimmy said she was planning to move to Pueblo with him," Liz said.

Bell nodded. "Yes, she had gotten into a hairdressing school. They were supposed to leave in a few weeks.”

The table went silent for the rest of the meal. Liz found she wasn't hungry, but forced herself to eat. As she did, she found the new thing inside her asserting itself more strongly, pushing aside the fear that she had felt for so long.

And she realized that she knew that new thing's name. It was determination.

13

Liz and her friends walked back to Johnny's Garage in silence. They automatically headed for the studio apart- ment in the back of the garage.

"So what do you guys want to do tonight?" Michael asked.

"Well, Space Boy, those of us who have worked all day are looking forward to sleeping," Maria asked.

"We'll have to work out sleeping arrangements," Max said. Gesturing to himself, Michael, and Kyle, he added, "We can sleep in the van.”

As the group came around to the side of the garage, Liz shook her head and said, "We'll squeeze in. The floor will be better than another night in the van seats.”

They reached the apartment door and found a pile of blankets and sleeping bags next to it. "The locals are a simple and friendly people who offer travelers oatmeal, blankets, and diner food," Maria said with a smile.

"That's really nice," Liz said, examining the pile. They were all old but clean. She grabbed up what she could and stepped inside, the others close behind her.

"What happened in here?" she asked. The room looked different, like it had been painted. There were some other changes as well.

"Don't get us started," Michael said. "Isabel, our alien- redecorator.”

They took a few minutes to figure out how to fit every- one. There were three sleeping bags, some blankets, four regular pillows, and two couch pillows. The guys insisted that the girls take the sleeping bags and pillows, while they made do with the blankets, the one pillow, and the two couch pillows.

Max and Liz would sleep next to each other, taking the first turn on the bed. Maria and Michael would share a blanket on the floor, though Liz could see that things were strained between them. At least, she could see the strain on Maria's face. Michael, on the other hand, seemed unusually relaxed. That meant that Kyle and Isabel would be next to each other. Kyle looked uncomfortable, but Isabel seemed oblivious. Well, there was a little room. They wouldn't be on top of each other.

The way things looked for the near future, Liz figured they had all better get used to being close together.

Back in Roswell, she had dreamed about the day after she and Max had left home and they could spend the night together without worrying about parents. Well, she was get- ting her wish, but none of those dreams included four other people in the room. And Liz found that, at the moment, Max was not the most important thing on her mind.

By now, everyone was sitting in his or her respective sleeping area. Liz stood up and said, "I want to talk to you all about something.”

The room immediately fell silent. Everyone was looking at her. From the look in Max's eyes, Liz knew that he already knew what this was about and he was not pleased.

Max didn't wait for her to go on. "Liz, we all feel for Jimmy, but this is a police matter. We can't get involved, not right now," he insisted.

"Max, in case you weren't paying attention, the police are among the missing," Liz replied.

"Liz, we just can't. We're less than five hundred miles from Roswell. We can't do anything to call attention to ourselves," Max said. He paused and said seriously, "I'm sorry, Liz, but I can't allow it.”

Liz felt the blood rising to her face. "I'm not asking your permission." She saw the surprise on Max's face. And hurt, too. Liz hated to see him look like that, but this was too important. "As you said, you aren't making all the decisions for this group," Liz said. She softened her tone. "I'm not talking about sending up a huge alien-flare to the Special Unit, but maybe we can help… find something out and place a call to the state police. That's it," she said.

"It makes me uncomfortable," Max said.

"Everything makes you uncomfortable," Isabel chimed in, surprising Liz. She had barely spoken since they'd left Roswell. "If we never wanted to make you uncomfortable, we wouldn't have left the house since we climbed out of our pods," she added.

Smiles broke out in the room at that. To Liz's surprise, one of them on was on Max's face.

"There's something else," Liz said. "I know for a fact that if we don't do something, Jimmy's sister Jessica is going to die.”

"Did you have a…," Max asked.

"I saw it when I touched him. I saw him at her funeral. I also saw her…”

She tried to describe the room that wasn't a room and the screams, but she knew they wouldn't understand unless they saw that place, heard those screams, and felt the menace that she had felt. "Whoever has her is very dangerous," she said simply.