Dark City/Downtown/Sun Nov 21/11:15 pm: When Officer Basset made contact with four young women in a downtown club, they relayed the following: They arrived at the club (which on Sundays nights is open to those who are underage) at approximately 11:15 p.m. Their friend, the victim, was already intoxicated prior to being picked up by her friends. Once inside, they started dancing. A short time later, a security guard approached the group and stated that the victim was too intoxicated and had to leave the club. The girls agreed to walk their drunken friend out to the car, which was located in the Seattle Center's paid parking lot. But the victim did not want to spoil the fun, and offered to sleep in the car until her friends were ready to go. Her friends resisted. She insisted, locked herself in, fell asleep, and the girls returned to the dance floor.

Forty-five minutes later, the girls came back to the car and found that it was unlocked and empty. All that remained of their friend was her purse and cell phone. She was last seen wearing a black tube top, jeans, a black studded belt, and black, thick-soled, clog-type shoes. Her hair is brown and shoulder length with chunky highlights, and she is 5'4", 130 pounds, white, and has brown eyes.

"I spoke to security at the club," writes Officer Basset, "and they advised that she had not reentered the club. A couple of her friends remained in the lot searching for the victim, while one of her friends rode around with me, conducting an extensive area check. We checked open businesses, as well as the Seattle Center grounds, parking lots, side streets, and motels. We went to Harborview Medical Center and were informed that she was not there. We returned to the club at 1:45 a.m. to watch the exiting crowd. The victim was not among them. The missing girl's parents were called and informed of the situation. I asked the girls if anyone had harassed their friend in the club or followed them out to the car. They said no.

"I continued to search for the victim until 3:50 am with negative results."

A drunken young woman, in a dark city, with no money? Sadly, the chances of the worst happening are high. Nevertheless, I can't help but feel a little enchanted by the night search in this report--driving about the empty streets of Seattle, looking in open businesses, checking motels. It reminds me of a marvelous passage near the middle of Charles Dickens greatest and gloomiest novel, Little Dorrit, which has two young women walking around London in the deadest hours of the night. "[At] half-past three," Dickens writes, "...they had passed over London Bridge. They had heard the rush of the tide against obstacles; had looked down, awed, through the dark vapour on the river; had seen little spots of lighted water, where the bridge lamps were reflected, shining like demon eyes... They shrunk past homeless people, lying coiled up in nooks. They had run from drunkards... And more than once some voice, from among a knot of brawling or prowling figures in their path, had called out to the rest to 'let the woman and child go by!'"