Chapter 44: The JournalistI didn’t give up searching for Manning Dawn among the male and female partygoers. The Rift concealed him well, although it only occupied approximately three thousand square feet. He honestly couldn’t hide from me for very long. I checked in the men’s room and saw two of Manning’s cop buddies inside. Cramped in a stall the two men in their late twenties kissed next to a toilet. Manning wasn’t inside the can with them. I didn’t interrupt the men to find out his whereabouts. Then I discreetly investigated the narrow area behind the stage. As I crept between the black curtain hanging down from the ceiling, and the cement wall to my left, Estuary sang a John Cougar Mellencamp cover on the stage to my right. The song sounded like a slower version of his eighties hit, “J
