Wallace's new gal pal, Jane, approached me because her sister, a bride-to-be named Heidi, disappeared after her bachelorette party and just days before she was supposed to get married. Runaway brides? Not my specialty. But a friend of Wallace is a friend of mine.

Turns out, I'd actually encountered Heidi and her entourage the night of her disappearance, where they'd stopped by Java the Hut as part of their bachelorette party. Possibly to get tanked up on caffeine and biscotti, or maybe so they could mangle the lyrics to "I Want You to Want Me" for the clientele. At any rate, I had a good idea of who--and what--I might be looking for.

I started with the bachelorettes, who must have moved on from coffee to tequila after leaving The Hut, because they had trouble recalling the details of their night of debauchery. They did manage to dredge up a few clues. 1) They were worried that the missing bride might be suffering one of her "Heidi moments" -flakier than normal periods in which she does crazy stuff, like get her boyfriend's name tattooed on her butt. 2) Heidi's friends are all hoping that she's finally settling down with her fiance, Paul, and giving up the free spirit lifestyle. 3) Heidi's fiance isn't just a nice guy, he's a rich nice guy. I also learned that the girls had taken photos with a disposable camera the night of the party but that no one seemed to remember what had happened to the camera.

Jane and I went to Heidi's apartment to see if we could dig up any other hints about her disappearance. What we found? That Heidi needs a housekeeper. I thought the place had been tossed, but apparently being a free spirit also means being a slob and a forgetful one. We found Heidi had left behind her cell phone charger and two used wine glasses. Maybe she'd left with whoever drank out of one of them?

Wallace and I followed the trail left by Heidi's ATM cards--a series of big cash withdrawals that could have meant any number of things. Maybe she was being robbed, or she'd been kidnapped or she was a runaway bride. But when we found her car, we also found the camera. And another big clue: several photos from the night that showed the same creepy guy in them at different locations. Maybe Heidi was being stalked and the stalker finally caught up with her.

His shirt--a retro bowling uniform with a one-eyed duck logo--led me to the bowling alley, where I discovered none other than Vinnie Van Lowe. Why had he shown up in the pix taken the night of the bachelorette party? Hmm bachelorette about to marry into a very wealthy family someone was having Heidi followed. Vinnie wouldn't spill, of course. But he didn't have to.

When we convinced Heidi to show up for her wedding, it became clear who'd hired Vinnie to check out Heidi's credentials: her future father-in-law. But the joke was on him, and his mistrustful son in the end. Paul Mann was angry about Heidi's past--angry enough not to go through with the wedding. And in the rules of polite society, that meant the ring he gave Heidi--the one that's the size of a Volkswagen--is Heidi's to keep.