The final shift for sex worker Revelle Balmain was meant to have settled her debts and given her extra cash to splurge while following her dreams overseas.
Instead, she disappeared from the face of the earth.
The 22-year-old had grand plans on becoming a dancer in Japan when she vanished on November 5, 1994.
An inquest into one of Sydney's most notorious cold cases resumed on Tuesday where Ms Balmain's former boss Jane King has given evidence.
Ms King and her now ex-husband Zoran Stanojevic ran the escort agency, Select Companions, at the time of the model's disappearance.
Ms Balmain was last seen by client Gavin Samers when he dropped her off at a hotel in Kingsford, in Sydney's east, about 7pm.
She missed her next booking and has not been heard from since.
Ms King said she called the escort's flatmate the day after she missed the appointment.
"I was worried about her," she told Lidcombe Coroners Court.
The former madam rejected suggestions by counsel assisting Matthew Johnston SC her primary reason for chasing up the escort was because she owed the business money.
The outstanding funds would have been taken out of what Ms Balmain earned that night, Ms King said.
"‘It wasn't a huge amount of money and I didn't have any reason not to believe her," she told the inquest.
A missed pager message sent to Ms Balmain the morning after she disappeared read "pls call Zoran to arrange settlement of your account".
Ms King told the inquest she didn't remember if she sent the text.
She couldn't remember what was discussed during a one-minute phone call to Mr Stanojevic about 8pm on the Saturday night that Ms Balmain disappeared.
"I could have been asking him to get me some takeaway or something," Ms King said.
She denied making any calls from the landline in her two-bedroom apartment to her husband, despite records showing five calls made that night and during the early hours of the following morning.
The former madam said the landline calls would have been diverted to the escort agency's receptionist, known for legal reasons as Danielle.
Ms King said she had been pregnant at the time and would have been in bed watching TV.
Her husband had returned home the following day with complaints about drama at work after Ms Balmain missed her booking and his vehicle had a flat tyre, Ms King told the inquest.
He told her not to call police as that would alert the model's family, who did not know she was working as an escort.
"She’ll turn up, don’t worry, she always does," he allegedly said.
When there had still be no word from the model on Monday, Ms King contacted police.
A previous inquest in 1999 found Ms Balmain had died at the hands of a person or persons unknown and the matter was referred to the Unsolved Homicide Unit.
A fresh investigation between 2007 and 2009 followed by a formal review in 2020 failed to produce any compelling evidence in the case.
Authorities offered a $1 million reward for information in 2021.
The inquest continues.
