If dead people are not in heaven or hell, where are they?

Those who are dead “in Christ” are in his presence now. This includes Old Testament saints (2 Cor 5:8; Phil. 1:23; cf. Matt 17:3 and Moses and Elijah in God’s presence). Those who are dead in Christ now or before he comes for the rapture will receive resurrected bodies at that time (1 Thess 4:16-17).

The unsaved dead are shut out from the presence of the Lord in Hades and are conscious now of their punishment (Luke 16:23) and await final eternal torment when Hades will be thrown into the Lake of Fire (Rev 20:14). Thus Hades may be seen as the current abode of the unsaved dead.

The point of Luke 16 is that there is no way out and it decisively not any kind of purgatory.