FanStory.com - The Interviewby Roxanna Andrews
Excellent
Not yet exceptional. When the exceptional rating is reached this is highlighted
Sarah and Don interview the parent&sister of missing girl
A Light in the Darkness
: The Interview by Roxanna Andrews

Background
A rookie detective is given the cases of five missing women.

Part of pervious chapter: Finding her voice, *Sarah was able to call out. "Let me go!" Opening her eyes, she was still in her living room, sitting in the recliner, with the TV on. It had been a dream.

Sarah checked her gun to be sure it was loaded, then went to get some water. She breathed in and out slowly trying to stop her racing heart. Her hand shook as she drank from the glass. The dream had been so real.

She sighed and pick up her laptop. Knowing she wasn't going to sleep now, might as well get some work done.
***********************************

*Sarah brought up some of the files she had made on the missing women. She had a picture and bio of each one, newspaper articles on the abductions, some video of news bites, and notes she had made.

All the women had dark hair, but one, Carla Matthews who was blonde. All were between eighteen and twenty-one, except Lauren Taylor and Carla Matthews, who were both twenty-eight. In fact the two women didn't seem to fit the profile of the other women at all. The others were in high school or college. Lauren Taylor was an assistant manager of a catalog shipping company. Carla Matthews worked from home. She made jewelry and had an online shop. Both women were college graduates, Lauren even had a degree in business management and they were both married.

Sarah was surprised that Major Crimes had lumped them in with the other three women. They told her the M.O. was the same, disappeared without a trace, the car found abandoned on the street near the victims destinations, their purses and cell phones still in the front seat. No fibers, no hairs, no fingerprints, no DNA and never a witness.

Did this guy wrap himself in cellophane? He had to have made a mistake sometime, somewhere. Sarah wanted to interview the families and friends again, but the Chief had said no to that. It didn't make sense to her. She had the notes of the other detectives who had been assigned to the case and they were thorough and well documented. But Sarah felt she needed to see the families, watch their facial expressions, maybe get them to remember something since they were last interviewed. She'd talk to the Chief again, beg if she had to.

The next morning Sarah talked with Don to get him on board about re-interviewing the families and friends of the missing women.

"I think it will really help if I can question them myself. Just reading someone's notes doesn't cut it."

"I agree, let's go see the Chief." Don led the way.

"Chief, we wanted to talk about re-interviewing the families of the missing women."

Before he could say anymore, the Chief agreed. "It wasn't my decision to say no. The Mayor is good friends with one of the families and he didn't want to put them through that again, but I don't think the families will mind if it means solving the cases. They all want that, I get phone calls at least once a month from almost all of them. Go ahead, I'll deal with the Mayor."

"Okay, thanks," Sarah turned to leave, then turned back. "Who doesn't call about their missing family member?" she asked.

"Taylor and Matthews. Haven't heard from them in years."

Sarah nodded, "Thanks."

She and Don spent an hour calling the families leaving messages or setting up times to come by.

They started with the newest case, it would be fresh in the minds of the family.
**

Renee Cummings' father met them at his office.

"We appreciate your willingness to speak with us. We know this is hard."

"I'll do whatever it takes to find my daughter."

Sarah nodded, but before she could ask the first question, Mr. Cummings asked one of his own.

"Do you think she could have been kidnapped by a sex trafficking ring?" The look in his eyes held so much pain, Sarah was glad she could give some reassurance.

"Mr. Cummings..."

"Please, call me Jack."

"Okay, Jack, that is always a possibility, but since she was older, Twenty-one, we think not. They usually take girls much younger. But we are monitoring any suspected trafficking rings, which is something that is always being done. The police have a database of missing girls they check regularly, Renee is on it. The way she was abducted isn't the norm for traffickers either. They don't abduct people from their cars."

Mr. Cummings nodded and gave a shaky sigh. "How can I help you?"

"I'm going to record this," Sarah told Jack. "Is that okay?"

"Yes."

Sarah and Don asked questions in turn and Jack did his best to answer them.

"You may want to talk to my other daughter, Nadia, she knew Renee best. They were so close. This has been very hard on her."

"Yes, I'd like to talk to her, what about your wife?" asked Sarah.

"She left about six months after Renee disappeared. She just couldn't handle it. She had a drinking problem already and it just got worse. I came home one day and found she'd packed, cleaned out our bank account and I haven't seen or heard from her since."

"I'm sorry."

He shook his head. "I wasn't even surprised. It's terrible to say, but it was a relief. I never knew what I would find when I got home, she had shut down and refused to talk about it. She didn't talk at all, really, except to lash out. For some reason she blamed me for Renee's going missing. The marriage had been bad for a long time. That's why, at first, I thought Renee had just left home. Maybe she was sick of her mom's drinking, our fighting, and needed space. But it wasn't like her. She was a rescuer, always wanting to make things better. I just couldn't see her leaving her mom. And when we didn't hear from her for days and she didn't contact her sister, we knew something was wrong."

Sarah nodded and she and Don stood and shook Jack Cummings' hand. "I'm sure we'll be in touch. This is my card." Don handed him his business card. "You can call anytime."

"This is Nadia's number. She may have more answers than I did." Jack handed them a piece of paper.

Out in the parking lot, Don asked, "What do you think?"

"I think I don't know any more than I did before." They drove to their next appointment.


Sarah had called Nadia and she'd agreed to talk with them. She owned a little coffee shop downtown, so Sarah and Don met her there.

She took them to a small office in the back.

"I don't know if I can add anything to what I've already said or what my dad told you, but I'm happy to help any way I can. It's good to know you are still investigating."

"Sometimes fresh eyes see things that got missed," said Sarah.

Nadia nodded, "What do you want to know?"

"Can you think of anything she told you about someone following her? We are sure she was stalked for a while. Did you notice a stranger hanging around, a car, anything?"

"Just the white truck I told the last detectives about."

"White truck?"

"Yes, I remembered her telling me about it and I called and left a message for the detective that had come to the house. Renee said she saw it at school a few times and it followed her for a while, but always turned off long before she got home."

Why hadn't there been anything in the notes about a white truck?

"Did she say anything else about the truck? The make, dents, decals? The person driving, a man or woman?"

"Not really, just that it scared her. Do you think it could be important?"

"Maybe, we'll look into it. Thanks Nadia for talking with us. I know this is hard," said Sarah.

"She's my little sis, I'm supposed to protect her. I should have gone with her that night. She asked me to, but I was tired."

"Then there might be two of you missing now. This is not your fault, okay?"

She nodded and walked them to the door. "You'll let us know if you find anything?"

"Of course," said Don.

"Why wasn't there anything in the notes about a white truck?" Sarah said once they were in the car.

Don shook his head. "Somebody messed up."

Author Notes
* I changed the name of the detective from Rachel to Sarah. There is another detective story posted with the name Rachel, she has an on going series of stories so I thought in it best to change the name of my main character.

Let me know if you think this is too long.

     

© Copyright 2024. Roxanna Andrews All rights reserved.
Roxanna Andrews has granted FanStory.com, its affiliates and its syndicates non-exclusive rights to display this work.




Be sure to go online at FanStory.com to comment on this.
© 2000-2024. FanStory.com, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Terms under which this service is provided to you. Privacy Statement