Part 11 (1/2)
”I was staring into s.p.a.ce and you're in the way.” He grinned and leaned forward. ”You're much prettier than empty s.p.a.ce.”
”I think there's a compliment in there somewhere,” Lucy said.
His computer beeped. He pulled up a message from Jayne Morgan, the computer magician at RCK. She could pull information out of thin air, or so it seemed.
He read the note and smiled. ”Jayne came through. We got the name on that 917 number Kirsten has been calling. Jessica Bell.”
”Any idea who she is?”
”No, just the name and her address.”
”That's a plus. New York City?”
”Yes.” He typed it into his computer. Up popped a map. ”Three blocks from Columbia University.”
”Is she a student?” Lucy asked. ”Maybe Kirsten was talking to her about going to school there.”
”She was only applying to California colleges,” Sean said.
”How do you know?”
”Her mother had a copy of all her applications. And I saw the brochures in her room.”
”Have you been able to retrieve her deleted emails?”
”Not yet. The program is still running, but the older they are the less likely I'll be able to get them. I'm going to run a search on Jessica Bell at this address and see if I can learn anything more. Maybe Kirsten went to New York to visit this Jessica Bell, and got sick.”
”And didn't have Jessica call her mother?” Lucy shook her head.
”Their relations.h.i.+p was rocky. Kirsten emailed Trey, not her mother, to let them know she was okay.”
”She was anything but okay.”
Sean caught Lucy's eye. ”She could have been high when she wrote that.”
”At eight in the morning?”
”Maybe left over from the night before.”
”I've been a.n.a.lyzing the message she sent,” Lucy said. ”Sick can mean any number of things-being hungover, food poisoning, the flu-but she also says that she can't walk.”
”You think she broke her leg?”
”If that's the case, wouldn't your search of the hospitals have come up with something?”
”Not if she refused to give her name, or used a false ident.i.ty.”
”If she didn't give her name, wouldn't they have recognized her from the photo on the missing persons flyer?”
”I got this case yesterday morning. Less than forty-eight hours ago. I don't think the hospitals have someone sitting on the emails and fax machines twenty-four/seven getting ready to distribute photos to all staff. Besides, we only sent out beyond a hundred miles when I found out about New York.”
Lucy glanced down.
”I didn't mean to sound like that,” Sean said. ”It's just that in my experience missing teenagers are a lower priority. They probably posted her photo on a board and if someone recognizes her, they'll contact the Woodbridge Police Department, or RCK. But she's been missing since Friday, and the last time she used her phone was late Sat.u.r.day night. Let's a.s.sume she got hurt, broke her leg or something. Went to the hospital. If she tried to use her insurance, her name would be in the system, and as a minor they would have contacted her mother, or protective services.”
”You're right.”
Lucy didn't say anything more, and Sean mentally hit himself. She had been so defeated this morning, thinking she wasn't good enough for the FBI, and here he'd shot down one of her theories.
He let it sit for a minute, then said, ”What if she didn't go to the hospital?”
Lucy either didn't hear him or was ignoring him.
”Lucy, what is it?”
”It's not important. You're right, she was probably high.”
”Stop.”
She glared at him. ”What?”
”You're doing it again. I want to know what you're thinking.”
”Why? It's really just a way-out-there idea. You should probably talk to Kate. I bet she'll have a reasonable theory.”
”If I wanted to bring Kate into the investigation, I would have done it already, but right now this isn't a federal case, and she can't help me.”
Lucy was torn, he could see it. He'd jabbed her where it hurt, because she didn't want to feel like a failure. He needed her on her game, focused on finding Kirsten, and the only way to get there was to push her hard enough for her to realize that without her, they'd be two steps behind.
”I think she's in hiding,” Lucy finally said. ”I think she's sick-either from drugs or the flu-but she's hiding from someone. See?” She slid over a handwritten sheet where she'd copied down phrases from Kirsten's email, rewording a couple but keeping them in context, removing all the extra words and unintelligible thoughts, and reorganizing the main ideas into groups under two headings.
Personal Facts I've been sick I can't walk right now No way of getting home Lost my phone Plenty of money In New York (view of bridge?) Want to play softball, now can't Friend Her message was wrong Who would hurt her?
They might know me Scared (to stay or go) I already miss her The paper doesn't explain Sean read the list twice, and saw exactly what Lucy did. ”Her friend is dead.”
She nodded. ”Could it be Jessica Bell?”
Sean narrowed his search to media sites. ”If it was her, her death hasn't been reported, at least not with her name.”
”Or maybe her body hasn't been found. What if Kirsten saw something? Or she went to meet her friend and she was already dead? We don't even know why she was going to New York. Unless-”
Lucy turned to her laptop and started typing rapidly.
”What are you looking for?”
”Just checking something.”
Sean resisted the urge to get up and look over her shoulder. He continued to narrow his search parameters on Jessica Bell by including Columbia University in the mix. He quickly confirmed that she was a student.
”That's it,” Lucy said. ”Look.” She turned her laptop to face him.