by Kate Morris
She was apparently an elusive kid whose parents didn’t know her as well as they thought. He’d taken her naked selfies and placed them in Lorena’s bag. They weren’t something that he and Lorena wanted to share with the FBI just yet. They knew she had a secret boyfriend, but neither of them wanted the men at the bureau to see those illicit pictures that showed Hailee’s lack of good judgment. They also didn’t want anything leaked to the press. As much as Jack hated Victor, he didn’t want to destroy him by having him see those pictures on the internet or on the nightly news. No father wanted to think of his daughter in that way. He didn’t deserve that. He deserved a whole lot worse, but not when it came to Hailee.
The phone on his hip buzzed, and Jack quickly left the room, went into his attached bathroom and took the call. It was the one they were waiting on. When he went back to the bedroom, Lorena was sitting upright and looked a little dazed.
“What’s going on?” she asked, her voice scratchy and tired.
“Found her friend from school,” he told her. “I can go. You can stay if you want.”
“No, don’t be crazy,” she said, standing up. “I’m ready. Let’s go.”
“You gonna interview someone in your sweats?” he teased.
She looked down, “Crap. Right. Gimme’ a minute.”
Lorena dashed from the room as Jack chuckled at her. She was still a strange partner, but he trusted her, and that was enough to satisfy him. Trust in a partner was the most critical aspect of their relationship.
A few moments later, she emerged from her shared bedroom trying to creep since Grace had gone to bed.
“I told her we were going,” she said in a hushed tone.
Jack nodded. Lorena’s dark hair was wavy from being rained on all day, but despite only sleeping for about an hour on his bed, she looked fresh and, yes, pretty. She’d changed from her teenager grunge clothes to black, skinny jeans, matching gym shoes, a black leather jacket, and a pink silk blouse.
“What?” she asked. “Oh, yeah. Thanks, if you picked out this shirt. This isn’t exactly mine.”
“Sorry. I wasn’t sure what to grab. I didn’t know that shirt wasn’t yours. Looks good, though.”
“It was my sister’s,” she said, looking down and then away.
He nodded slowly as he realized he’d packed her dead sister’s silk, feminine blouse. He wanted to kick himself for being such an idiot. He hadn’t known what to choose. Rummaging her lingerie drawer was the worst thing, touching her personal belongings, her most intimate clothing items.
“Jesus, Evans. Now I’m really sorry,” he apologized.
She shook her head and zipped past him to grab her backpack. “It’s fine.”
He felt like shit and hoped that was the only article he’d packed in the FedEx boxes for her that belonged to her sister. It had to feel like a knife in the ribs pulling on her dead sister’s clothing. Instead of dwelling on it, he holstered his handgun and took a fresh jacket from his closet and met her at the door. They locked it and went to their black SUV loaner vehicle care of the FBI. She immediately cranked up the heat.
“Cold?” he asked as he drove.
“Freezing,” she answered.
“It’s because you’re so thin.”
She snorted. “No, I’m not. It’s just cold. Does this city ever…not rain?”
“It’s spring. Mother Nature’s trying to get ready to bloom flowers or some such.”
“I’d rather have tumbleweed.”
“Or white sands,” he hinted. “We should all three go back to Florida when this is over.”
She chuckled and said, “And turn off our stupid phones.”
“You did have yours off. That’s why I had to come get you in person.”
“I should’ve drowned you in the surf.”
“Yeah, that could happen, squirt,” he teased. She shot him a glare.
“Sorry about freaking out over my sister’s shirt. I mean, it’s just a shirt, right?”
He sighed as he pulled into McDonald’s. “No, it’s a big deal. I was stupid. I didn’t even realize her stuff was in your closet still.”
“Are you indulging my need?”
“Sure thing, junky,” he said and ordered two large coffees. He shot her a look.
“Fries. And a Coke.”
He paused, knowing she wasn’t done.
“And…” she lingered.
“It’s midnight, Evans. Keep that in mind.”
“What? Why? I’m not old like you. Cheeseburger.”
He laughed and finished their order. He even ordered a cheeseburger for himself, too. He’d no doubt regret that decision in about an hour.
They ate while driving to their interview. She even offered him some fries, which he quickly turned down. Then she collected their trash and tossed it all back in the bag and threw it on the floor of the backseat like the slob she was. The FBI was going to regret lending her any car. She sipped her coffee, and Jack did the same.
“I don’t even look at her stuff most of the time,” she said quietly, still talking about her sister.
“Why not?”
“Too hard. I’m not good with that kind of…you know, feelings and all that.”
He was treading into uncharted territory. She rarely talked about herself or her family. They’d been partners for almost a year, and he knew so little about her. “Did you and Grace go to therapy after it happened?”
She shook her head. “No, well, that’s not true. I took Grace to a therapist for a while. She was really young, and I didn’t know how to help her deal with it.”
“What about her grandparents?” he asked carefully.
She sniffed and shook her head again. “No.”
That wasn’t an answer, but he knew not to push. “I think you’re doing a great job with her. She’s witty, smart…”
“Smart assed maybe.”
He laughed. “Chip off the old block, I’d say. She’s just like you.”
“No,” she said, frowning. “Not really. She’s a lot like her mom. I see some of my brother-in-law in her, too.”
“That’s good. You should tell her that.”
“You think so? I try not to talk about them. I don’t want to upset her.”
“Lorena, it’s been a long time. You should talk to her about them. And often. She needs to remember them. So do you.”
She swallowed hard and turned to look out her window at the vast void of darkness out there.
After a minute, she said, “It’s too hard.”
“I know. I lost my dad. It is hard. It’s a part of life, though. Feeling that pain lets you know you’re still alive. It’s a good thing. Trust me. It’s better than not feeling anything at all.”
“I don’t know about that.”
“What was she like?” he prompted, hesitant of pushing her into silence.
“Beautiful, funny, super smart,” she said with a nod.
He smiled. “Sounds like you.”
“Nah, I’m a dork, always was. Cara was…sophisticated. Didn’t matter where we came…”
She cut herself off mid-sentence and stopped talking. That was it. That was all Jack was going to get out of her tonight. She’d done this many times before since he’d known her. She clammed up. If he pushed her, she’d leave the room or plug in her iPod.
“That’s good,” he said, trying to redirect their conversation into focusing on the positive. “You should tell Grace that stuff. She’d probably love to hear it.”
“Where are we going again?” she asked as if she hadn’t heard him.
Jack let it go. He sighed quietly and said, “Craig found us the best friend. Took some digging. Her name’s Skylar. Lives in a good neighborhood like Hailee. I got the impression from Craig that this girl is not going to want to talk to us.”
“Where are we interviewing her?”
“At her mother’s house. Parents are divorced. The mother has agreed to let us talk to her,” he said.
A few minutes later
, Jack pulled into a concrete drive that led to a home done in the Greek revival movement with pillars holding up the front roofline. It was stately but not as expensive as Victor’s home. It was also only less than a mile from his neighborhood. Craig greeted them in the driveway and escorted them to the front door.
“Get any sleep yet, Evans?” the Special Agent asked with concern.
“Yeah, I’m good,” she answered.
“She slept a whole hour,” Jack revealed, earning a sneer of disapproval from Lorena.
“Hopefully this will be the lead we need to crack this,” he said. “I’m glad you guys found that hidden stuff. It might help.”
Lorena had called their friend to let him know of their finds and that they had no intention of turning the photos over yet. He’d agreed to the idea for now. He was Lorena’s friend, but Jack knew that Craig was an FBI man. Eventually, he’d want that evidence turned in.
Craig rang the doorbell, and a woman opened the front door. He introduced them to the girl’s mother. The woman admitted them into her home, fluted glass of white wine in hand.
“I heard on the news about this missing girl,” Mrs. Chambers told them.
Jack noticed that she swaggered just slightly when they rounded the corner to a dining room. He wondered at what time she actually started drinking for the day and if it was an everyday occurrence.
“I told Skylar about it, but she just ignored me, as usual. Kids, right?”
“Sure,” Craig concurred. “How long has your daughter been friends with Hailee Neumann?”
“Oh, I don’t believe they are. I was surprised that you contacted me this evening.”
“They go to the same school,” Craig said. “Surely they know each other.”
The woman shook her head, red curls bouncing around her face. She was pretty but had seen the empty bottom of many a wine bottle if Jack were to guess.
“Skylar’s never mentioned her,” she said.
“She’s never come over here, never spent the night here?” Jack asked next as she showed them to seats at the dinner table. It didn’t look as if it had been used in a long time.
“No, never,” she said. “That’s why I was surprised you called. I’m not sure how Skylar is going to help you.”
“We’re just talking to many of the kids at the school, Mrs. Chambers,” Jack lied. The FBI would likely question most of the kids in her school to see if any of them knew something about Hailee that could help their case.
“Let me just fetch her,” the redhead said. “Anyone care for a drink?”
They answered in the negative. Jack needed more coffee, not booze, which he was sure was about to be offered. Shouting from the hallway drew their attention right before a young woman dressed in black from head to toe entered. Her dark eyeliner was smudged as if she’d rubbed it or had been crying recently. The remnants of hair that matched her mother’s was still there, but it was mostly covered in black hair dye. She wore many silver rings on her fingers and had three earrings in each ear. She was tall and thin, almost to the point of being gaunt.
“This is my daughter,” Mrs. Chambers announced. “Skylar, these police…”
“I know, Mother,” the girl stated with open derision.
“Have a seat, Skylar,” Jack said. “We just have a few questions regarding Hailee Neumann.”
“I didn’t know her. Why are you buggin’ me about her?” the girl lied.
She was clearly friends with Hailee. Jack recognized her immediately from one of the photographs they’d found hidden in Hailee’s room. She and her mother sat down at the table. Skylar sat in the furthest chair she could from her mother.
“Is your husband around, Mrs. Chambers?” Craig started.
She laughed with sarcasm. “Dermot? No, he left us a year ago.”
“You,” Skylar corrected. “He left you, not me.”
“Do you still see your father, Skylar?” Jack asked.
She smirked, “Yeah, sometimes.”
“The boys go with him more often than Skylar. She’s always…busy with her friends or whatever it is that she does,” Mrs. Chambers answered.
“Does he still live here in Portland?” Craig asked.
“About an hour north of here. Ranier. I don’t know why he likes it so much up there. Absolutely nothing to do. Lives in a bunker…”
“He does not,” Skylar corrected her mother. “He lives in a cedar-sided home, a nice one. Mother’s just being dramatic, as usual.”
“What’s he do for a living, Skylar?” Craig asked.
“Programming. He owns his own small software company.”
Her mother snorted. “Worthless.”
Skylar jumped her mother again and said, more loudly this time, “Oh, shut up, Mother. He’s supporting your drunk, lazy ass.” Then she looked at Jack and said, “My dad’s not worthless. He just didn’t like living in the city. He wanted privacy and…some peace and quiet. So, when he came to his senses and left, he chose Ranier, Oregon, because it was quiet and suited his lifestyle. Plus, he likes hunting and fishing, shooting, that kind of stuff.”
“Psycho,” her mother whispered.
There was a lot in this conversation that pointed them to Skylar’s father as a possible suspect, but Jack knew not to count his serials killers before they hatched.
“Shut up!” Skylar said, nearly yelling this time. “Just leave. I don’t need you in here. Just get the fuck out.”
“Fine, you spoiled little bitch,” her mother stated angrily and stood, spilling her wine on the expensive dining table. “Do I have to stay?” she asked Craig.
“No, ma’am,” he said. “I’ll go with you to another room where we can talk alone.”
“Good,” she blurted and followed him.
Jack rose and walked over to the fireplace to look at family photographs. Skylar didn’t always resemble a goth or emo kid. She used to look like an ordinary girl with long, red braids on either side of her face and wore lacy, pink blouses and khakis. Jack would guess this change in her happened during the divorce or shortly after.
Lorena said quietly, probably to calm the mood in the room after the emotional outbreak, “Now that she’s gone, we can talk.”
Skylar’s eyes darted nervously to Lorena.
“I’m Detective Evans. Just call me Lorena.”
The girl nodded.
“I know you’re friends with Hailee,” Lorena stated bluntly.
“No, I didn’t…”
“I found pictures of you two in Hailee’s desk,” Lorena told her.
“So? That doesn’t mean anything.”
Lorena sighed and said, “I don’t want to have to take you down to the station to be interviewed by the FBI agents. Look, I’m a cop from Cleveland…”
“I know,” she said. “I saw you on the news. They were talking about you.”
This shocked Jack and obviously did the same for Lorena. She cleared her voice and recovered quickly.
“We were just brought in to consult on the case,” she explained.
Jack said, “You two were obviously friends.”
“Is she okay?” Skylar asked quickly. “Why did you say ‘were’? Is Hailee…?”
Jack sat back down and said, “No, but we don’t know where she is. Do you have any idea who could’ve taken her?”
The girl vehemently shook her head. “No, everyone loved Hailee.”
“Why was your friendship a secret?” Lorena asked.
She looked at nothing off to her left and frowned. “Her dad’s like really strict. Hailee and I have both gone through a lot. She got detention once, and that’s where we sort of met and started talking.”
“Why did you hide the friendship, though?” Lorena repeated.
“’Cuz her dad would’ve flipped if he knew she started hanging out with me. She lied to him about the detention and forged his signature. She skipped school one day and got busted. But I liked Hailee. She was different from the other kids in that stupid school. She came over when
my mother wasn’t here, and I did the same over there. My mother’s a drunk idiot. Hailee did spend the night here. My mother never even knew. Most of the time she sits in her bedroom all day and passes out by night. Hailee was cool. We hung out a lot. It was fun. We had our own thing, and nobody knew about it. She’s not like everyone sees her. That’s just for show.”
“Explain that to me,” Lorena insisted.
Skylar shook her head and looked at the ceiling as if she wasn’t sure she should share this information.
“It’s all right. Nothing you tell me needs to go out of this room. I’m only trying to find your friend,” Lorena said. “I’m not going to tell her father.”
“She is…she isn’t a good girl like everyone thinks. I mean,” Skylar stated, confused on how to express herself. “she isn’t a bad person or anything. She just isn’t the prim and proper boring debutante her dad wants her to be. She’s artistic and different. She likes a lot of the same music as me, and we liked going to bookstores and watching horror flicks.”
“I don’t think that’s a big deal, not really,” Lorena said.
“Yeah?” Skylar asked incredulously. “Well, tell that to her dad. He’s a freak.”
“What do you mean by ‘freak’?”
Skylar’s facial expressions turned from upset to angry and disgusted, “He’s a dick. He never lets her do anything. And when I say anything, I mean absolutely nothing. She isn’t allowed to go out with boys or even girlfriends. He monitors everything she reads, watches, listens to. He’s so strict. Hailee calls him Hitler Dad.”
“Maybe he just worries she’ll fall in with bad kids and end up not going to college or something,” Jack said.
“No, it’s even worse than that,” she said and looked at her hands in her lap again.
“Tell me why,” Lorena implored.
“I think…I think her dad…”
She didn’t continue, so Lorena prompted her gently, “Go on.”
“I think he abuses her.”
Skylar frowned hard and teared up.
“Sexually?” Lorena asked.
“I don’t think so. I don’t know. I’ve seen bruises on her.”
Lorena nodded and said, “That’s normal, though. Lots of kids get bruises. Maybe it’s just from sports.”
“No, that’s the thing. He doesn’t allow her to play any sports. She doesn’t even have to participate in gym class. Her dad told the school he thought it was a waste of time and that he wanted her studying something more useful.”
