Trix

by Kate Morris

  He always knew Victor was an asshole, but Jack hadn’t seen this coming.

  “What does she do when she’s supposed to be in gym class?” Lorena asked.

  Skylar looked away.

  “Study hall?” Lorena asked.

  “No, I ditch with her, and we go out behind the school and smoke. Sometimes. Not all the time. Only when I think I can get away with forging my mom’s signature on an excusal note.”

  Jack and Lorena took a moment to collect their thoughts. She wrote some notes down on her pad, and he contemplated beating the shit out of Victor.

  Lorena asked, “What about a boyfriend?”

  Skylar started nervously tapping her foot on the hardwood floor. Jack could hear it, and her whole body was jiggling from it.

  “I saw a few pictures that would lead me to believe that she has a boyfriend,” Lorena admitted. “Do you know him?”

  Skylar’s gaze shot to Lorena’s. “Man, so stupid! I told her don’t take pics. That’s all traceable. She said she erased them off her phone. I told her that her dad was gonna find them.”

  “Not before she got them developed,” Lorena said.

  “Her dad’s gonna…”

  “Doesn’t need to know. He doesn’t have to know about them, Skylar.”

  “Oh, you don’t know him very well. He’ll find out. He won’t even let her get her driver’s license. She’s eighteen, for fuck’s sake! Who the fuck doesn’t get their driver’s license by then? I’m only seventeen still, and I’ve been driving for a year.”

  “Right,” Lorena agreed with a small grin, encouraging the girl to bond further with her.

  “He’s such a dick. Hitler Dad.”

  “Sounds a little rough,” Lorena said. “What about her boyfriend? Who is he? Can you give me his name?”

  Skylar bit her lower lip and finally nodded. “His name’s Solomon. Hailee met him one night when we snuck out to see a scary movie.”

  “What’s he like?”

  “He’s nice. Her dad would never approve, though.”

  Jack asked, “Because he doesn’t want her dating someone?”

  Skylar shook her head, “No, ‘cuz Solomon’s from the wrong side of the tracks, comes from a kind of poor family. He’s really nice, though. He’s freaking out. He called me like forty times already since he found out she’s missing.”

  “Are they really close?” Lorena asked.

  “Oh, yeah,” she said. “He was planning on moving east with her when she starts college in the fall.”

  “Is he going to the same school there?”

  “Solomon? Are you serious? No way. He’s not going to Brown. She’s got a full ride scholarship. He’s never getting a scholarship from anywhere. He’s already twenty-one, another reason Hitler Dad would lose his shit if he knew about him.”

  “So, he’s a little older,” Lorena said. “That’s not a big deal. She’s eighteen. It’s not illegal.”

  Skylar blew out her nose, snorted as if she found this humorous. “Yeah, right. Her dad would flip. Solomon is an HVAC specialist. You think her dad’s gonna let her date someone who climbs around in people’s attics all day repairing their faulty furnaces? A freaking blue-collar worker? Get real.”

  “Right. I see what you mean,” Lorena said, agreeing with Skylar.

  “Can we get his number and address?” Jack requested, closing their visit with Hailee.

  They left a half hour later after discussing outside the fact that the mother was trying to implicate her ex-husband as Trix. They were pretty sure she was just drunk, though, but Craig went his own way back to the bureau’s headquarters to start checking into Skylar’s father anyway. Jack and Lorena went to question Solomon. As he drove, he realized they were going into a low-income end of town. Skylar was right. Victor would’ve never allowed his daughter to date someone from this side of the tracks. However, it sounded like his own home was full of darker secrets than a lack of money.

  Chapter Ten

  Lorena

  Jack pulled to the curb in front of the small white bungalow and cut the engine. Lorena had ridden the whole way with her earbuds in. She needed to wrap her mind around some of the information they just received from Skylar. If there was one thing she learned in detective work, it was that teenagers were a lot more astute than people gave them credit for. The kid was a plethora of information. She reviewed her notes one more time and jumped when Jack opened her door.

  “Sitting this one out?” he asked.

  “Huh? No, no, I was just…”

  “I know. Ready?” he smirked.

  Jack walked ahead of her and knocked on the front door. A moment later, a man with a deep five o’clock shadow answered it.

  “Hello, are you Solomon’s father?” Jack asked.

  The man frowned and nodded with hesitation, “Yes, what’s this about?”

  “We’re working with the Portland FBI on a missing person case…”

  “That girl on t.v.?”

  “Hailee Neumann, yes,” Jack answered. “I’m Detective Foster, and this is my partner, Detective Evans.”

  “I saw her on the television earlier. Dick Cleary,” he said, introducing himself and shaking Jack’s hand.

  “May we speak with your son?”

  “Solomon? Why?”

  “We think he may know Hailee,” Lorena butted in. “We need his help, sir. The sooner we move on this, the better.”

  This got him moving. He ushered them in and said, “Yes, yes, of course. Come in, please.”

  “Thank you,” Jack answered for them.

  “Have a seat,” he said pointing to the sofa. “I’ll grab Sol. He’s out back in the garage.”

  Lorena took a moment to look around the living and dining rooms. It was small, cozy and nothing like Victor Neumann’s home. The furniture was old, the carpet stained but clean of debris. The television was on, tuned in to a classic western.

  “Are you the cops working Hailee’s case?” a young man’s voice said behind her.

  Lorena turned and nodded. “Yes, we’re here in an advisory capacity helping the FBI.”

  She sat in an overstuffed chair near the sofa and let Solomon take the sofa with his father. Jack stood by the door. She knew this was not by accident. Should this young man be a suspect who didn’t want to speak to them, he might try to flee. She would know soon enough whether Solomon would.

  “What can you tell me about Hailee Neumann?” Lorena asked directly. They didn’t have time to beat around the bush.

  “What do you want to know?” the young man asked.

  “She was your girlfriend?” Lorena asked.

  He looked over at his dad and then nodded. “Yeah. Hailee and I were together.”

  His father looked surprised to hear this. Solomon had a small earring in his ear and a tattoo of some symbol on his right bicep. She could see it because he was wearing a tank top. Apparently, whatever he was doing in the garage was hotter work than hunting a serial killer. His hands had black grease on them, and he kept wiping at them with an old rag. Coming from Florida to Portland had shocked her system, but this kid seemed comfy cozy in a tank.

  “You never told me about her,” his father said. “Why not? That’s not like you, Sol.”

  “She’s just different, Dad,” he said. “Sorry. I was planning on introducing you to Hailee this coming weekend. We were gonna take you out to dinner.”

  “How long had the two of you been going out?” Lorena asked.

  “About four months,” he answered, turning back to Lorena.

  “When was the last time you saw her?”

  Solomon didn’t look like he wanted to answer this. He was either nervous about answering it because he had something to do with her disappearance or because he didn’t want to tell them for different reasons.

  “Sol, tell them the truth,” Mr. Cleary pressed. “You have nothing to hide, son.”

  “I know. I just don’t wanna’ get Hailee in trouble with her dad.”

  “
Nothing you tell me needs to go back to her father,” Lorena assured him.

  “I saw her yesterday morning before school,” he answered finally.

  “How can that be?” Lorena asked. “We just talked to her step-mother this evening, and she told us that she personally dropped her off at school.”

  “She does. Elizabeth brings her to school early. Hailee told her that she’s meeting every morning an hour before school to work with a French tutor. It’s not true. She goes in and right back out the back door to meet with me.”

  “Solomon!” his father admonished. “Isn’t this girl underage?”

  “No, sir. She’s eighteen. She’s just still in school.”

  “I still…I don’t approve of this.”

  “Sorry, Dad,” the kid said.

  His father’s light blue eyes were sympathetic but still a tad angry. Lorena could tell that he really loved his son.

  “Are you divorced?” she asked Mr. Cleary.

  “No, ma’am,” he answered. “My wife died two years ago. Sol moved back in with me after it happened. Now he works with me.”

  “Doing what?”

  “Heating and cooling. I own my own very small company.”

  “Solomon, I have to ask you,” Lorena said. “How serious was this relationship with Hailee?”

  He paused before saying, “I love her. I want to marry her. It’s just that we have to wait till she’s out of school and on her own. She’s going to school back east to Brown. It’s what her father wants, for her to follow in his footsteps and become a lawyer. He’s not one of those pick-your-own-career-path kind of dads. He is very controlling of Hailee.”

  His father turned to look at him and asked, “In Rhode Island? Is that why you wanted to know if you could live with my brother in upstate New York for a while?”

  “Yeah, sorry. I was going to discuss it with you. We’ve just been so busy.”

  “I knew you were seeing someone. Your mother was better at this stuff, but I’m not completely blind, son.”

  Solomon laid his hand on his father’s shoulder for but a moment. Lorena could tell that these two men had been through and survived a lot together. She hoped someday that Gracie still looked at her in the same way.

  “So you saw her yesterday morning?” Lorena asked again.

  “Yeah. I saw her for an hour before school. Then I dropped her off again like I always do.”

  “Did she seem upset or did you suspect anything a little off with her?”

  “No, she seemed fine. She’d fought with her dad the night before, but that wasn’t anything unusual.”

  “What’d they fight about?” Jack asked, interrupting.

  “She wanted to go to prom. She goes to a private school, but they still have dances and stuff like that. He said that she couldn’t. He never lets her do anything.”

  “So we’ve heard,” Jack commented.

  Lorena sent him a look as Solomon continued, “It wasn’t like she was gonna go with me or another boy or anything. She was just gonna go with her friends.”

  “Did she complain about anyone bothering her lately or anything about stalking or stalkers, anyone pestering her, even from her school?”

  “Not that I can recall. I woulda’ beat the shit outta’ them.”

  “Has she contacted you since yesterday morning?”

  “She texted me when she got home from school. She always does,” he said, then teared up. “I didn’t like her going home to that big house by herself. I always told her to text me to let me know she got home okay. She did.”

  “Your phone number wasn’t on her phone, and there weren’t any texts from you,” Lorena said, remembering the data the FBI collected.

  “No, it wouldn’t show that. She had a pre-paid phone, something I got for her from Walmart.”

  “And you heard from her yesterday from that phone?”

  “Yeah, but I’ve called her like a hundred times between last night and tonight. Nothing. She’s not answering.”

  He handed his cell phone to Lorena and showed her. She, in turn, handed it to Jack after she’d read the text. It was the usual young love stuff. Jack left, went outside immediately to call Craig with the return number on Solomon’s phone. Maybe they’d hit some dumb luck, and they’d be able to catch a ping on the phone and find the girl. Even if they didn’t, it might still lead them to a clue.

  “And what about adult men that she would’ve interacted with. Can you remember anyone giving her a hard time, bothering her?”

  “No, nothing like that. Her dad keeps her on a tight leash. He knows her every move.”

  “Apparently not every move. You managed to keep your relationship with her a secret.”

  “Yeah, well, it wasn’t easy. Trust me. I just want her to answer her damn phone. What’s going on, Detective? Where is she? The news was very vague.”

  “She was taken,” Lorena said. “It was sometime between being dropped off at home after school and when her step-mother came home from work and noticed her missing.”

  “That’s only about a forty-five-minute window,” Solomon sleuthed.

  “Exactly,” she said. “Except Elizabeth was a little longer yesterday because she stopped to run a few errands. It still wasn’t much time, though. We don’t know who took her, but I’m pretty sure she’s in a lot of danger. This man knew her.”

  “How do you know that? What if it was random?” Mr. Cleary asked.

  “It’s not. There was a note left at the scene. He was taunting the police with it. He so much as admitted to knowing Hailee. That’s why we’re asking everyone if she had a problem with someone, some man.”

  Solomon shook his head. He looked at his feet. Lorena let him go. She wanted him to come up with some great epiphany. Forensics was wonderful for nailing down solid evidence against a suspect, but people were usually the key element to finding killers. Everyone knew someone. This man that took Hailee, this Trix, he didn’t live like the Unabomber. He had contacts. He spoke with people. He had a job, probably a family to help conceal his identity. This man was not a hermit.

  “There was this guy,” Solomon started, surprising Lorena. “A rich dude.”

  He paused, so Lorena decided to push him, “Someone her father knows?”

  “Yeah, a real…creep. Hailee said he hit on her at her step-mother’s charity event.”

  “Did she tell you his name?”

  “Some art dealer who imports shit to her step-mom’s gallery. Her dad set it all up.”

  “When was this charity thing?”

  Solomon looked up at her and said, “About a month ago.”

  That would’ve given Trix time to plan it all out and execute it so smoothly, study her patterns, know when she’d be home alone.

  “Anyone else?”

  “Not that I know of. I got the impression when her parents had stupid parties that she tried to make herself disappear. She didn’t like any of their friends.”

  “I’m sure most young girls wouldn’t, not if older men were hitting on them.”

  “Hailee was smart, though. She knew how to handle herself. She never would’ve gone anywhere with someone like that. He would’ve had to drag her kicking and screaming. She’s a fighter.”

  “Good,” Lorena said. The girl was going to need that if she was going to survive.

  “Do you think she’s still alive, Detective?” Solomon asked with unabashed hopefulness.

  “Yes, I do.”

  “Do you have a suspect yet? Do you have any evidence that points at someone?”

  “I’m not at liberty to divulge that information, but if you think of anything else, please, call my partner or me. Every second counts in situations like these.”

  She stood and shook their hands and met Jack outside.

  “Got anything?” she asked when he hung up.

  He rushed to the SUV, so Lorena followed.

  “Yeah, they’ve tracked the phone. It’s coming from a signal about ten miles north of the city.”

/>   She noted it on her paper. The best friend’s dad lived an hour north. Jack sped along the roads until they met up with the team working the case. At least twenty agents were present. They weren’t sure if the man who had Hailee was at the same location as her phone, but they weren’t taking any chances.

  “He’s too smart for this,” Lorena said as they followed a team of vehicles. Craig was in the first car leading the pack.

  “He studied her long enough to know when she’d be home alone, when he could safely take her out of her house, but forgot to make sure she didn’t have a phone on her?” Jack said dubiously.

  “I hope this works,” she said. “I just wanna’ go home. I never thought I’d say that about Cleveland, but it would be nice to get on a plane tomorrow with the girl found alive and go back to our own lives.”

  “What life? Work, work, and more work? You have no life, Evans,” he chided.

  “And you do?”

  “Touché,” he said. “At least I have an excuse.”

  “What’s that?”

  He laughed and said, “A workaholic for a partner that never lets me rest.”

  “Idol hands would just get you into trouble.”

  “That’s probably true. Hell, I might actually do something truly idiotic like find a girlfriend.”

  She scoffed, “Highly unlikely.”

  “I got some moves, Evans. You don’t know, but I do.”

  “Uh-huh. Sure ya’ do. Besides,” she stated, “I’ve seen all your moves. You don’t have moves.”

  “You haven’t seen all my moves.”

  She grinned, “They must be awesome because I don’t even remember them.”

  “That night when we had to go to that ridiculous freak party looking for Gingerbread. Remember? The underground sex party thing full of perverts? Where I had my moves on full display, and you got drugged like a freshman at a frat party because you drank something someone handed you?”

  She sent him a quick glare for reminding her. That still burned her. It was such an amateur, stupid thing to do.