A.L. Jambor - Where's Audrey?

by A. L. Jambor

  She let herself out the screen door and got into the car. She sat there for a few minutes trying to collect her thoughts. Something was wrong. Jason might have been good-looking, but there was something about him that bothered her. For one thing, he was too young. She didn’t think Audrey would entrust her home to anyone under fifty. And he looked like he was on something.

  She dialed Laura’s number. Laura answered and Mel told her about Jason. Laura felt as Mel had – that Audrey wouldn’t have someone so young housesitting while she went on a cruise. And she would never leave her house looking like that.

  “She wouldn’t have gone on a cruise without telling Mom,” Laura said. “Especially overseas.”

  “Why especially overseas?” Mel asked.

  “I don’t think she had a passport.”

  “She could have gotten one.”

  “Not unless she fixed the glitch.”

  The glitch? “What glitch?” Mel asked.

  “The glitch that prevented her from getting a passport the first time she applied for one.”

  “What glitch?”

  “She and Mom were born in Cuba on Guantanamo Bay. Their birth certificates were wrong, and they had to go through so much rigmarole to change them that Audrey just gave up.”

  “When was this?” Mel asked.

  “Oh, about twenty years ago.”

  So, Audrey couldn’t get a passport twenty years ago. Maybe she’d had the glitch fixed. Maybe she was able to get a passport. Maybe Jason was a lying scumbag.

  Chapter 3

  Mel sat in front of Audrey’s house for a while. She looked at the homes on each side of Audrey’s, then she looked across the street. There was an old woman sitting on the porch of the one directly across from Audrey’s. The Shih Tzu with her kept barking.

  “Shut up, Maurice!” the woman cried over and over.

  Mel heard a knock on the passenger window and jumped. She turned and saw an old man. She turned the key in the ignition and lowered the window.

  “I saw you go to the house,” he said. “Are you looking for Audrey?”

  “Yes, I am. “

  He looked toward Audrey’s home and then back at Mel. “I haven’t seen her in a long time.”

  “How long is a long time?”

  “Months. She used to come to the pool. Some of us were getting worried.”

  “Did you talk to the police?”

  “They won’t do anything.”

  “How do you know if you didn’t report her missing?”

  “We didn’t know if she was missing or not. We thought maybe she was sick and he,” the man pointed at Audrey’s with his thumb, “was taking care of her.”

  “Did you knock on the door and ask him about her?”

  The man looked down at the ground. “He’s kind of young. I don’t want any trouble. I have to live here.”

  “Then why…oh, never mind.”

  “I just thought I should tell you.”

  “Well, thanks,” she said out loud and “for nothing” under her breath. He backed away and she closed the window. She hadn’t remembered to ask his name and he hadn’t offered it.

  Mel looked at the woman across the street. She didn’t look too friendly. She contemplated talking to her, but her stomach rumbled. She was hungry. She wanted to go to Clearwater Beach and stay with Lisa but felt obligated to find out what happened to Audrey first. She’d have to start looking for a hotel room.

  Mel started the car and did a K-turn. The old guy had mentioned there was a pool in the park. Grace had said there was an office, too. Mel could speak to the manager.

  “You’re gonna have to wait,” she told her stomach as she turned onto the main road and began looking for the pool. She found it. It was in the center of the park.

  The office was a nondescript, cement block building painted white. It sat directly in front of the pool. She parked the car out front and looked for the entrance. When she got inside, she saw an elderly woman sitting behind a gray metal desk.

  “Hello,” she said.

  “Hi. My name is Mel Jones. I’m looking for Audrey Glenn. She’s my aunt.”

  “I know Audrey.”

  “We haven’t heard from her in a while and we’re starting to worry about her.”

  The woman pursed her lips. “You know? I haven’t seen her in a while.”

  “Does anyone check on them, the residents, if they don’t show up for a while?”

  “There’s no system in place if that’s what you mean, but neighbors tend to notice if someone hasn’t been seen for a while.”

  Mel saw a brochure on the desk touting the joys of living in an over fifty-five community. “Aren’t there rules about how old you have to be to live here?”

  “Yes. You have to be over fifty-five. Sometimes we relax the rules if someone is married to a younger person, but otherwise, it’s fifty-five.”

  “There’s a guy living in her house. He’s definitely not over fifty-five. He said he’s staying there while she’s on a cruise.”

  “Well, that seems odd. I’ll have to ask the manager if she knows about this.”

  “Has Audrey been paying her rent on time?” Mel asked.

  The woman opened a drawer and pulled out a blue ledger. She turned the pages and found Audrey’s name.

  “She’s paid her rent on time every month.”

  “Does she come in and pay it?”

  “No. She leaves an envelope with a money order in the drop-box.”

  Mel pulled a small wire bound notebook out of her purse.”

  “Can you lend me a pen?” she asked, and the woman handed her a blue Bic. “What’s your name?”

  “Peggy. Peggy March. I work here three days a week.”

  “Thanks, Ms. March.” Mel wrote down her name, and then she wrote her own phone number down on a separate page and tore it out of the notebook. “Can you give this to the manager?” She handed Peggy the piece of paper and the Bic pen. “It’s my phone number.”

  “Certainly,” Peggy said. “The manager’s name is Nancy. She’s out showing a unit to a nice couple from Minnesota.”

  “But she’s usually here during the day?”

  “Oh, yes.”

  “If you hear anything, or if she knows anything about Audrey, please call me.”

  She left the office and sighed. The weather was gorgeous, but she hardly noticed it. She was worried about Audrey.

  The last and only time she had seen her aunt was just before Audrey moved to Florida. Nana Grace had thrown her a going away party, and six-year-old Mel had sung a song. She could barely remember what Audrey looked like, but she remembered how soft her cheeks were, and that she smelled of Chanel No. 5.

  Mel looked at the old people riding by on three-wheel bicycles or in golf carts. She rarely saw people this old, except for Nana Grace, and looking at them now, it was easy to see why they would be afraid of a guy like Jason. Still, you would think that one of them would have asked the police to check on her. She looked at the pool behind the office and decided to walk over and see if anyone there knew Audrey.

  The pool was surrounded by lounge chairs. It was two in the afternoon. It was hot, and the sun could be brutal. The chairs were empty.

  “Damn,” Mel said. She’d have to come back later.

  She left the park and drove down Ulmerton Road, one of the main thoroughfares running through Largo. Mel was frustrated. Where was Audrey? Mel didn’t buy Jason’s story that she went to Europe on a cruise. The Caribbean maybe, but Europe? Audrey would have told someone. She would have told Grace.

  Mel wondered how Jason came to be in Audrey’s home. How long had he been living there? Why wasn’t he working during the day?

  She was driving aimlessly and came to a traffic light. To her left, she saw a sign for the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office. She went up the road a bit and made a U-turn to get there. She parked the car and went to the visitor’s entrance.

  It was a big office. There were several windows in the rec
eption area, and behind each, a large black woman. It was as if they’d been cloned. Mel sat and waited until one of them looked her way.

  “Hi,” Mel said.

  “Can I help you?” the woman asked. She wore a badge that read “Sophie.”

  “My name is Mel Jones and I was wondering where I could file a missing persons report?”

  “How long has the person been missing?

  “That’s just it. I’m not sure.”

  “We can’t file a report until the person has been missing forty-eight hours.”

  “This is my elderly aunt. She lives in a mobile home. She hasn’t called her sister in a long time and there’s some young guy living in her home.”

  “Has he reported her missing?”

  “No. But don’t you think it’s weird he’d be there alone?”

  “Did you ask him where she was?”

  “Yes. He said she went on a cruise, but she would have told her sister she was leaving the country. She’s ninety!”

  Sophie pursed her lips. “Like I said, we can’t file a report until they’ve been gone two days. She’s old, though. Wait here a minute.”

  Sophie got up. Mel watched her walk toward the back of the office where some deputies sat at desks. Sophie stopped and talked to a young deputy, a man with short dark blond hair. He was nice-looking, and for the second time that day, Mel felt her cheeks grow hot. Mel hadn’t been on a date in a long time. The idea of opening an account on Match.com entered her mind. It wasn’t the first time.

  Cut it out, she thought. Focus on Audrey.

  Sophie returned and sat down. “Deputy O’Keefe will help you. He’ll be out in a minute.”

  “Thank you,” Mel said. She smiled broadly, but Sophie was looking at her computer monitor.

  Deputy O’Keefe came through the side door. Mel notice he had blue eyes. He was tall, very tall, and she imagined he had a great chest under his uniform.

  “Are you Mel Jones?” he asked.

  “Yes,” she said.

  “I’m Deputy O’Keefe. You have some questions regarding your aunt?”

  Mel walked over to him.

  “I went to see her this afternoon and I found some guy living in her mobile home. He said she went on a cruise, but she never told my grandmother she was going.”

  “And you think something happened to her?”

  “I don’t know. I just think it’s weird he’s living there and she’s gone without a word to anyone.”

  “Why is it weird he’s living there?”

  “Because he’s too young. He can’t be older than thirty.”

  “We can take a ride over there if you’d like.”

  Mel hadn’t expected this. “That would be great.”

  He led Mel to an unmarked patrol car and she got into the passenger side. There was a computer in the center attached to an adjustable arm. When Deputy O’Keefe got in, he punched something into the computer, then started the car.

  “Has your aunt ever gone off without telling anyone before?”

  “I don’t think so. I don’t know her very well. She’s my great-great aunt.” She glanced sideways at his face. “I just didn’t like the guy. Audrey never told my grandmother she had someone living with her.”

  “When was the last time anyone talked to her?”

  “The guy living next to her said he hasn’t seen her in months.”

  “I mean relatives, like your grandmother.”

  “She hasn’t heard in a while, but I don’t know exactly how long it’s been.”

  “Which park does she live in?”

  Mel pulled out her phone and pulled up the GPS. “Holiday Oaks.”

  “That’s just down the road.”

  There was traffic on Ulmerton Road. Deputy O’Keefe kept his eyes on the road. He didn’t ask any more questions.

  Mel remembered Nana Grace saying she had talked to Audrey in September. She felt embarrassed. Someone from the family should have come down and checked on her a long time ago.

  Mel thought of her mother, Linda. She was a hairdresser for some TV show in California. She could go all over the world, but she couldn’t check on her elderly aunt. That was typical of her mother. Always putting herself first and the hell with everybody else.

  “What the number of her unit?” the deputy asked.

  “298,” Mel said.

  They parked in front of Audrey’s home. The Mercury was still in the driveway.

  “Come with me,” Deputy O’Keefe said.

  She got out and followed him to the porch. He rang the bell and in a few minutes, Jason appeared from behind the sliding glass door.

  “Yes,” he said.

  “Can you come to the door, sir?” Deputy O’Keefe asked.

  Jason came to the screen door.

  “Could you step outside?”

  Jason stepped outside. He glared at Mel and the look made her cringe.

  “Ms. Jones came to the sheriff’s office because she’s concerned about her aunt. She says you told her that her aunt was on a cruise.”

  “Yeah. She left a few days ago.”

  Deputy O’Keefe took his notebook out. “What cruise line would that be?”

  Without missing a beat, Jason said, “Disney.”

  “Disney goes to Europe?” Mel asked.

  “Sure it does,” Jason said, but his cheeks were turning red.

  “Sir, how are you related to the owner of this home?”

  “I’m a friend. I’ve got permission to be here.”

  “Do you have something written that says you have a legal right to be on the premises?”

  “Yeah. Audrey gave me a letter. Wait here and I’ll get it.”

  “May I enter the home?” Deputy O’Keefe asked.

  “Uh, sure,” Jason said.

  “I’ll go with you,” Deputy O’Keefe said, but he signaled Mel to wait outside.

  They came back a few minutes later and Deputy O’Keefe showed Mel a letter saying Jason had permission to be in Audrey’s house in her absence. It was signed by Audrey, but Mel wasn’t sure if it was her aunt’s signature or not. She tried to remember the birthday cards Audrey had sent her, but they were usually signed Aunt Audrey, and she hadn’t had one in a while.

  Deputy O’Keefe handed the letter back to Jason and gave him his business card.

  “Please have Ms. Glenn contact me when she returns.”

  “I will, Deputy,” Jason said. He looked smug and Mel was fuming.

  “That’s it?” she said as she and Deputy O’Keefe walked back to the cruiser.

  “He had a letter.”

  “But he could have written it himself.”

  “Unless you have proof that something has happened to your aunt, there’s nothing else I can do. You can file a missing persons report when we get back to the station, but we won’t be able to follow up on it until after the new year.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because he says she’s on a cruise. Do you know differently?”

  “No.”

  “Then this is how it has to be. My name is Conner, by the way.”

  Mel was thinking about Audrey. “What?”

  “Conner. It’s my name.” He smiled at her. “Where are you staying?”

  “I don’t know. I was going to stay with a friend, but I was thinking of getting a hotel room here. I hate to go somewhere till I know what happened.”

  They drove back to the sheriff’s office. When they got out of the car, he handed her his card. “That’s got my cell on it. Call me when you know where you’ll be.”

  She took the card. “You want my number?”

  “Sure.” She gave it to him and he noted it in his notebook.

  “Do you want to file a report?” he asked.

  She nodded and followed him into the station. He took her to his desk and filled out a report with the facts as she knew them. When they were done, he looked at her.

  “I’m off at six,” he said. “Do you want to get some dinner?”

&nbs
p; Mel was floored. “Are you asking me out?”

  He nodded. “You have to eat, right?”

  “Yeah, but, my aunt is missing.”

  “I know. I guess it’s a little inappropriate.”

  “Do ya think?”

  He smiled. “Sorry. It’s just that you’re cute and I know you’re just here for a short time.”

  She blushed. “I guess I do have to eat.”

  “Call me when you’re settled. Like I said, I’m here till six and by the time I get home and change, it will be more like seven.”

  “Okay.”

  He walked her to the reception area and left her at the door. As she walked to her car, she thought she saw her aunt’s Mercury parked at the back of the parking lot. It was too far away to tell, and the town was full of Mercurys. Old people loved the boxy cars.

  She turned on the car and drove to the exit. The car she had seen was gone.

  Chapter 4

  Deputy Conner O’Keefe typed “Audrey Glenn” into the search box. Nothing came up. She’d never been arrested, nor had a traffic ticket. Then he typed in her address and got a hit. It was a call made to the sheriff’s office three months before.

  Someone had called the sheriff’s office to report that something suspicious was going on at the mobile home. The sheriff received several calls a month from people who believed their neighbors were aliens, or someone they saw on a wanted poster in the post office. A deputy would follow up on some, while others were simply filed away. This one had been filed away.

  Conner pulled up the transcript of the 911 call. The person calling was a man named Richard Norman and he lived in 300 – the home next to Audrey’s. He told the dispatcher that something had happened to the lady living at 298 and he wanted someone to come out and investigate. When asked why he believed something had happened to her, he stated that a young man was living in her house and she hadn’t been seen at the pool in over a month. No one was dispatched. No reason was noted.

  Now, as Conner looked at the call, he thought about Jason. He took out his notebook. While he was in the home with him, Conner had asked Jason some questions. Jason’s last name was Frye. Conner did a “Who’s in Jail” search and found Jason’s mug shot. He’d been arrested five years ago on a possession of cocaine charge. Nothing since. His case had been dismissed. There was another Jason Frye in the database, an older man. They could be related.