The ladies went outside and began walking the perimeter of the hotel parking lot, writing down everything, from where a vehicle might have been able to get in and get out with the load of auction items, some very bulky, to where no vehicle could go near an entrance. They kept their distance, but an officer they knew approached them.
“And you four are here because?” Corporal Sven Mortensen inquired.
“We’re investigating,” Erica said, and Laura jabbed an elbow into her ribs.
Erica jumped.
“We’re out for a walk and saw the tape and were wondering if we could spot anything out of the ordinary that might help you in your investigation,” Laura said with a straight face.
Sven looked Laura in the eye.
“You were investigating,” he stated, repeating Erica’s words.
“Well, okay, yes, but we’re not in the way, and we won’t interfere with anything that your brave and talented team of officers is doing.”
Sven snorted.
“Just make sure you do stay out of the way. I mean way out of the way. The FBI is in charge of this theft and they won’t like any interference. See those guys over there?” He nodded toward two men in black suits near a black SUV. “They’re big and mean.”
“You’re big and mean,” Kelly pointed out.
“They’re bigger and meaner than me. Watch your step or they’ll think you should be part of their investigation.”
“We will stay out of everyone’s way,” Laura assured him.
The four walked back toward the frontage road surrounding the lot.
“You sure told him,” Erica said, satisfied with the encounter.
“No, Erica, you told him, so any chance we had of nosing around and finding out what the police know is gone.”
“What did you want me to say? That we were out for a walk like you did? What about those two big mean FBI agents?”
“That would have been a better choice to start with. Now we might be duplicating and not discovering something new.”
“But that’s lying—”
“No, it’s not. We actually were out walking—”
“Children, children,” Jenna interrupted. “Let’s move on with our Plan B.”
Kelly turned to Laura.
“We have a second Plan B?”
“Might be a Plan C,” Erica offered.
The ladies continued their leisurely walk around the hotel parking lot. Next, they turned toward the lobby entrance and strode in boldly as if they owned the place. Laura spoke first.
“I’m hungry, and I’m glad we all decided to eat out today. Their roast beef sandwich is outstanding!”
The rest of the group nodded but had little inkling of Laura’s plan. Nor did they know she had been struck by a woman reading a magazine in the lobby, whom she believed she had met somewhere. Something about her posture and features seemed familiar, but she couldn’t think where she’d seen the woman. She edged her group, grinning and whispering to them to look happy, and hoping they wouldn’t look too happy, toward the lunch bar and away from the lobby.
Once they were well inside the lunch bar and had chosen a table, Laura was assaulted with questions.
“What did you see?”
“What’s going on?”
“Why did we all have to look happy?”
Laura turned serious.
“Keep your eyes on me, and let’s go settle down for lunch. Then, and only once we’re settled, I want one of you to go outside toward the front door and look all around the lobby, checking out everyone there, then check your watch or your phone, and go to the door and look outside like you’re waiting for someone. Take your time looking around and tap your foot, check your phone more than once. Pretend you’re trying to call or text someone and not getting a response. Frown, shrug your shoulders, and come back to our lunch table. Our food should be here by the time you get back.”
“I’ll do it,” Jenna volunteered, anxious to get her mind off the stolen auction items for a few minutes.
“You didn’t ask why,” Laura pointed out.
“We all know you’re up to something, Laura,” Kelly said. “The minute you hustled us into the lunch bar, we all knew.”
“Out with it, Keene,” Erica commanded.
“There’s a lady with dark hair reading a magazine in the lobby. I know I’ve seen her somewhere before, and I’ve got one of those prickly feelings about it.”
“You got shivers like someone walking over your grave?”
Laura nodded as the four ladies settled at their round table which could easily have accommodated a fifth person. They hung purses and light jackets over chair corners. A couple of minutes passed.
“Okay,” Jenna said, taking a deep breath and pushing back her chair, “Order me something good and wish me luck.”
“I just want you to tell me if she looks familiar to you, too. And the rest of you do not look at Jenna. Just order your lunch. Eyes on the menu.”
“Geez, Laura, is this how you do your investigating? This is so fun!” Kelly said.
“No. I’ve never done this. I just think we should be very careful about our investigating and not bother anyone. That woman might be perfectly innocent. Remember those two big mean FBI agents Sven told us about.”
“We all watch too much TV,” Erica commented, poring over her menu.
By the time Jenna came back, they could see that she was struggling to conceal her excitement. Then she looked at what her friends had ordered for her and her face fell.
“You ordered me a Cobb salad?”
“Just kidding!” Kelly said, swapping bowls with her.
Jenna sat, now grinning at the taco salad in front of her.
Laura continued to eat, jamming as much of her double roast beef sandwich into her mouth as she could. After chewing it all up and chasing it with a big gulp of lemon water, she turned casually to Jenna.
“Share,” she said.
“Oh, I know her, all right. Don’t know her name, but she was in our grade in high school. Eagle Junction, I think. I’m sure I saw her at a couple of our dances and sports events. But I’m pretty certain she was a blonde. She must have darkened her hair or maybe she’s wearing a wig today.”
“I don’t think that’s where I know her from,” Laura responded. She had been to no dances at her high school, having been kidnapped by her dear Great-aunt Rose to live in Maryland following her parents’ deaths eleven years ago. “But it’s a start. Jenna, can you check yearbooks online and see if you can identify her?”
“Why? Do you think she’s involved in the auction theft?”
“Probably not. I just think it’s odd that if she’s local, what’s she doing sitting in the lobby of our hotel?”
“Fits right into your ‘out of the ordinary,’ doesn’t it?” Erica said, polishing off her grilled chicken Caesar salad, and downing the remainder of her iced tea.
Laura nodded.
“Remember to give me all your notebooks from our walk-around today. We’ll get back together on this in a couple of days.”
“But, Laura,” Jenna objected. “The silent auction is supposed to happen in five days. What are we going to do about losing all our auction items?”
“I know there’s not much time left,” Kelly said, “but can’t we beg people to donate a few more things? I mean, even with so little time, I can get one or two small paintings done and a few more prints framed.”
“I’ll try,” Jenna replied, a tinge of sadness in her eyes.
“Well, we’ve already talked about it behind your back, Jenna, and I’m donating several more silk flower arrangements,” Erica said.
“And I’m bringing more dream baskets. At least you’ll have donations from Kelly, Erica and me,” La
ura said.
“It’s a good thing we all get along and help each other out,” Kelly added. “Probably because we’re all only children and we became our own little family.”
“Except for me,” Erica interrupted. “Don’t forget my brother.”
“You mean the imaginary one whom you always blamed for messing up your room?” Jenna asked.
“Yeah, that’s the one. I think I called him ‘Justin.’”
They all laughed, and they all remembered.
thirty
Pretending she didn’t see the sticky floor of her shop, Laura locked up, set all the alarms, and took her car to the police station. Connor met her in the parking lot and he drove them to a restaurant in Duluth that their host knew well.
Nolan Frye, while not directly in charge of the cold case investigation of the seven missing prom queens that appeared to be thawing, supervised the team that was looking into it. He was gratified by Laura’s strong handshake and laughed as he waved Connor’s hand away.
“When your hand’s better, Fitzpatrick.”
Frye had reserved a table way off in a corner where there were few passersby. Orders were made and food brought to the table before anyone spoke of the reason for the lunch meeting.
“I think I understand what you want to do, Laura, but not why you want to do it or what you hope to gain from it.”
“The re-interviewing?” Laura asked.
He nodded, taking a big pull on his beer.
“My mother was a psychologist,” she began.
“I know all about you and your family, including your Great-aunt Rose.”
Laura continued as if he hadn’t interrupted her.
“She had a theory that people who are in the throes of an emotional tragedy, such as a kidnapping which is what this was, tell different stories at the time of the emotional involvement than they might at a later date when life is calmer…and clearer. Or people might not share everything because of a false sense of protecting someone. Other little details might come out that they didn’t think were important at the time. That’s what I’m after.”
“The later stories—the real ones?”
She nodded.
“And what brought this on?”
“The red dress.”
He tilted his head.
“Because someone gave it to you?”
Again, she nodded.
“Okay, no problem. Here’s the list of everyone we interviewed. I can’t give you all the notes from the file, but there are summaries of their statements.”
“And here’s the list of questions I am prepared to ask some of the people on your list. I don’t anticipate talking to everyone your team did nine years ago. But there might possibly be one more person to add to both our lists.”
He glanced up from reading her notes.
“And who would that be?”
“I don’t have her name yet, but it’s the girl who did not buy the red dress.”
“I see where you’re headed. Our agents dead-ended with that lead, even with the sketch we put together from the store manager’s memory. I wish you luck with it. Let me know if you need any of the officers’ or agents’ notes about that girl. My only caveat is that one of mine or one of his,” nodding toward Connor, “accompanies you on your interviews or talks or whatever you want to call them. Keep detailed notes, and get them over to me as soon as you’re done or the minute you find out something interesting. Like the name of the girl who didn’t get the dress.”
“My girlfriends and I saw somebody yesterday at the hotel where the auction item theft occurred. We met for lunch and when we were walking through the lobby, I recognized a woman reading a magazine but could not recall where I knew her from. My friend Jenna Buckley thought she was our age and went to Eagle Junction High. She was going to check the online yearbooks. I imagine she’s been a bit too busy to do that. I can look through the yearbooks, but I might not recognize her. We’ll see. Oh, and I already have something else interesting that might help. I didn’t want to bother you with it until after these interviews.”
“Tell me now.”
“I think that prom queens are generally a certain type of girl, and some of them think they are a gift to the world. Many of them are wealthy. They’ve been told they’re pretty all their lives and the world is theirs for the taking. That’s a perfect formula for someone who wants to be an actress. The pathway to acting, whether in advertising, television, stage, or movies, often begins through a modeling or talent agency.”
“And you think this why?”
“When I spoke with Diana Popovich—”
“The manager of Marjeanne in Minneapolis. Go on.”
“She explained that models must be actors in order to succeed and that this is the natural pathway or progression to a better career, perhaps in movies. Marjeanne uses three different modeling agencies for their fashion shows, and I’ve done a little Internet research on them.”
“What did you find?”
“One interesting business structure. The other two I couldn’t find anything except their names and websites.”
“Did you share any of this with Connor?”
“Not yet; I wanted to get the Brittany interviews done first. I’m convinced that if we can solve that first disappearance, we’ll have them all. And I’m also convinced that it will happen again to another young girl if we don’t move on this. It’s been two years since the last one from Raging Ford.”
Frye pulled a business card from his pocket and handed it to Laura.
“Email me the names of the three agencies and what you found thus far.”
“Can you also please send me a copy of the original police sketch of the girl who did not buy the dress, from nine years ago?”
He nodded, then a brief silence ensued in which he exchanged a glance with Connor.
“It’s an ‘open cold case,’ Laura, and if you can get past that oxymoron, you also know I can’t discuss it with you. But since you are a contracted consultant with the RFPD, I can say that the FBI appreciates anything you discover and share with us. Just be aware, you are a civilian, and nobody expects you to take chances or put your life in danger.”
“Connor gave me that talk. And I grew up hearing it, too.”
“So what’s your next step that you haven’t discussed with Connor yet?”
“I want to stage a women’s leadership and career seminar at our three local high schools—Raging Ford, Eagle Junction, and Mapleton. I want to focus on Mapleton because there are higher incomes in that town and it’s more likely there would be at least one rich, snobby prom queen there.”
“So you want the FBI to sanction your going to these schools under the auspices of a women’s group? For what purpose?”
“Actually, I’m a member of such a group from my days at the University of Maryland. We visited the local high schools, talked to girls aged fifteen through eighteen on the careers they saw themselves in. Interviews took about ten to fifteen minutes. I’ll check to see if there’s a branch up here.”
“What did you ask them?”
“Have you thought about your career plans? If so, what are they? Who have you reached out to? Questions like that. If they mention modeling, we’ll ask who they’ve contacted and what the responses were. We’ll stop at that point. If we do this generally and ask everyone the same set of questions, I’m hopeful we’ll see a pattern.”
“And this will take about fifteen minutes at each school?”
“Per person. You can’t interview a group because of the peer pressure at that age. Teenage girls are reluctant to be candid in front of certain friends. We will randomly draw names based on GPA so that we get girls from all academic levels. I was thinking one day per school, so not that many interviews.”
“It’s not really random.”
“Correct, but as random as it can be.”
“You’ll need an officer or an agent to accompany you at these meetings, too.”
“Not a problem, Special Agent Frye. There is a female officer on Connor’s team who I am certain would love to join this group. She could come in plain clothes, if Connor is in agreement, and she wouldn’t be lying. And while I understand that I cannot look through all the files on the missing seven girls, I would ask that your team check to see if there are any notes regarding their contact with one or more of those three talent agencies. Excuse me, I’ll be right back.”
In her absence, Nolan turned to Connor who had been silent throughout the entire meal and exchange.
“Where did you find her? Will you get mad if we try to recruit her?”
“Already been tried. She has other plans for her life. Besides, she’s on special assignment from Chief Mallory to work on the major theft that your agents are also trying to solve. I haven’t even discussed the theft with her yet or what she might do to help. I try to give her strict parameters because she tends to stretch them. Do you have any leads?”
Frye shook his head.
“Try not to feel too disappointed,” Connor said as he stood when Laura approached them, “if she figures it out first.”
• • •
On the way back to Raging Ford, Laura was unusually silent.
“When you’re this quiet,” Connor interrupted her thoughts, “I worry about what’s rattling around in your head. You should share it with me.”
“I was thinking it might be best to have an FBI agent with me for the witness interviews.”
“Because?”
“One of them might be a kidnapper or a killer. Or it might just open up an unexpected, dangerous situation.”
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