Presumed Missing

by Fiona Tarr

  Liz smiled, but realised that Jackie had no idea what her mother was doing. It seemed her daughter had lived a sheltered life. How on earth was she going to cope with the truth about Liz’s past?

  ‘Max, how about a refill?’ Liz held her glass out to her business partner. ‘I’ll just check the lasagne.’

  Liz couldn’t move away fast enough, but the distance between her dining table and kitchen counter suddenly didn’t seem as large as she needed.

  Her escape was short-lived it seemed. ‘What name do you prefer?’ Lyn had followed her to the kitchen.

  ‘Sorry?’ Liz wished she’d eaten more. The champagne was going to her head.

  ‘Liz or Lillian.’ Yep, she knew.

  ‘Well, here in my home, with invited guests, definitely Liz,’ she smiled, but it wasn’t reaching her eyes. ‘But, with your husband, in the bedroom, I’m Lilian, although I’m kind of partial to my pet name, Foxy. I’m guessing it was your husband who told you what my occupation was?’ Liz didn’t wait for the answer. She returned to the table, a smile plastered on her face. Max’s eyebrow rose.

  ‘Jackie. I want to show you something, in my office. You got a second?’

  Jackie jumped up from the table. ‘Sure. Be back in a sec mum.’ Lyn was about to speak, but Max moved in, somehow realising he needed to play interference.

  Liz moved into the office, Jackie followed before Liz closed the door, locking it for good measure. ‘I have something I need to show you, before you hear it from someone else.’ She moved to her seldom used office computer and flicked it on. The Mac had a solid-state drive and was on in a few seconds.

  ‘This is all very mysterious.’ Jackie looked back at the locked door.

  ‘Your mum already knows it seems, but I had hoped to share this with you once we got to know each other better. It’s the reason I had to give you up in the first place, but it isn’t an excuse for why I didn’t come and find you myself.’

  Liz opened her web browser, then clicked on the favourites and opened the Foxy Escort Agency site.

  She stopped before opening the page that bore her picture and profile. ‘I want you to know I regret not coming to look for you and I am very, very happy that you sought me out. Your dad is too. I hope you don’t flip out when you see this, but any question, absolutely any question at all that pops into your head, I’ll answer it, got it?’

  Jackie nodded. She hadn’t taken her eyes from the computer screen. A knock at the door made her jump. ‘We are going home Jackie!’

  ‘She’s pissed isn’t she?’ Jackie looked at Liz, who shrugged.

  Liz clicked the page open. ‘She thought I’d fold when she told me she knew my past. I’ve been through a lot Jackie. More shit than you can possibly know. I don’t back down from a fight and if a fight is what your mum wants, she’ll get it.’

  ‘Jackie, time to leave!’ Lyn’s voice was louder now and the pounding on the door grew harder.

  ‘You are a big girl now Jackie. You make up your own mind about me.’ She clicked her name on the screen and her page opened to reveal a photo of Lilian Fox, dressed in a hot pink G-string, a white lace scarf draped over her shoulders and across the top of her naked breast.

  The blusher was dark, the lipstick matched the panties and the eyeliner defined her eyes. She was a little younger—the shot taken before her hair needed to be regularly dyed—but the body hadn’t changed much since then.

  ‘You?’ Jackie pointed to the screen, resisting the urge to touch it.

  ‘Jackie!’ The woman was frantic now. Liz could hear Max using his best detective voice trying to calm the woman down, but she couldn’t hear what he was saying.

  ‘Your dad and I met when I was only seventeen. I was a working girl, in a regular dive but at least I was away from my mother’s sleazy boyfriend.’ Jackie touched Liz’s hand. ‘You get the picture?’

  ‘I’m calling the Police. You can’t hold her against her will like that.’ Lyn was screaming hysterically now.

  ‘You had better go home. Your mum means well Jackie. She doesn’t want you hanging around me.’ Liz resisted the urge to tell her daughter that her adoptive father only knew who she was because he used her services. ‘You know where to find me. I’ve made a lot of money doing what I do. I should have looked for you though.’

  Jackie tried to speak, but tears were rolling down her face now as she held Liz’s hand.

  ‘I’m not going anywhere. You know where to find me when you are ready for the full story, but you had better take Lyn home now.’

  Jackie sniffed and Liz reached for a tissue from her desk. Her daughter took it and wiped her nose, then her eyes.

  ‘Take care of Lyn.’ Jackie nodded. ‘I’ll see you again, as soon as you want to. Okay?’

  Jackie nodded again. The door opened.

  ‘I’m phoning my husband. I’m laying charges.’

  ‘No, you’re not mum.’ Jackie found her voice. ‘Take a breath. I’ll take you home.’ Jackie gently took her mum by the arm and led her out into the lounge room. They stopped at the side table to collect her bag.

  ‘She’s a whore. A slut. I tried to talk you out of looking for your birth mother.’ Lyn was ranting now, shaking with rage. Oblivious to her daughter’s tear-streaked face, she was so absorbed in her own drama. ‘But you wouldn’t listen to me.’

  Max stood watching his daughter move her mother through the door to the hall beyond. She looked up and smiled. It was hard to read. It looked like a sad smile at first, but as she closed the door behind her, Liz saw a sparkle in her eye.

  10

  ‘I had to pick the lock.’

  ‘I know.’

  ‘What happened?’

  ‘She knew my past. She had obviously been seething over it for a while. Confrontation was inevitable, I just took it out of her hands.’

  ‘Nice. What did Jackie say?’

  ‘Nothing. She just cried.’ Liz walked to the dining table and collected her champagne.

  ‘She going to come back?’ Max sounded lost, like his world had collapsed.

  ‘I don’t know Max. I hope so, but it has to be her call.’

  ****

  Max had gone home. The lasagne tray sat forgotten in the middle of the table. Nothing killed Max’s appetite, but Liz’s plate was still full—two tiny mouthfuls missing from the corner of her meal.

  She wanted to clean up, but couldn’t find the motivation. How had she not been prepared for this?

  Her phone rang. She ignored it.

  She dragged herself to her feet and collected her laptop from the drawer in the kitchen she’d popped it in to keep it out of sight. Plonking down on the bar stool heavily, she opened it, remembering she needed to see if Scott had found anything on Gemma’s computer.

  She opened her emails. Nothing. She grabbed her mobile. Maybe it was Scott trying to phone her. She looked at the caller ID. It was Jack. Max must have spoken to him. She phoned her IT expert.

  ‘Scott.’

  ‘Liz. I’ve gone over the computer. No app to track her phone but I’ve downloaded her history. She’s been looking up some disturbing stuff.’

  ‘What kind of stuff?’

  ‘Her search history shows youth advocate sites. Help Line. A victim support line.’

  ‘Shit.’

  ‘Yeah. Sounds like the kid is in trouble.’

  ‘Did you get my message about her bully? Have you checked her socials? I need to find out who she is and where she lives.’

  ‘I got it, but I haven’t had a chance to track the girl down. Anything else you want checked?’

  ‘Yes thanks. Can you download any online messages? Email, social. Anything you can find.’

  ‘Will do.’

  ‘Thanks Scott.’

  ‘No worries.’ There was a moment’s silence. ‘You okay? You sound down.’

  ‘I’ll be fine Scott. Thanks for asking.’

  Liz hung up, dropped her phone on the counter and sighed. ‘I hope you’re okay kid. I’d hate
to tell your mum we couldn’t find you.’

  Her door buzzer rang. Liz reached over and dragged the tablet closer, tapping to check the security camera. Jack stood in front of her door, waving at the camera. ‘I liked it better when you didn’t know where I lived.’ Liz buzzed him in, not bothering to get up to open her door, something she rarely did but she suddenly felt exhausted.

  ‘How did you get up the elevator?’

  ‘Security let me up. The badge comes in handy,’ Jack grinned. ‘Besides, the guard recognised me.’ Jack shut the door and moved closer. Liz made no attempt to put on a happy face.

  ‘Max said you were bummed out when he left, but you look terrible.’

  ‘Thanks.’

  ‘I thought I’d cheer you up.’ Jack pulled a stool up and sat next to Liz. ‘I spoke to Missing Persons. Max said you were upset, about Jackie. I know work takes your mind off things. It does for me.’

  Liz perked up. ‘What did they say?’

  ‘How about a coffee? You look like you could do with one. I know I could. I can get it if you like?’

  ‘I’ll get it. Cappuccino with two sugars.’

  ‘Nice of you to remember.’

  ‘It hasn’t been that long Jack.’ Liz rolled her eyes, but was smiling now.

  ‘True.’ His eyes sparkled with an emotion Liz couldn’t put her finger on. She watched him a moment before turning away to put on the coffee machine.

  ‘What did Missing Persons say?’

  ‘They visited the school and the commune.’

  ‘Refuge.’ Liz corrected and Jack nodded.

  ‘The reason they stopped looking and put the case in the filing cabinet was the social media messages to her mother saying she was fine. She’d run away and she wasn’t coming home anytime soon.’

  ‘Social messages? Then why was she searching help lines and youth advocacy sites online?’

  ‘Scott come back with that?’

  ‘Yep.’ Liz set a mug under the machine and started making Jack’s coffee. The noise made it difficult to talk for a moment. The machine stopped.

  ‘She could have been trying to find out how to leave home? Where to get help? Social security, that type of thing.’ Liz handed him the coffee and shook her head.

  ‘Maybe, but I’ve got a feeling there is more to this.’

  ‘You could be right. You often are it seems, but I can’t do much until it lands on my desk, officially.’

  ‘What did Missing Persons say about the phone? Will they try and find it?’

  ‘They don’t have the people power. With the social media messages, they are prepared to sit on it for now.

  ‘That sucks. Can you do one more thing for me? I know I’ve asked too much already.’ Jack nodded and took a sip of his coffee. ‘You ran the teachers at the school, but can you cross reference their work history with other missing girls?’

  Jack’s curiosity was piqued as he took another sip. ‘Sure. That should be a pretty check.’

  ‘Jones in particular.’

  ‘Max asked about him too. I gave him the report. Nothing looked strange about the guy but I’ll run the Missing Persons’ database for anything that connects any teachers or staff from Gemma’s school. You really think something bad has happened to her?’

  ‘I can’t explain it Jack, but yes, I do. How long has Jones been teaching at the school? Is it in the report?’

  Jack shrugged, but Liz could see he was getting curious. ‘Not sure. Max still has the report though. Check in with him tomorrow.’

  ‘I will. If it isn’t in there. I’ll have to visit the Principal again.’

  ‘You not having a coffee?’

  ‘No. I need all the help I can get with sleep tonight.’

  ‘Want to talk about it?’

  Liz shrugged. ‘Nothing much to talk about. Jackie’s mother, adoptive mother, found out about my past. I had to do a pre-emptive strike and tell Jackie before her mother did. Her mum made a huge scene. Screaming and ranting, threatening to call the cops. She’ll probably never speak to me again.’

  ‘The mum, or Jackie.’

  ‘I don’t give a crap about Lyn, but Jackie, I would really like to get to know her better.’

  ‘Give her time. I’m sure she’ll come around.’

  ‘I hope so. She didn’t seem as shocked as I thought she’d be. Maybe blood is thicker than water after all.’

  ‘I hope not. I don’t think we can cope with two of you,’ Jack chuckled and Liz relaxed.

  ‘You could be right there.’

  There was comfortable silence while Jack took another sip of his coffee. Liz cleaned the machine and put the milk away.

  ‘You want help with the dishes?’

  ‘Nah. I’ll put the lasagne away and leave them until the morning.’ Liz watched Jack’s reaction. She knew he would never do that. She’d been to his apartment. His fridge was organised. His house tidy, clean and sparsely decorated. She’d live in a mess if not for her cleaner. The woman was a godsend.

  ‘How’s Jenny doing?’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Is she switched on? A good detective?’

  Jack raised an eyebrow. ‘Why?’

  ‘Just answer the question detective.’

  Jack laughed aloud. ‘Yes. She’s good. Overzealous, motivated, a loose cannon at times, but yes, she’s instinctively good.’

  Liz nodded. ‘You said you wanted to train a detective? Someone to get inside my world? Do you still want to?’

  Jack thought about it a moment. ‘Undercover is a risky business. I’d like to tidy up some moles first. With Max gone, I don’t know who to trust in the department now.’

  ‘You think they’d blow the whistle on Jenny?’

  ‘In a heartbeat. I don’t want to risk her like that.’

  ‘I’ll keep the idea on the back burner then, but it wouldn’t hurt to start training her.’

  ‘I won’t even ask how you train to be an escort.’ Jack drank the last of his coffee and got up to wash the cup.

  ‘Is that code for you want to ask but don’t really want to ask?’ Liz collected the lasagne from the table and stretched cling wrap over it. She could see the curiosity on his face but she also knew there was no way he was going to want to know about how an escort got her training.

  ‘Time for me to go.’ He placed his clean mug upside down on the stone bench, the carved drainage channels barely visible on the white surface.

  ‘I could go into details if you like.’ Liz was enjoying this too much. Jack wasn’t a prude by any means, but she knew he really didn’t want to know the details of her work. On one hand he’d be repulsed, but like most men, on the other, he’d be turned on.

  ‘La la la.’ The detective put his fingers in his ears and made his way to the door. He stopped with his hand on the door knob and turned to face Liz. ‘You keep Max in the loop Liz. Don’t go getting yourself into any trouble.’

  ‘I’ll be careful.’ Jack’s eyebrow rose in question. ‘I promise.’ They both knew she didn’t mean it.

  11

  Liz checked her emails as she sipped her first morning lactose-free coffee on her patio. The autumn leaves were flying down North Terrace with the howling wind and the chill of winter was just around the corner.

  She’d spent most of the weekend catching up on appointments for the escorts and answering emails. A half dozen clients were making bookings, most existing clients, but not regulars. Her regulars usually had a standing weekly or fortnightly time-slot and Liz could arrange payments via the various online diaries.

  She checked each escort’s online calendars for available slots, sent out text messages to check with the girls then confirmed bookings before moving on to an email from Scott. She found a spreadsheet full of information. All sorts of social media apps she never used were listed with posts and messages.

  Scott had included a column naming which device the messages had been sent from. Leading up to Gemma’s disappearance, there were quite a few messages be
tween her and Belinda, the cyber-bully, but just regular girl stuff. All were from Gemma’s mobile.

  Liz opened her own social page, which she rarely used, and did a quick search for all the Belinda Thomas profiles in the Adelaide area. Three popped up, but only one had the right profile picture. If Belinda had been a thirty-year-old woman, her profile would have been covered in layers of privacy, but teenage girls seemed to have no idea who could be stalking them, and frankly, Liz guessed they didn’t care.

  Belinda’s friends, the suburb she lived in, recent school photos, the school she was attending, everything was right there for anyone to see. Liz pulled up the school on her browser and dialled the number.

  A bright voice announced the name of the school followed by the receptionist’s name.

  ‘Hello Stephanie. This is going to be a strange question but I need to make an appointment to speak with one of your students.’

  ‘Are you a relative?’

  Liz took a deep breath. She had expected this, but hoped it wouldn’t happen. ‘No. I’m a private investigator. I’m looking into the disappearance of another student and one of your pupils has popped up on my client’s social media.’

  ‘I’m very sorry, but we can’t allow anyone but family to visit with students on campus without parental permission.’

  ‘I understand. Thanks for your help. I’ll organise for a detective to formally request the questioning then.’ Liz wasn’t sure if the bluff would get anywhere, but it was worth a try. She was certain Jack wouldn’t be amused, but this was to find a missing girl, whom no-one seemed to believe was missing.

  There was a moment’s silence and the receptionist spoke to someone in the background. Muffled voices drifted through the phone, but Liz couldn’t make out any details.

  ‘I am very sorry but we can’t help you. If this becomes a Police investigation then of course we’ll oblige, but if the Police do request an interview, the student’s parents or an appointed teacher representative will need to be present.’

  ‘Of course, I understand. I’ll be in touch.’ Liz hung up. She’d have to find an opportunity to question the girl outside of school. There was no way the Police were going to become involved unless more evidence was found and Belinda might well be the key she needed to get the evidence.