He groaned and waited for her to unlock the doors before going out into the mall and sitting on a bench. He started texting Jason to let him know they would be late.
Zoe finished putting the new pants on the mannequin and then did a quick walkthrough of the rest of the store before turning off the lights and flipping on the alarm. The mall was almost empty now but a few of the shops still had people inside them. She went next door to Forever 21 and saw Candice folding some shirts.
“Aren’t you done yet?”
“No.” She threw a glare over to a couple that was still browsing. “These guys won’t leave. I’ve told ‘em we’re closing.”
“Just tell them to get out.”
“I did that once and got in trouble. I have to wait until they leave but I can’t even count out the register cause they might buy something.”
“That sucks.”
“I know. But what can you do I guess. Hey, I saw Brian. What are you guys doing?”
“We’re supposed to go to Jason’s house and then to Desert Ice.”
“Again?”
“Yeah, we’re there like every week. I’m getting bored.”
“Well, my brother said any time you get sicka Brian to give him a call.”
“Yeah I dunno, maybe. I need some time to think, ya know? Anyway, I guess I better go.”
“See ya. Don’t get too drunk.”
“I won’t.”
She found Brian and sat next to him on the bench. She thought about Candice’s brother. He was Latino and buff and had a good job as a club promoter. Brian lived at his mom’s house and mostly played video games when they were together. She was so sick of Call of Duty she would get a queasy feeling in her stomach whenever it came on.
Then, he put his arm around her and she remembered why she had started dating him. She rested her head on his shoulder a second and he kissed her.
“I have to get my stuff out of my car,” she said.
“I’m parked by the food court. Come over there when you’re done.”
He kissed her again and she got up and made her way through the mall. She stopped for a couple of minutes and said hi to her friend at GNC and then went out into the parking lot.
It was warm and the moon was out. The lamps in the parking lot lit up all the stalls a warm glow of orange and she saw her Prius and took out her cell phone as she walked to it.
There was one text from her mom, asking her when she’d be home, and one from her friend Angie asking her if she wanted to come over because her parents were out of town. She replied that she might later and if it was okay that Brian came too.
There was a van parked next to her Prius on the driver’s side and it was parked so close she could barely fit in between them. She made her way down to the driver’s door and put her key in the lock when the door to the van opened.
Before she could turn around, there was a flash of white, and the warmth of pavement against her face.
57
Detective Marcos Garcia sat with his feet up on his desk. The Missing Persons Unit was split into two sections and he had recently been promoted to what was considered the less stressful section: adults. The juvenile section, he believed, was the most painful unit of the police department next to Sex Crimes. There were an average of forty-three missing persons reports filed in the County every week. With both units combined, they had only six detectives working them.
Many people, especially the families of the missing, were shocked to learn that so few resources were dedicated to this unit. But they didn’t understand, and he sure as hell wasn’t going to explain to them, that eight out of ten missing persons were never found and had no workable leads. In reality, only seven real, feasible cases per week came in. The rest had no leads, no evidence, and no hope.
His phone buzzed and the receptionist told him someone was here to see him. He told them to make an appointment but the receptionist said it was a mother who needed to file a report on her daughter.
“Send her back,” he said.
He took his feet off the desk and straightened his tie. Though most detectives at this point in their careers were phoning it in, he believed in his work and thought that the way he treated the families mattered. People could sense when someone was really going to work for them or not.
An older brunette came to the door, but not too old. Garcia guessed she was in her early fifties. She’d had some plastic surgery, her breasts definitely, but also her face. Her eyes were swollen and red and she wore no make-up. She sat down across from him without being asked to do so and pulled out a photograph and gave it to him.
“This is my daughter Zoe. She went missing last night.”
“Did you speak with her last night, Ms …?”
“Mrs. Mrs. Diane Kelly. Yes, I spoke to her. She was at work at the Gap and we were texting back and forth. She was supposed to go to some dance club with her boyfriend. She went out to the car to get some clothes and make-up and she never came back. He called me.”
Garcia began typing into an ipad. “What’s her boyfriend’s name?”
“Brian Newman.” She took out a sheet of paper. It was covered in names and phone numbers and addresses. “These are her friends and his number’s on there too.”
“How old is she?”
“Nineteen.”
“You sure she’s missing, Mrs. Kelly? A lot of times nineteen year olds stay out too late and-”
“I’m positive. That’s not her. We talk. She tells me everything and she always lets me know where she is. This isn’t like her at all. And her car is still at the mall; it’s Fashion Valley mall. I went and saw it. Her keys were on the ground next to it. Something’s happened.”
“What kind of car does she have?”
“A green Prius. It’s parked right out in front of Macy’s.”
“Mrs. Kelly, Diane. Ah, may I call you Diane?”
“Yes.”
“Diane, I’m going to ask you some questions now and they’re going to make you uncomfortable. But I promise you they are necessary. And if Zoe is missing, they are going to help us find her, okay?”
“Okay.”
“Does Zoe have a drug problem that you know of?”
“No, she doesn’t use drugs. She drinks sometimes, I know that. She comes home smelling like alcohol. But we talk about it and if she’s been drinking she doesn’t drive. We have a deal that if she’s been drinking and needs to drive home she has to call me and I have to not get angry or punish her. She’s very good about that.”
“Okay. Now, is Zoe promiscuous?”
“What kind of question is that? No, she’s not promiscuous she’s nineteen. I don’t think she even really knows what sex is.”
“Okay, again, I’m not trying to be invasive or hurtful. I just need to rule out a few things. Now where was the last place anyone saw her?”
“Inside the mall. Brian was the last to see her.”
“Well, I’m going to give Brian a call and speak to him. Then I’ll draft a report and we’ll wait forty-eight hours and if she doesn’t turn up, we’ll file the report and then put out a-”
“Forty-eight hours? She’s missing. We can’t wait that long.”
“I understand your frustration, Diane. But that’s the law. We have to wait-”
“That’s bullshit! My daughter is missing. Find her.”
“We will, but, I can’t file a report for forty-eight hours.”
She began crying and Garcia pushed a box of tissues toward her. She took two of them and dabbed at her eyes.
“Please, just find her.”
*****
Garcia drove down to Fashion Valley mall. He was not required to take any action on a missing persons case for forty-eight hours. A lot of cases were people that had fled and wanted a break, or, more likely, people with mental illnesses that had gotten lost and would eventually wander back. The forty-eight hour waiting period, though painful for the families, was necessary so that the detectives could spend their time working the real cases.