Mariah Stewart - Cry Mercy

“It looks like Belle has a bag under one arm,” Emme observed.

“Yeah, she bought some stuff in the museum store,” Ali told her. “Some postcards and a scarf. It had, like, some Renoir painting on it. Flowers.”

“What time was that, do you remember?”

“Ummm… maybe around two?”

Emme studied the photos for a long moment, then reached over and enlarged the image to fill the screen.

“Ali, who's that in the background on that last photo?”

“I don't know, just someone who was in front of the building when we were, I guess. I hadn't noticed.”

“Looks like the same person is here, in this one,” Nick said. He leaned closer and touched the screen. “Here, near the door.”

“Who's there?” Ali asked suspiciously.

“Ali, I'm sorry. Belle's uncle Nick is here with me. I apologize for not mentioning it.”

“It's okay, Ms. Caldwell.” To Emme's surprise, Ali didn't sound the least bit annoyed. “Hi, Belle's uncle Nick. I've heard a lot about you. Nice things. Or maybe you heard.”

“I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but I'd be lying if I said I'm sorry I overhead you, Ali. Thanks so much for what you said about Belinda… Belle. I appreciate it.”

“No big.”

Emme assumed she meant no big deal, but knew it would be too uncool to ask.

“You were saying something about the door.” Emme got closer to the screen. “This person here? Is that a male or a female?”

“I can't tell.” Nick said. “I can't really see the face or the clothes that well. It's just sort of a form there, maybe a reflection off the glass. Could even be someone on the other side, maybe.”

“I can't tell either,” Ali said, reminding them she was still on the line.

“Ali, this uncool guy who was hanging around you and Belle-” Nick began, but Ali cut him off.

“Belle,” she corrected him. “He was hanging around Belle.”

“Do you remember what he looked like?”

“Kinda tall, blond hair. Buff. Like I said, really cute.”

“What was he wearing?” Emme asked.

“He had on a dark green sweater and jeans. And a brown suede jacket. I remember that, because it was really good suede. The real expensive kind.”

“How could you tell just by looking at it?” Nick asked.

“He was carrying it over his arm and it brushed against me when Belle and I were leaving the photography exhibit. He got way too close but his jacket was the bomb.”

“Sounds like a bold little bugger,” Nick said.

“Way bold,” Ali agreed.

“Did he get close again?” Emme asked.

“No. We left after that and went outside.”

“Hayley said she and Henry and Lori shared a cab back to the train station but that you and Belle had both driven that day. So were you still with Belle after the others left?”

“Uh-huh. There's some limited parking behind the building and I was lucky enough to get a spot there when I arrived that morning. Belle was late and had to park on another street. I offered to drive her, but she said since it was the first somewhat warm day of the winter, she wanted to walk.”

“Where did you part company?”

“Out front.”

“Did you happen to see which way she went when she left you?”

“She went straight down the steps. You know, where they did the Rocky thing? There's that big oval drive out in front of the building so I figured she was parked down there someplace.”

“She didn't say how far she had to go to get her car?”

“I don't remember if she did.”

“Ali, do you still have the email you got from Belle after the museum trip?”

“I'm sure I deleted it. I'm sorry.”

“One more thing,” Nick said. “Did you see Mr. Uncool again that day?”

“No. I guess he just gave up.” Ali paused, then added, “You don't think he followed her or something creepy like that, do you? Because if something happened to her because I let her walk to her car alone, and he followed her and-”

“Whoa, Ali, back up. First of all, you didn't let her walk to her car. That was her idea. She's a big girl. And regardless of what happened to her and where, it wasn't your fault, so please don't even start down that path. The only person responsible for what happened to Belle, is the person who actually did… whatever might have been done.”

When it seemed Ali had been too quiet for too long, Emme said, “Ali?”

“You're right. It's just that…”

“I know. It's always easy to second guess yourself, but in this case, I don't think anything you could have done would have made any difference.”

“Why not?”

“If someone-this guy or someone else-was determined to get to Belle, he'd have found a way.”

“But why would someone be after Belle?” Ali began to cry.

Emme sighed. “That's what we're trying to figure out.”

So now we're on to Henry and Lori, right?” Nick put his notes aside once they'd hung up with Ali. “I see they have separate numbers. Which one do you want to call first?”

“Let's start with Henry.” Emme dialed the number, then handed Nick the phone. “He might respond better to you, being a guy.”

When no one answered, he left a message that he thought was vague enough to spark some interest, but not so specific as to scare Henry away. The call to Lori resulted in Emme leaving a message as well.

“I hope they call back,” she said as she hung up.

“You think there's a chance they won't? They were with Belinda that last day. I'd think they'd be interested.”

“You never know with kids.” Emme added, “Especially this group. I think they're a bit more suspicious than others might be because of their situation. Like Ali said, some of the families aren't happy about the kids connecting, so maybe it's tough to know who to trust when you don't know who you're dealing with.”

“Ali was okay with you.”

“I guess I hit the right note with her. You never know how it's going to go when you interview witnesses.” She thought for a moment. “Maybe we should do another email to the group. And I'm thinking that this time, the email should be from me, since I am an investigator-so the others understand that Belle really is missing.”

“Good idea.”

Emme pulled up the website and located the Donor 1735 message board.

“What are you going to say?” Nick asked.

“I think I'm just going to shoot from the hip. Lay it all out there.”

Deep in thought, she began to type. A few minutes later, she turned to Nick and said, “How does this sound?” and began to read:

My name is Emme Caldwell. I'm a private investigator with the Mercy Street Foundation, which is an organization that specializes in finding missing persons. Our services were requested by Nick Perone, the uncle of your donor sibling, Belinda Hudson-you know her as Belle-who was last seen on January twenty-fourth, 2009. It's been determined that she spent most of that day with several members of this board. Over the next several days, I will be contacting each of you to talk about Belle. I hope I can count on all of you for total cooperation and honesty. If you'd like to contact me, please call me at the number below. If you'd prefer to contact Belle's uncle directly, you can reach him at…”

She finished and looked up at Nick. “Does that sound okay?”

“It sounds great. Thanks for including me. At least now they'll know my earlier attempts to contact them wasn't a joke. Or the attempt of some perverted guy trying to-”

“Stop it. I realize that upset you-justifiably so-but I think we need to just chalk that up to some wiseass kid being, well, being a wiseass.”

“Agreed.”

Emme hit post and leaned back.