Debra Webb - The Longest Silence

Jo pulled her compact from her bag and pretended to check her teeth. She scrutinized the girl seated in the booth across the aisle directly behind her. Young. Likely a student. She was huddled in the booth with a guy, maybe her boyfriend or a study partner.

The guy said, “Well, your dad’s the sheriff. I guess he would know.”

The girl looked around again before saying, “It’ll be all over the news by this afternoon. It’s cray cray. The one who’s for sure missing is a freshman so I don’t know her. Poor thing, she probably went home with the wrong guy. It happens, you know.”

“You’re gonna have to hand me that check, hon, if you want me to ring you up.”

Jo jerked her attention forward and passed the check to the server behind the register. “Sorry.” She dug for a bill from her purse and handed it to the woman. “Keep the change.”

“Are you sure?”

Jo was already headed for the door. She didn’t look back.

“This is a twenty! You only had coffee,” followed her out the door.

Jo forced her feet to slow. Running would only draw attention to herself. Deep breath. Another. She climbed into her Celica and locked the doors. More slow deep breaths. She needed to calm down.

At least one freshman was missing.

Didn’t mean the abduction was relevant to why Jo was here. Hundreds of people went missing every day all over the country. That would be way too big of a coincidence. Not possible. Her fingers tightened around the steering wheel.

Think.

If by some bizarre twist of fate, it was him, the girl had potentially been unaccounted for at least four days. That left another ten days—if she was like Jo, like Ellen—until it was too late.

Stop borrowing trouble, Jo-Jo. She had no idea the circumstances of the girls’ disappearances.

“Stay focused.”

She drew in a deep breath. Stick to the plan. Going to the cops at this stage would be premature—a mistake. She couldn’t help if she was detained for questioning or worse, arrested.

Can’t tell the whole truth yet. Can’t tell. Gotta keep quiet for now.

But if those two girls were taken by the same person who took Ellen and her, Jo had at best ten days to find the truth before someone died.

Only what the police didn’t know was that there wouldn’t be just two victims—no one knew about the other girl yet.

6

Georgia College & State University

Parkhurst Hall

12:45 p.m.

Tony moved slowly through the shared space where Tiffany had lived for the past nine months. The suite was reasonably sized. On her side of the room was a typical twin-size bed with nightstand, a desk and chair, bookshelf, chest of drawers and lockable closet. The closet had been unlocked when he arrived. The roommate, Riley Fallon, stated that Tiffany never locked her closet. He snapped photos as he went along to review later. This might be his only opportunity for access to the room.

The roommate and Angie had been allowed to view the closet before their official questioning for the purpose of attempting to determine if anything was missing. Both had confirmed that Tiffany’s belongings, as best either one could tell, were all there. Tony was amazed at Angie’s ability to remain so strong during the questioning that followed. She explained how Tiffany would never leave without her makeup, purse and cell phone. No one challenged that assessment. The birth control pills found in the nightstand drawer added yet another check to the missing column. Angie hadn’t known Tiffany was on birth control but didn’t appear upset about it. The date of the prescription and the number of missing pills indicated Tiffany had taken one every day until the day she was last seen in this room—four days and eighteen hours ago. Tony snapped a photo of the prescription just in case. Never knew what would turn out to be important.

In his opinion there was more than enough evidence to confirm the status of missing. Phelps as well as Chief Buckley of campus security were now equally convinced. A press conference was held at eight this morning and the alerts were issued. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation as well as the Federal Bureau of Investigation had been notified. Setting up a joint task force with Chief Buckley as lead was the next order of business for the local authorities. Something else that would burn valuable time they didn’t have to spare, but it was a necessary step. The more eyes they had on the case, the more boots on the ground, the better.

Tony sat down in the chair on Tiffany’s side of the room and waited for Riley Fallon, the roommate, to return to the dorm. In this morning’s interview she had stated that she came back to the room for lunch Monday through Friday. She used the break in her schedule for relaxing and studying. According to Riley, Tiffany often did the same thing. Only Angie didn’t think so. Not that Tiffany’s mother called the other girl a liar or even countered her statement, it was the expression on Angie’s face that alerted Tony to her feelings on the matter. Later he’d asked her and she’d mentioned that Tiffany talked about the quad and the many wonderful places provided by the college for students to chill. He’d noticed the benches and tables. Lots of places for students to hang out besides trudging back to the dorm.

Riley Fallon hadn’t been completely honest. Even without Angie’s thoughts on the matter, Tony had watched the young woman’s gaze avert when asked a direct question and the way she fidgeted. Fingers tugging at cuticles, then clasping and unclasping. Reaching up and adjusting her hair repeatedly. Chewing her bottom lip. Clearing her throat again and again. Looking anywhere as she spoke except at the person who’d asked the question. Classic signs of deception.

The question now was whether what she was hiding was relevant to the investigation into Tiffany’s disappearance.

Residue from the search for fingerprints still littered surfaces in the room. Since the roommate needed to use this room and no indication of foul play had actually occurred in this space, the forensic techs had made quick work of going over the room and clearing out so as not to disrupt the resident. Extensive photos had been taken as well as the sheets from Tiffany’s bed and the few items from her laundry bag.

Coming back for a second round of questions was motivated by more than the idea that Tony thought Riley Fallon was lying, it was the lack of sincere concern for her roommate that bothered him most. It was the way that, when the interview was over, she looked directly at the person asking the questions and presented a worried face without the first drop of moisture appearing in her eyes and insisted she hoped Tiffany was okay.

The key turned in the door lock but the door only partly opened. “I need the money before we go in.”

Riley’s voice.

“Sure.”

Male voice.

After a few seconds, Riley said, “Okay. Ten minutes. That’s all you get for twenty bucks.”

“That’s all I need.”

Well, well. The roommate had decided to try her hand at entrepreneurship while she was still a freshman. And right here in the dorm. How ambitious of her. Tony sat back and waited.

The two came into the room and Riley closed the door and locked it. The impatient young man was already unfastening his fly when Riley turned and spotted Tony. Her eyes rounded behind her nerdy glasses and he saw the first hint of genuine emotion there.

“Give him his money back and send him on his way and we’ll pretend this—” Tony gestured to the two of them “—never happened.”

“Holy shit, is that your dad?” the guy asked, hands going up in front of his chest as if to protect himself from a coming attack.

“Just go.” Riley shoved the twenty at him. He almost fell over his own feet trying to reach the door while fumbling with his fly. Another half a minute elapsed with him struggling with the lock before escaping.