Atone (Recovered Innocence #2)(40)
It’s tedious work, but after a few hours I have some solid leads that include websites for tattoo artists and parlors, social media accounts, and blogs. Vera was number sixteen. According to the photo Marie posted, she’ll be number fifty-three. If Marie’s sudden social media blackout is anything to go on, Javier learned to clamp down on his prospects’ Internet usage. But he wasn’t as careful early on. I found four tattoos with numbers lower than Vera’s—two, seven, eleven, and fourteen. I figure he got better as he went along. If there are going to be any clues about this *, the early girls will likely be the ones to give them to me.
I try not to think about what happened and what is happening to these girls who are now women. I need to focus and think logically. Flying around in a blind rage punching walls won’t help them and it won’t help me find Marie. But I can’t stop thinking of Vera and what she went through. It’s why we’re looking for her sister. It’s time to have a much more detailed conversation with Vera and ask her some difficult questions. As one of the early girls, she might have useful information and not even realize it.
It’s also time to share what’s going on with Cora. I need help. There’s no one I trust more in this world than Cora. Once she knows the whole story, I know she’ll fight as hard for Marie as she did for me. I have to tell Vera my plan. It’s her story too. I send her a text, laying out some of the work I’ve done and asking her permission to confide in Cora. She doesn’t respond right away like she usually does. I don’t have to tell her time is kicking our ass and that we’re working against an unknown countdown clock. She knows all of this. It was difficult for her to share her story with me. It’s going to be torture to share it with Cora.
After twenty minutes of silence I get this text: I trust you.
Those three words pack a powerful punch. I might be the only person in the world she says them to. She’s one of two people I can say them to. I text her back and tell her that I trust her too. She responds with a kiss emoji. I set my phone down to stop myself from keeping the conversation going. There’s so much more to say, but I need to fill Cora in so we can get started sorting through the leads I found.
“I need your help,” I say to Cora as I shut our office door.
I sit on the edge of her desk and tell her about everything—Javier, the tattoo, the girls, Marie’s Tumblr posts, Vera. When I finish, Cora sits back in her chair with an amazed sort of dazed expression. She doesn’t speak for several long minutes. Finally, she gets up from her chair and puts her arms around me. It takes me a second to react. Not many people have touched me in the past six years, so unexpected physical contact still takes me by surprise. If she notices, she doesn’t let on.
She pulls back and grips me by the shoulders. “I’m so proud of you. Oh, don’t look so surprised. You’ve done amazing work on this case.”
“Thank you.”
“But this case is bigger than we’re equipped for. If the same man who kidnapped Vera has or will kidnap Marie then we need to bring in the authorities.”
“And tell them what exactly? There’s no missing persons report on Marie. All we have to go on is her Tumblr account. We can’t connect this Javier to the guy she talks about. We don’t know who he is or even if Javier Abano is his real name. Let me do some more research, see what I can find. Then we’ll go to the authorities.”
“Okay, but I’m giving this a short leash. I don’t like it. I knew there had to be more going on here. You were so secretive I was worried. And then the drinking and the affair…I didn’t know what to do. I can’t believe all of that is happening right here in San Diego.”
“I’ve identified four other girls, but so far I have nothing to tie them to Javier. I need your help to track down clues about this *. I want to know where he is and how he operates. I think the girls will tell us.”
“Give me what you’ve got. I’ll get on it right away.”
I send Cora the info on eleven and fourteen and then start with number two—a girl named Barbara Moore. Barbara disappeared eight years ago from her foster home here in San Diego. She’s described as troubled, having multiple run-ins with the law and bouncing around in the system. It’s assumed she ran away, and after the first couple weeks she stopped appearing in the news. A missing fifteen-year-old in foster care doesn’t hold interest, I guess.
Barbara posted a photo of her tattoo to Facebook shortly before her disappearance. Not a drawing like Marie’s. An actual photograph. I extract the location of where the picture was taken and add notes to my file to follow up on later. Then I delve into the world of Barbara Moore, a pretty, blond sophomore in high school, who liked the Foo Fighters, the Twilight saga, Starbucks, Pringles, and South Park. There are quite a few posts about a mysterious man she met. She calls him Jay. This might be the first real clue as to what Javier’s real name is. Or not. It’s too early to tell.
Jay sweeps her off her feet. He’s attentive, tells her she’s beautiful, and spends time with her. He’s more sophisticated than guys her age. He’s interested in her and the things she’s interested in. He even takes her to a Foo Fighters concert. The dates of the posts get further and further apart the closer to her disappearance. I go back to the first few times she mentions Jay.
She met him at the Starbucks near her high school. He struck up a conversation with her. Next thing she knew she missed her first-period class, so she just stayed and talked to him. He was a good listener. They exchanged phone numbers. Texts and phone calls escalate to ditching school and staying out past curfew. The posts follow a pattern similar to Marie’s. He isolates her, makes her fall in love with him, and controls her world. She’s a virgin just like Marie is and Vera was. She talks about finally going all the way with Jay and him wanting her to be as in love with him as he is with her. Exactly like Marie.