Two Girls Down(10)
“I don’t see what she can do that no one else can,” said Gail.
“She’s here to help us, Gail,” said Maggie. “Could you please keep an open mind?”
“Right, sure, everyone’s here to help. Two days and no babies. Those cops couldn’t find their asshole with a mirror and a flashlight.”
Gail stared at Vega, fueled by her drink and two days of anguish plus a lifetime of petty frustrations, Vega assumed.
Arlen hung up the phone, and all the women looked at him.
“Sam again. She says Jamie can make another statement tomorrow.”
“Sam’s my lawyer,” said Maggie to Vega. “She’s handling the press and setting up a call center from my office.”
Vega nodded, and they were quiet again. Gail began to pace.
“So you find missing people, that right? How many you found so far?”
“Eighteen.”
“How many times you been hired is the real question?”
“Eighteen.”
This pushed Gail back for just a second. She took a sip of her drink and prepared to say something else.
Then there was another voice, high and hoarse:
“How many of them were kids?”
Vega turned her head and saw Jamie Brandt emerging slowly from a dim hallway.
Her face was pale, her eyes looked like dark cutouts in a white mask. Her hair was wet and straw blond. She wore sweatpants and a cropped T-shirt. Vega thought she couldn’t have been older than thirty.
Vega stood up and said, “Most of them.”
“When you found them, were they alive, or what?”
Vega looked her right in the eyes and said, “Sixteen alive. One dead. And one alive but”—she tapped her head—“dead.”
Jamie nodded, stepped forward.
“What do you want to know?”
“You don’t have to do this,” Gail said to her.
“No, I want to talk now,” she said, sitting on the couch. “Maggie thinks you can help, great.” She took a cigarette from her mother’s pack, lit it, and said, “So fucking help.”
Vega sat back down and stared straight at Jamie as if they were the only two people in the room.
“Is there anyone who you think might want to kidnap your daughters?”
“No,” Jamie said, exhaling smoke. “No one.”
“Where is the girls’ father?”
“I don’t know. Cops are looking for him. He took off after Bailey was born. I haven’t seen him since then.”
Jamie’s eyes had a glazed look. Vega suspected she’d said it all to the police.
“What kind of a man was he?”
This made Gail and Jamie both laugh harshly and shake their heads.
“What kinda man leaves a wife and two little girls?” said Gail.
Vega ignored her and kept talking to Jamie.
“Was he a drinker?” said Vega.
Jamie shrugged one shoulder.
“Sure,” she said.
“Was he a drunk?”
“Not like, professionally, if that’s what you mean. Hey, you know, he didn’t take them. He’s the cops’ first idea too, but I told them, if he didn’t want them then, he sure as shit wouldn’t want ’em now when they’re just about to be teenagers.”
“What else can you tell me about him?” said Vega, her voice steady.
Jamie sighed. “He couldn’t hold down a job, and he liked girls with big tits. Any girl with big tits. They could look like Oscar the Grouch in the face, but as long as they had big tits, he liked them.”
Maggie Shambley pressed her fingers to her forehead as if she had a headache.
“Is there anyone else you know who would have something to gain by taking the girls?” said Vega.
“No, no,” Jamie said, shaking her head.
“Is there anyone who has shown an interest in the girls that struck you as strange?”
“No.”
“Anyone at school?”
“No.”
“You have any enemies you’re aware of?”
Jamie’s eyes flickered, combative.
“I’m not a saint, you know, but does someone hate me so much they’d take my kids? No. Cops asked me all this.”
“You owe anyone money, for gambling or drugs?”
“Je-sus Christ,” said Gail, standing up. “She’s the victim here, you know.”
“Mom, sit down,” said Jamie. Her jaw was tight, the bottom row of teeth jutting out in a stiff underbite. “I buy a dime of pot every three weeks from a guy named Rocky Tibbs. I pay him up front every time. I told the cops all about it. Rocky’s got six kids or something; he doesn’t need mine. You got any more fucking questions?”
They were all quiet. The only sound was Arlen’s labored breathing.
Then Vega said, “Why did you keep his name?”
“Huh?” Jamie said.
“Your ex-husband’s. He sounds like someone you’re glad to be rid of. Why did you keep his name?”
Jamie paused. Everything up until now, Vega knew, the police had asked her. Maybe not this.
“?’Cause it’s their name. The girls’. It’s on their birth certificates.”