Two Girls Down(26)
That seemed to wake her up. She looked from Vega to Cap, who nodded.
Cap said, “Kylie smiled at whoever took her. We need to make a new list.”
—
Back in Cap’s office, Jamie stared at the screen and covered her mouth with both her hands and made squeaking sounds into the hollow space. Vega closed her laptop. She and Cap looked at each other.
Jamie fumbled with her purse, a bright blue hobo bag with palm trees printed on it. She pulled out a pharmacy bottle of pills, flattened her palm against the lid, and tried to twist it. Her hands were shaking and the bottle fell into her lap.
“Here,” said Cap, holding his hand out.
Jamie gave him the bottle. Cap unscrewed the top, glanced at the label: alprazolam. Generic Xanax. Jamie shook two into her hand and brought them to her mouth, chewed them up like SweeTarts. Cap looked at the symbol of a little martini glass with a line through it on the label, thought better of mentioning it.
Jamie still held a hand over her mouth, just grazing her lips.
“Son-of-a-bitch,” she whispered.
Vega leaned over to her.
“Does anyone come to mind, someone she’d smile like that for?”
“No,” said Jamie. “I mean, yeah, but she knows them for sure, that’s all. That’s what I’m thinking about.”
“Most kids know their abductors,” said Cap.
“Yeah, but how many make them smile?” said Jamie.
“She wouldn’t know her father well enough that she would have that kind of reaction,” said Vega, pulling her laptop onto her lap.
“Shit no,” said Jamie. “They only seen a couple of pictures, and they’re from a long time ago.”
“So who’s the first person, the very first, who you think of.”
Jamie thought for a moment, rubbed the temples on her head roughly.
“My folks. That’s stupid, huh.”
“It’s not,” said Cap. “We want to rule people out, right? I was a cop for a long time, and that’s how you do this. You just keep ruling people out until you get some good suspects. So put Jamie’s parents on the list,” he said to Vega.
Vega nodded at him, but he noticed there was some theatrics in it, exaggeration, so Jamie could see it. Her eyes were steady on him too. It was a familiar click; it was one partner to another.
“Okay, who’s the next?”
Jamie shook out her shoulders like she had a chill.
“I don’t know, my aunt?”
“Right,” said Vega, typing.
Jamie went on, naming family members, a great-uncle, first and second cousins, a third cousin in the army who sent the girls emails from Afghanistan. All people Kylie might smile at. Then they were done with family.
Then her boyfriend, Darrell.
“What’s he do for a living?” said Cap.
“He works at the Bagel Pub, over in Cherry Point.”
“Would Kylie smile at him?” said Vega.
“Sure, I guess. I mean, they like him well enough.”
“What about teachers?”
Mrs. Phillips for Kylie, Miss Ferno for Bailey. They had PE teachers too, but Jamie couldn’t remember the names.
“What about, like, extracurricular types of things?” said Vega.
Bailey’s soccer coach was a guy named Arnab, an Indian or something, Jamie told them. He seemed nice enough. Kylie’s ballet teacher was Miss Savannah. Jamie thought she might be a lesbian.
“Are any of these folks angry at you for any reason? Do any of them hold a grudge that you know about?” said Cap.
Jamie tightened up her lips.
“No, everyone fucking asks me that. No. I mean, maybe I piss people off here and there because I say what I think, you know. I don’t like to beat around the bush.”
“Can you recall the last time you did that? Piss someone off?” Vega said.
Jamie coughed out a laugh.
“Take your pick, right?” she said. “Well, let’s see, last week I flipped off a guy at an intersection and he yelled that he was gonna take my license number. I called him a pussy.”
Cap smiled and said, “The other day I told a woman who cut me off to suck my dick, excuse me. I haven’t said those words since maybe the seventh grade.”
Jamie laughed.
“I know this might be a tough one—believe me I know, I have a sixteen-year-old—did Kylie have a crush on anyone? A teacher or an older boy she might have come in contact with?” Cap said.
“The girl’s a natural-born flirt,” said Jamie, and there was just a little pride in her voice. “I told her she should go into business school; she could sell space heaters to Egyptians. But I don’t know about anyone in particular.”
“What other men does she see on a regular basis?” said Vega. “Besides your family and your boyfriend, and teachers?”
“There’s a kid lives in our complex named Sonny—he’s probably fifteen, sixteen. He’s always sweet to her,” said Jamie. “But I seen him since Saturday walking around—his mom dropped off a crumb cake. He doesn’t have the girls stashed in his closet.”
Jamie shook her head, almost angry. Cap thought he should ask for the kid’s phone number and address, not to put him on the list but to get Jamie’s mind off the image of the girls safe and sound a hundred feet away.