Two Girls Down(32)

“He did.”

“We should call her.”



“Yes, we should. Let’s talk to her first,” said Vega, nodding toward Cap’s office.

“Yeah,” said Cap. “Wait. Let me get coffee.”

He went to the kitchen and pulled out two mugs, filled them.

“You sure you don’t want?” he said, tipping one toward Vega.

She shook her head, impatient.

“Okay,” he said. “Let’s go.”

He ran his hands through his hair in a weak effort to appear more presentable, and went to his office door, Vega right behind him. He opened the door to his office slowly. The room was dark and stuffy, the blinds still drawn. He heard Jamie Brandt snoring softly as they got closer to the loveseat. She was curled up like a prawn, her face pressed against the back cushions, mouth open.

Cap walked around and sat on the table. He looked up at Vega. Who’s going to do this?

No one had to. Jamie convulsed awake, blinking at Cap and Vega hard and fast, struggling to see them.

“What is it? Where are they?” she said, hoarse, her hand on her forehead.

“It’s okay, Jamie,” said Cap. “You’re in my house. Max Caplan,” he said, tapping his chest.

“Yeah,” she said, sitting up, breathing. “Yeah, right. I remember. What time is it?”

“A little after seven.”

“I have to go,” she said, alarm setting in.

“We have to ask you a couple more questions,” said Vega.

“I don’t have time,” she said, reaching for her purse. “I have to go.”

“We have information. We have to ask you some questions,” said Vega, firmer.

“What do you mean? What information?”

“Here,” said Cap, handing her the coffee.

She sat back and took a small sip.

“Do you know someone named Nolan Marsh?” Vega asked.

Jamie thought about it for a second and shook her head.

“No, doesn’t ring anything.”

Vega and Cap looked at each other. Then Vega handed her the phone.



“I got this email this morning.”

Jamie looked at the screen. Cap watched her eyes go wide.

“What is this? Who is this from?”

“We’re trying to find out,” said Vega. “Nolan Marsh is a missing adult, disappeared three years ago.”

“Does he have them? Do you think he has the girls?” Jamie said to Vega.

“We don’t know if there’s a connection, but we’re going to speak to his mother soon and ask her about it.”

“It’s very possibly a false lead, Jamie. The police told you about these?” said Cap.

“Yeah,” she said. “Sickos who just want attention, stuff like that.”

“Exactly. On the surface this doesn’t sound too promising, but we’ll still check it out. We just wanted to ask you first.”

“Okay.”

She took an aggressive sip of her coffee, set the mug on the table with a clink.

“Thanks,” she said. “That it for now?”

“Something else,” said Vega. “Does Kylie have a girlfriend with a boy’s name? I have her class list, but it doesn’t show gender.”

“Yeah, it’s Cole. Cole Linsom. Parents are a couple of snobs, but Cole’s a sweet thing. Real polite. The police already talked to her though. All of Kylie’s friends.”

“Linsom,” said Vega, writing it down on a small chit. “We need to speak with her.”

“Why? You think she knows something?” said Jamie, fresh paranoia in her voice.

Before Vega could say a word, Cap said, “We’re not sure, but we need to clarify a couple of things, make sure Kylie didn’t mention anything to her about someone she was going to meet at the mall.”

“Okay, yeah,” said Jamie. “I can…uh, call her mom. She sent me an email, I think. Said if there’s anything she can do.”

“That would be great,” said Cap. “Should we take you back to your folks’ place?”

“Yeah. Could I use your bathroom first?”

“Out the door on your right.”



Jamie picked up her purse and left, closing the office door behind her.

“Why didn’t you let me tell her about Chaney?” said Vega, writing another note.

“We tell her about Chaney, she gets upset about Chaney. She calls him, shows up at his house—Why didn’t you tell me you saw Kylie? and so on. Then we have her off the rails, which we don’t need, right? We need her focused.”

Vega looked at him and didn’t speak for a moment. Cap felt slightly disarmed.

“I tell my clients everything,” she said. “No one can help us more than the client.”

“And usually I would agree with you. But you have to go case by case.”

“I told her last night we’d tell her everything we knew. Now I’m lying.”

“You never lie, Ms. Vega?” Cap said, mostly out of curiosity.

“Not to clients.”

The toilet flushed; there wasn’t much time. Cap leaned in.

“This is your investigation so you run it however you want. But my opinion: we hold back on Chaney now, tell her later when we need to. Now we drop her off at home, let her get her day in order,” he said quietly. “We don’t need to push her further down, right? The more time that passes, she’s going to get there on her own.”