Chapter 3
COLLATERAL: CHAPTER THREE
A couple of passersby helped Jane get the woman to a nearby bench, then scattered. Jane stuck close. After a few minutes, the fainter revived enough to wave off the need for an ambulance.
“I’m sorry. It’s been a long day, and I’m tired.” Dressed in a shabby tee-shirt and threadbare jeans, she did look exhausted. Limp hair hung around her face like a faded yellow curtain, and her eyes filled with a despair that made Jane pay attention.
“My name’s Jane. You’re looking for Olivia?”
“Yes. Do you know her?”
It hurt to have to say no. “I’m sorry, but I don’t.”
The woman sighed. “I didn’t think so. But I’m always out here, trying. Olivia’s my daughter. She went missing two years ago, and I’ve been searching for her ever since.”
“I take it she looks like me?” Jane sat next to her and thanked a nearby food cart employee for the bottle of water he handed to the older woman. “What’s your name, ma’am?”
“Oh, sorry. I’m Andrea. Andrea Wilson. Olivia Wilson, my daughter, went missing when she was twenty-two. A day after her birthday.” Tears spilled from Andrea’s eyes. “I miss her every day.”
Jane felt awful for the poor woman, but when she glanced up and saw the food cart employee, the younger guy rolled his eyes before walking away.
“Did you report her missing to the police?”
Andrea nodded. “Right away. But she had a habit of sometimes leaving, and she’d gotten into drugs.
Nothing serious, but the police didn’t see it that way.
Except Olivia never came home. And that’s not like her.
At all.” She paused and added softly, “From the back, you look just like her. But you’re probably a few years older. She’d be twenty-four now.”
Jane was a good thirty-one, though she had often been told she appeared younger. Olivia’s mother wore desperation like a tattered cloak, so it was no surprise the woman would zero in on anyone who resembled her daughter.
Jane didn’t want to give her false hope, but she also wanted to help. “I tell you what, Andrea. I’ll ask around and see what I can dig up. And I’ll tell my friends too. Would you mind giving me your number so I can let you know if I find anything?”
“Oh, thank you.” Andrea fished out a crumpled tissue from her pocket and blew her nose. Then she gave Jane her number. “I’m so sorry for passing out on you. But for a minute, I could have sworn you were her.”
“I understand.” Jane helped steady her when Andrea stood. “Are you sure you’re okay? Is there someone you can call to help you get home?”
“Oh, no. Again, I’m just tired and grieving. But I need to get back before my youngest gets home from school.”
Jane didn’t point out that most children didn’t attend school in the summer, or that Andrea looked more like a grandmother than any toddler or teen’s mother.
“She goes to an art program in the summer,” Andrea said with a watery smile. “So talented. Just like her big sister. I’m sorry for bothering you.”
“No problem at all.” Jane watched her leave then walked to the street vendor who’d rolled his eyes. “What’s the story?” She nodded to Andrea, who looked so frail that a stiff wind would blow her over before she disappeared from sight, lost in the crowd.
“Look, I like Andrea and all, but come on.”
“What’s your name?”
The young guy gave her the side-eye. “Who wants to know?”
Jane sighed and flipped her badge at him. “Agent Jane Cannon.”
“I’m Pete Boser.” His eyes widened. “Oh, wow. Are you working the case?”
“No. I came by looking for someone else.” She described Doug Lewis and showed a picture of him on her phone, but Pete hadn’t seen him around. “So what’s your problem with Andrea?”
“Well, I mean, I feel sorry for her. Ever since her daughter disappeared, she’s been here nearly every day asking people if they’ve seen her.” He nodded to a nearby pole where a picture had been tacked. One of a young woman looking a lot like Jane.
“But…?”
“But she’s constantly bugging everyone, asking about her.
And a lot of the time, her other daughter has to come drag her home.
The kid’s like, maybe thirteen, I think?
I don’t know. But the girl looks sad and skinny, like she isn’t eating enough or getting the help she needs.
I just think the mom is too busy looking for one kid and not taking care of the other. ”
Pete seemed sincere, and Jane added him and his contact information to her notepad. “If you hear about or see my guy, let me know. And if anything happens with Andrea, call me about that too.”
He nodded.
Jane left, perturbed. Knowing she wouldn’t be able to leave Andrea’s case behind, she grabbed the photo of the missing girl off the post. Maybe Olivia had run away.
Maybe she’d taken up with some guy or girl.
Hung with a bad group. OD’d on drugs. Or she could have been trafficked.
The picture showed a vibrant woman with attractive features and a beautiful smile.
Sadly, bad things happened to pretty girls all the time
Knowing that Jenn was working on a human trafficking ring, Jane was determined to pick her brain and see if Jen couldn’t look into Olivia’s disappearance. And Jane would see what the local LEOs had to say about it as well.
It couldn’t hurt. Besides, she had just about caught up on paperwork.
At least, for the minor cases, they’d been able to close in the past two months.
Considering that of her fourteen pending cases, more than half had been ongoing for years, she didn’t hold out hope to close anything else anytime soon.
Though finding “little” Dougie Lewis would really make her day.
Unfortunately, when she returned to the office, she learned that he’d vanished.
All the called-in IDs on their bank robber turned out to be unsubstantiated.
The other robbers, now in custody with a court-appointed public defender, had no idea where their buddy might have gone.
Doug’s ex had given them everything she knew, which wasn’t much, except the fact that the bank where she worked had terminated her employment.
They had no leads but Linda.
And Jane wasn’t holding her breath.