Chapter 16 Mike #2
“I don’t know what you want from me. I have no way to reach her.”
Burke doubted that. “Besides you, who else was Zoe close to?”
“She had friends here at school.”
“If you two weren’t involved, who was she involved with?” Tessman asked.
“I don’t know,” Oliveira said.
“Why did she leave school?” Burke asked.
“What did her parents tell you?” Oliveira asked.
Burke was tired of this guy evading their questions, half answering, or answering with a question. “I’d like to hear what she told you. I get the feeling it may be more truthful than what she told her parents.”
“Zoe’s reasons were just that — Zoe’s reasons. It’s none of your goddamn business,” he said, turning aggressive. He opened the door. “We’re done here.” Without waiting for a reply, he walked out of the office.
Burke and Tessman followed. Tessman had his phone out, the pairing app open.
“Hey, hold up, one last thing,” Burke called. Both men jogged to catch up with him.
Tessman circled behind Oliveira as he turned to face Burke. Tessman could see the bulge of his phone in his back pocket.
“If you can get a message to Zoe, just let her know her parents want to talk. That’s it.
Talk.” He pulled his card and handed it to Oliveira.
“I’ve got one hundred dollars for you as a finder’s fee if you can make that happen.
And her parents have money for her as well, a Christmas gift.
They just want to be sure she’s okay, and if she’s not, have her call us. We can help her.”
Oliveira took the card. “No promises. I’ll see what I can do.” Then he turned his back and walked away.
Burke and Tessman let him go. They watched him descend the stairs. Moving to the railing by the stairs, they saw Oliveira exit the building.
“Did you get it?” Burke asked Tessman.
“Yeah. So far, Gabby hasn’t made or received any phone calls, nor has she sent or received any text messages. I have a feeling, though, that our lying TA will within the next five minutes.”
“Yeah, I wouldn’t bet against you on that,” Burke said.
The two men also went down the stairs. They waited inside, watching Oliveira walk away from the building. They waited until he was out of sight before they left and returned to their car.
“Got him making a call,” Tessman reported, his hand still clutching his phone.
He put the call on speaker. There was a ring, and then a male voice answered. “Yeah?”
“I had two visitors at the college asking about Zoe, said they were private investigators hired by her parents,” Oliveira said. His voice sounded as if he were annoyed.
“What’d they want?” the other man asked.
“Said her parents just want to talk to her. They offered me a hundred bucks to make that happen. And they said her parents have money for her, unlikely. They also knew that I picked her up the day she left,” Oliveira said.
“They can’t know that. The security camera footage was wiped. They were fishing. You didn’t admit it, did you?”
“You think I’m stupid? Of course I didn’t.”
“How much money for Zoe were they talking?” the voice asked.
“They didn’t quote a figure. Besides, I think it’s bullshit. Her parents aren’t going to give her a dime if she doesn’t go home, and we both know she isn’t doing that.”
“Did they give you a phone number to get back in touch with them?”
“I don’t want to be linked to this by responding to them,” Oliveira said.
“Give me the number. I’ll respond,” the voice said.
“That still links me to this,” Oliveira argued.
“Do you think you’re the only person they’ve talked to and given their number to? Unlikely. I’m sure they’ve already visited her roommate and several other professors. Probably even her job and her sorority.”
“Sorority?” Burke said to Tessman. This was new info. There had been nothing in her file that indicated she belonged to a sorority.
“I appreciate you’re being careful, Frisco, but I think you’re being overly paranoid. They’ve got nothing that links that girl to us,” the voice said.
Oliveira chuckled. “Yeah, you’re probably right. Are you ready for the number?”
“Yes, give it to me,” the voice said.
Oliveira recited the number. Then the call ended.
“So, they wiped the security footage from the campus servers. That shows access. That’ll be a nice little challenge for Smith to recover it,” Burke said with a laugh. He pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed Wilson.
“We did not contact Oliveira at his apartment,” Wilson said as he answered on the second ring. “Did you have better luck?”
Burke had the phone on speaker so Tessman could hear the conversation.
They filled Wilson and Rogers in on what they’d learned.
“Our next step, if we don’t hear from the person Oliveira gave our number to, is a return visit to her roommate.
We’ll ask about the sorority and then a visit to her sorority sisters is in order. ”
“Did you call Smith yet about the wiped camera surveillance?” Wilson asked.
“No, he’s our next call. I want him to see if he can trace the mystery man to whom Oliveira gave my number so we can surveil him. As far as the surveillance footage goes, not sure it’s a priority now that we know Oliveira was her ride,” Burke said.
“It could yield another vehicle that could lead us to Zoe’s location,” Wilson said. “Oliveira’s Jeep Wrangler was at his house. That begs the question of how he got to campus.”
“Roger that,” Burke said. “Where are you heading next?”
“We’re going to a car rental to get another vehicle. I’m going to sit on the hair salon and Rogers will acquire Oliveira and surveil him. We’ll leave the mystery man to the two of you.”
Burke dialed Smith after the call ended.
“Hey, I’ve dug up a lot on your boy, Oliveira,” Smith said.
“He deleted his social media accounts last year, but what I recovered reads like something out of a prepper handbook. He even had posts that damn near quoted Brandon Ellison regarding the civil war that’s coming and choosing sides to ensure America endures. ”
“Seriously?” Tessman asked.
“Yeah, I think we know where Zoe Reopelle’s views came from,” Smith said.
“Did you find any posts with locations?” Burke asked.
“Please, I’m offended,” Smith said. “Of course I did. Most people don’t realize that if a phone’s location services are enabled and authorized for their camera app, their cell phone automatically captures and embeds location data, geotags, into the photo’s metadata.
This includes the exact latitude and longitude coordinates.
I have about a dozen locations for your team to check out. I’ll send them along with the photos.”
“Smith, I could kiss you,” Burke said.
“Hollyn would be very jealous if you did,” Smith said. Hollyn was his fiancé. “I’m accessing and running down Oliveira’s friends on his social media accounts. I figure many of them have to be other members of the group.”
“Good idea,” Tessman said. “We also have something else we need you to look into.”