Solitary - 5. Chapter 5

“The first question,” Elena asked at lunch, “is how did she get to her car, six miles away?”

“Or who brought it to her?” Don clarified.

“You’re sure it’s not parked on a side street?” Ike wondered.

“”Not absolutely,” Elena admitted. “We checked, but it could be tucked somewhere. Though there were other things we wanted to follow-up, and we needed our computers.”

“And Rob,” Don added, “who manages to get places we can’t.”

Rob gave them a double thumbs up and smiled modestly.

“Still, a white car stands out,” Elena went on. “And why park on the street when there were spaces in the lot?”

“Good point,” Owen commended. “Do you have any idea when the car was moved?”

“Unfortunately, no,” Elena answered. “We mostly know about her normal schedule. She usually came to work around seven – breakfast starts at eight, but it’s an easy meal – and left by nine, seven days a week. Her full-time job probably starts soon after that, but only five days a week. Though we haven’t confirmed that or what the job is.”

“There’s a lot missing,” Don acknowledged. “But we’re working on it.”

“We didn’t expect it to be so complicated,” Elena confessed.

“Meanwhile, back at the car,” Don focused, smiling.

“What time does the bus run?” Jae asked instead. “Can you remind us?”

“It stops at nine PM and resumes at seven,” Elena told them. “That’s from Northampton to Waldron. The reverse lags about twenty minutes – the length of a one-way trip, depending on stops and traffic. And the bus is only a sixteen-seater that makes the run every two hours.”

“So unless she waited till morning, that’s out,” Don noted. “And if you’re trying to sneak away, wouldn’t you’d do it at night?”

“What about Lyft? Or Uber? Or a cab?” Rob quizzed.

“She didn’t have her phone,” Elena reminded them. “Or any money – which is a problem with the bus, too. Though if she knew the driver, she might’ve been able to get by on a promise.”

“And if it were a car,” Don picked up, “ she could’ve said, ‘Please wait while I get my purse from my car’ – or her locker – ‘and I’ll pay you.’”

“That would be harder for the locker,” Elena went on, “since she’d have to go into the building and could slip away. But she couldn’t open her car without the fob, so we’re guessing it was in her backpack in her locker.”

“Again, good reasoning,” Owen complimented.

“Don’t the car companies keep records?” Ike asked.

“One of the many things we’re checking,” Elena assured him. “We’ve only had a few hours.”

“So if it wasn’t a car or the bus,” Don pushed ahead, “or a still unfound friend – what other ways are there to get from one place to the other?”

“She could’ve walked,” Rob suggested. “That’s easiest and might only take an hour-and-a-half. You said she was an athlete?”

“But an injured one,” Jae reminded them.

“Her feet weren’t,” Rob replied.

“One of the paramedics said ‘she looked athletic,’” Elena corrected. “Though when we double-checked with her mom, she said, ‘Not since high school.’”

“What sport?” Rob asked. “If she was a runner...”

“Kind of all around,” Don filled in. “Soccer. Hockey. Track.”

“Definitely an athlete,” Rob concluded.

“How cold was it last night?” Jae went on, seeming to go in another direction. Then she came back. “If she was walking.”

“It was fifty when I got up at five,” Owen reported. “I almost always check the weather first thing.”

“And it was raining lightly when I went to bed near eleven,” Ike tagged on.

“Well, if she could find clothes, she could find an umbrella,” Jae suggested. “And a jacket. Hospitals have everything.”

“But she was injured,” Elena mentioned again. “Rather badly – her whole forearm was slashed.”

“And she might’ve had an IV,” Don put in.

“Wouldn’t she know how to take that out?” Ike asked. “From her candystriping?”

“That mostly means watching the nurses,” Jae disagreed. “Helping them be friendly.”

“She did more,” Don expanded. “Volunteered at Cooly Dick for three or four years.”

“Still, she was drugged last night,” Elena countered. “Though her mother said those were wearing off.”

“And IVs can be dangerous.” Rob warned.

“Heck, if she was thinking clearly,” Ike noted, “why would she leave the hospital?”

“That’s a great question,” Owen agreed. “We haven’t set charges. Has the guy said anything about them?”

“Again, we haven’t been able to talk with him,” Elena repeated. “And may not for a while.”

“Could his parents tell us?” Jae asked.

“Not without speaking with him first. And his doctors don’t want him even thinking about what happened.”

“How’s he doing, by the way?” Ike wanted to know.

“The nurses said he had a quiet night,” Don replied. “Which is pretty easy when you’re half-zonked on drugs.”

“Back to the car,” Elena directed.

“There are free bikes on the Smith campus,” Jae offered. “That’s less than a mile away. And since people leave them all over the place, she might’ve found one near the hospital.”

“Aren’t there scooters, too?” Rob inquired. “Though again, she’d need a credit card.”

“No,” Jae continued, “the scooters are also free, and people take them all over Northampton. Though they’re expected to bring them back.”

“Since they’re small enough to fit in a car – even a Prius,” Elena pointed out, “she might’ve done that.”

“If she was thinking that far ahead,” Rob cautioned. “If her mind was even clear enough to drive.”

“It must’ve been,” Don allowed, “since her car seems to be gone.”

“Would a scooter make it to Waldron?” Owen asked.

“Easily,” Ike told him, “even half-charged. And it would probably take less than a half-hour – they go ten or fifteen miles an hour. They limit that for kids.”

“Are you checking her plates?” Owen pressed forward.

“We’re checking every number we have,” Elena assured him. “The plates, the VIN, her phone number, and we’re trying to find her bank account and credit cards numbers. Her mother’s working through the insurance company to see how she paid her bills, and she gave us the names of some of the restaurants they used in Northampton, to see how far back their records go. That could give us her credit cards.”

“Fortunately, her mother knew when they’d had lunch and where,” Don explained. “She kept them on her calendar.”

“It seems you’ve got a lot of things covered,” Owen again complimented.

“More like started,” Elena eased back. “But another question is, “How much time do you want us to spend on this?’”

“Do we have anything else pending?” Owen asked.

Elena and Don looked at each other then shook their heads. “Then stay on this for a while,” they were told. “The bike or scooter seem like good ideas, though it might be harder to lift a bike into a car, especially with an injured arm. But a scooter would get her to Waldron by herself at any time of the night.”

“If she didn’t get hit by a car,” Rob kidded.

“Which evidently didn’t happen,” Owen overrode, though he was smiling.

“That’s all she would’ve needed,” Ike joshed.

“And it doesn’t have to be one or the other,” Owen went on. “It could be any of our choices and any driver. It could also be someone who picked her up as a hitchhiker but hasn’t turned up yet.”

“Hardly anyone knows she’s missing or a report’s been filed,” Don commented. “We’ve been waiting till we knew enough to tell the other stations.”

“Good,” Owen summed up. “And please keep us all up to date.”

Elena and Don promised everyone they would and were soon headed back to their phones. Though not long afterward, a woman came into the station and asked Jae, who was working the front desk, a series of questions. After Jae answered the easy ones, she directed the woman to Elena and Don.