Page 98 of Nowhere to Hide
Sandra tapped her foot, unable to keep still. After the eventful days of two weeks ago, it would seem nothing much good came from dwelling on the past. It brought a lot of heartbreak. But was that all? It had led Ryan Crawford to takedesperate action, but the truth that emerged was healing for him, Levine, Finley, and Kramer. They could all put that day behind them with cleared consciences.
It was witnessing the benefits to looking back that had Sandra deciding to come today. The truth was that most people will find pain in their past if they look hard enough. Some don’t even need to look that hard. And while she thought facing someone from her past might bring more pain than healing, she wanted to count herself brave enough to try.
The door dinged, and a woman with long blond hair walked in. She looked right at Sandra, and her face lit with a smile.
“I’m so happy you agreed to meet up. Shall we?” She pointed toward the counter.
Sandra returned April’s smile, the girl she once shared a foster home with, and her stomach calmed down. “We shall.”
Once they returned to the table with their coffees, they did some quick catching up, and Sandra was happy they reconnected. Then April’s face became serious.
“I confess there’s a personal reason I reached out to you.”
Sandra stiffened. “All right…”
“I’m going to assume that you looked me up and saw what I do before agreeing to come here today.”
“I did.” Sandra wasn’t even apologetic for this. “You work at the DC Child and Family Services Agency. Is that how you found me? Through my adoption record?”
“What? Absolutely not. I’d never violate the system, and there are protocols. I knew who adopted you from when Sam died. The obit.” April shied away, awkwardly spinning her coffee cup. “I wanted to catch up, but the real reason I wanted to see you was to ask for your help. I found out what you do. That you’re FBI. Well, you see, one of the girls I placed a month ago went missing two weeks ago. It has nothing to do with the foster parents. They’re great people, who I’ve used before. This kid,you must understand, has a heart of gold, but she’s been dealt a bad hand in life. Like myself both her mother and father are alcoholics and drug addicts. But the mother is honestly trying to get clean. She’s left the father. This girl has hope.”
A moment ago April confided in Sandra that she hadn’t seen her mother since the day Child Services took her away. As an adult, April had looked her up, found out she lived in Iowa, but she never reached out. “Well, you and I both know how hard it is to adjust. How alien everything feels. Maybe she ran away.” Sandra had given it serious thought, but Sam refused to come with her, and she wasn’t leaving without him. “I assume her disappearance has been reported to the police?”
“Of course, and they say they’re looking into it, but…” April bit her bottom lip. “Arianna Grayson is only sixteen, and she’s not the only one to go missing.”
Sandra inched forward on her chair. “What do you mean?”
“There have been five foster teens from DC that have gone missing in the last two years. Kids that don’t fit the stereotype for running away.”
But all of them would be a bit broken…“Did you point this out to the police?”
“I did, but they still don’t seem to be taking it seriously.”
“How could they not? Once or twice, I could understand. They run away, live on the streets, aren’t heard from again.” Sandra closed out other horrid possibilities such as sex-trafficking rings. There was one operating in the DMV area headed up by a DC congressman that was shut down the better part of five years ago. But Sandra wasn’t naive to think another hadn’t risen in its place. Then there was the new rising threat of sextortion where predators coerced children to share graphic photographs of themselves. The world was a sick and scary place.
“You tell me. That’s why I was wondering if you could somehow get the FBI on this. I’m telling you, this girl…” Tears beaded in April’s eyes.
“I can’t tell you if the FBI would take this on. My thing is manhunts and negotiations, as I told you.” It was part of their catch-up. “But I’m friends with a brilliant detective at MPD. He’s in Homicide, but I can promise you he’ll take this seriously. He might be able to light some fires.”Along with his rookie detective…
April’s hand shook as she raised her cup to her lips. “Homicide. That’s my fear, even more than Arianna living on the streets.” A tear hit April’s cheek, and she swiped it away. “If she was alive, I’m sure she would have found a way to reach out and tell me she’s okay.”
Sandra reached across the table and put a hand over April’s. “Leave this with me.”
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