Page 43 of Stay Awake
“I think we might have a backup option,” said Halliday. “The liquor store facing the end of the lane behind the apartment building is all wired up with security cameras. They would have captured anyone who came out of the lane.”
Halliday called the liquor store again. This time the manager answered the phone. He told her he’d received the message she’d left with his elderly dad and they could come over anytime to download whatever footage they needed.
She would have left straightaway to collect the footage, but Lavelle had disappeared into the captain’s office.
While Halliday waited for Lavelle, she ran a series of checks on the name Liv Reese, the woman whose prints were on the wine bottle found next to the bed at the murder scene.
First she tried the DMV’s driver’s license database. Four people by the name of Liv Reese had a New York driver’s license, but they didn’t fit their profile: a newly qualified sixteen-year-old driver and three women ranging from their sixties upward. There were no outstanding warrants in the name Liv Reese. She had no criminal record either.
Halliday searched for “Liv Reese” on Facebook and Instagram. She hoped to find photos on a social media feed that would resemble the long-haired woman who was seen getting out of the elevator with the male victim less than twenty-four hours before he was murdered.
The search results were extensive, and Halliday didn’t have time to go through it systematically. She made a note to do it later.
She did a quick general internet search instead, not expecting much. She certainly didn’t expect to find an Interpol alert near the top of the search results. Halliday read the Interpol yellow notice, which was an international missing person report posted the previous day, for a woman by the name of Liv Reese who had last been seen in London a month earlier.
The missing person alert was accompanied by an ID photo of the woman taken from a London public transport travel card that bore her name. The woman in the overexposed photo had dark brown hair of indeterminate length. Her eyes were wide and surprised, as if the photo had been taken before she was ready.
It wasn’t possible for Halliday to determine categorically whether the woman in the photo was the same woman they had seen in the footage. But there were enough similarities between the two women to make Halliday think it could be the same person.
Halliday dialed Interpol to get more information and was directed to a desk officer at Scotland Yard, who in turn gave Halliday the number of the detective sergeant who’d filed the missing person report. London was five hours ahead, and it was well into the evening when she called. From the loud background music blaring over the phone line, she could tell she’d caught him at a bad time.
“Hold on. I’ll move somewhere quiet so I can hear you,” he shouted over the thumping beat of music.
Halliday could hear the British detective’s footsteps and the hum of passing cars as he moved away from the raucous noise.
“I’m outside now. We should be able to hear each other properly,” he said. “Sorry about that. I was having a pint with the lads when you called. Who did you say you are?”
“My name is Darcy Halliday. I’m a New York City Police detective and I’m calling about a yellow notice alert you gave to Interpol for a woman by the name of Liv Reese.”
“Have you located her?” he asked.
“Not exactly,” said Halliday. “Her name came up in connection with another case. When I ran a search, I found the Interpol missing person report. I need to determine whether it’s the same Liv Reese. Can you tell me when your person went missing and why a yellow notice was issued?”
“We believe she went missing about three weeks ago. We only found out a couple of days ago when her social worker filed a missing person report. Apparently, she’d missed several hospital appointments and wasn’t responding to repeated calls. When we went to Liv Reese’s flat, it was apparent she’d packed in a hurry and left. Her credit card records indicated that she’d bought a train ticket to Paris. After that, I’m afraid we lost all trace of her.”
“How old is she?”
“Thirty-one, I believe,” he said. “She’s a dual US–British citizen. I have a pending request with your Department of Homeland Security to find out if she entered the United States.”
“Why is there so much concern about this woman skipping town?”Halliday asked. “People pack up and move all the time. Without Scotland Yard or Interpol launching international manhunts, I might add.”
“This case is different.”
“How?”
“Liv Reese has a serious medical condition.”
“What’s her condition?” Halliday asked.
“She suffers from memory blackouts.”
“So she’s an amnesiac who doesn’t know who she is?”
“Oh, she knows who she is,” he hedged. “It’s complicated. She gets intermittent blackouts during which time she can’t retain memories.”
“You think she’s currently suffering from a memory blackout?”
“Yes, we do. The blackout appears to have begun a few weeks ago. We believe she’s still in the throes of it. She took almost four thousand pounds out of her UK bank account before she disappeared. She told the bank teller that she was going to Paris on holiday. She hasn’t withdrawn any more money since then, nor has she used her credit card. That suggests she’s either suffering a blackout, or…” His voice dropped off meaningfully.
