"Apparently.In Los Angeles."Lola leaned forward."Scroll through.Look at her life."
Kari scrolled.Photo after photo showed Tayen at parties, on photo shoots, at restaurants that looked expensive.Captions full of hashtags and exclamation points.Living my best life!#blessed #modellife #L.A.vibes.The transformation from reservation teenager to Glimmer model was startling in its completeness.
"She looks happy," Kari said carefully.
"Does she?"Lola's voice was sharp."Look closer.At her eyes.At the way she holds herself in those photos."
Kari looked again, this time with a detective's eye rather than a casual observer's.Lola was right.Beneath the professional lighting and careful poses, something was off.Tayen's smile never quite reached her eyes.Her posture in group shots suggested someone who wanted to shrink rather than shine.And in the most recent photos, there were shadows under her eyes that no amount of makeup could fully conceal.
She scrolled back further, comparing older posts to newer ones.The change was gradual but unmistakable.Early photos showed a girl who seemed genuinely excited, her smiles wide and unguarded.But over time, something had dimmed.The poses became more mechanical, the captions more generic.The spark that had animated those first posts had slowly been extinguished.
"When was the last time she posted?"
"Yesterday morning.She used to post every few hours.Multiple times a day, sometimes.Stories, photos, everything."Lola took the phone back, sniffing hard."But yesterday she stopped.Because I finally got the courage to reach out to her."
"What happened?"
"I sent her a direct message.Told her who I was, that I'd been looking for her, that I just wanted to know she was okay.I didn't ask her to come home, didn't make any demands.I just..."Lola's voice broke."I just wanted to talk to her.She's all I have left of my sister."
"And she didn't respond?"
"Worse.Within an hour of my message, her account went dark.No new posts, no stories, nothing.When I tried to message her again, it said the user wasn't available."Lola gripped the edge of the table."She either blocked me or deleted her account entirely.Two years of silence, and the moment I try to reach her, she vanishes again."
Kari sat back, processing.A runaway teenager who'd reinvented herself as a model in L.A.A sudden digital disappearance after contact from family.It could mean many things.Tayen might simply not want to be found, might be running from a past she'd rather forget.
"And you think something's wrong?"Kari asked.
"Iknowsomething's wrong.I can feel it."Lola pressed a hand to her chest."The same way I felt it when Mary died.Before anyone called me, before I knew what had happened, I woke up that morning and Iknew.Something was wrong with my sister.And now I feel it again, with Tayen."
Kari understood that kind of knowing.Her grandmother Ruth would call it 'spirit knowledge,' the old awareness that traveled through generations like water through stone.Her father would call it pattern recognition, the subconscious mind processing information too subtle for conscious awareness.
Either way, Kari had learned to respect it.
"Lola, I have to be honest with you.Even if somethingiswrong, I don't have jurisdiction in Los Angeles.I'm a tribal police detective.My authority ends at the reservation boundary."
"I know that.But you're also a trained investigator.You know how to find people, how to ask questions, how to see things others might miss."Lola reached across the table and gripped Kari's hand."Tayen is eighteen now.Legally an adult.No one is going to look for her.No one is going to care that she disappeared right after her aunt tried to contact her.No one except family."
"What exactly are you asking me to do?"
"Go to Los Angeles.Find Tayen.Make sure she's okay."Lola's eyes were desperate."I'll pay for everything.Flights, hotels, whatever you need.I've been saving money since Mary died, putting aside a little every month, hoping someday I'd be able to bring Tayen home.I'll spend every penny of it if it means knowing she's safe."
Kari thought about the FBI investigation she couldn't participate in, the Naalnish case that was slipping further from her grasp every day.She thought about Dorothy's eyes, about the promise she'd made to find answers.She thought about the stack of her mother's files waiting at home, sixteen unsolved cases that might all be murders.
And she thought about Tayen Stern, née Tayen Chee, a girl who'd lost her mother and run from everything she knew, who was now living some version of a dream in Los Angeles.A girl who had gone silent the moment her past tried to reach her.
There was a good chance Tayen simply wanted to be left alone.But if that was the case, Kari would simply present that information to Lola.Lola would have to respect Tayen's boundaries, but at least she would know her niece was okay.
"I need to talk to my captain," Kari said finally."And my partner.I can't just disappear without clearing it first.But if I can get the time off..."She squeezed Lola's hand."I'll go.I'll find her."
Lola's face crumpled with relief."Thank you.Thank you, Kari.I knew you would help.Anna always said you had a good heart."
The mention of her mother sent a small jolt through Kari's chest."You talked to my mother about me?"
"Of course.We were cousins.We talked about everything."Lola smiled through her tears."She was so proud of you, you know."
Kari blinked against the sudden sting in her eyes.Seventeen months, and grief could still ambush her without warning.
"I'll call you tomorrow," she said, standing."Once I know whether I can get away."
