“No. Someone picked her up right outside of the building the day she packed her stuff. I thought she’d come back for another trip, but she never did. And before you ask, I don’t know for sure who it was, but I suspect it was a guy she was seeing who picked her up.”
“Do you know this guy’s name?” Burke asked.
“She was kind of seeing one of her TAs, Frisco Oliveira. She never admitted that she was seeing him, but I saw them together a few times.”
Burke and Tessman knew her parents had taken her phone, which had been left on her desk, and the police analyzed her calls and messages, even the deleted ones. There were no calls or messages with a person of that name. There had been many deleted phone calls and very vague messages exchanged with several burner phones.
“Thank you for telling us that,” Burke said. “This is important, Gabby. Do you remember what day it was she left and approximately what time?” He knew there were cameras around campus, including several on the dorm building. The report said that the police had already reviewed all camera surveillance on the campus and found nothing, but maybe their Digital Team would have better luck.
Gabby rubbed her forehead. “No, I’m sorry. I don’t. It was sometime that third week of October. I know she was gone before Halloween. And I think it was later in the afternoon, you know, as it was getting dark out.”
Burke nodded, disappointed she couldn’t narrow it down more. “So how might you reach Zoe?”
“I have a phone number I can text. I don’t know whose number it is, but I’ve gotten a few messages to Zoe that she replied to. It normally takes a few days for her to text back though.”
“May I see the messages with that number, please?” Burke asked.
Gabby unlocked her phone and brought up the text string. She handed her phone to Burke. Tessman stood beside him and looked over his shoulder as he scrolled through the half-dozen messages. She was correct that it took her several days to respond to each.
Gabby’s first message to her was to advise her that her parents had come to campus to look for her. It took two days for a response that simply said, ‘They’re wasting their time. I don’t want to see or talk to them’. Gabby’s next message was after the police visited her. Three days later the reply was, ‘Sorry for the grief you’re taking. Thank you for not telling anyone anything about me’. The last message string was Gabby wishing Zoe a Happy Thanksgiving and asking her if she was with her family. The reply was one word ‘No’.
“So, you’ve had no actual phone call with her since she left, correct?” Tessman asked Gabby.
Gabby shook her head.
“Have you tried to call her on this number?”
“No, she told me it was for text messages only.”
“She told you that?” Tessman asked.
“Yes, she gave me that number the day she left. I thought it was weird she left her phone here, but she said her parents pay for it and she wanted nothing from them.”
“And it could be tracked and lead the authorities to her,” Burke pointed out. “Was she always so paranoid and against her parents?”
“No, this thing with her parents just started this semester. I’ve known her for a few years, and she never said anything bad about them until, I don’t know, September. I walked into the room a few times and heard her arguing with her mom.”
“About what?” Burke asked.
Gabby shrugged. “Mostly about money and wanting to leave school. Her parents paid for her first two years, and she had to take out student loans for the last two years. Except they did pay for housing this last semester, but said it would be the last they paid for.”
“So, money was the main issue,” Tessman said.
“Yes. They’ve always been dicks, holding the money they gave her for school over her head, but as I said, she never complained about it until September.”
“When she gave you this number you’ve sent the text messages to, how’d she give it to you? Did she text you from a different phone than the one her parents paid for? Did she already have a replacement phone before she left?”
“I don’t know. The number was written on a piece of paper.”
“I’m going to dial the number and see what I get. If I get voicemail, I need you to leave a message that asks her to call you ASAP, stating that it’s an emergency. Can you do that for me?” Burke asked.
Gabby nodded.
Burke made eye contact with Tessman to be sure he was ready to pair her phone. Tessman nodded. Burke hit dial. The standard generic voicemail recording that said the user was not available activated immediately. It did not even ring. The phone was off. Burke handed the phone to Gabby. “Leave the voicemail.”
“Hi, Zoe, it’s me. I need you to call me ASAP. It’s an emergency. Okay, bye.” She hit end call.
“That was good. Thanks, Gabby,” Burke said.
