“What do I do if she calls back?” Zoe asked.
“You tell her about us and that her parents hired us to deliver the message that they need one phone conversation with them and that they’ll provide her money to live on, and then you give her that phone number I gave you upstairs,” Tessman said. “And don’t tell her that you told us anything.”
Gabby nodded.
“Did you notice anything else about Zoe this last semester?” Burke asked. “Her mom said she started to have different thoughts regarding things than she did in the past.”
“Like what?” Gabby asked.
“Well, about vaccines and pharmaceutical companies being bad. And her mom said she developed strong thoughts about corporate greed and the inequity of wealth. What worried her mom the most was that she said Zoe even expressed anti-government thoughts and a belief that a second civil war was coming. Her mom said they argued about those things too.”
“I never heard her argue with her parents about anything but money,” Gabby said. “But yeah, those things sound like Zoe. She’s not wrong, though.”
Burke and Tessman exchanged looks again. Gabby may have had some of the prepper indoctrination too. Then Burke smiled at Gabby and nodded. “Okay, thank you for everything. We’ll go now. And remember, if you hear back from Zoe, please pass our message along and then give us a call.”
Tessman had his wallet open. He pulled two hundred dollars from inside and handed them to Gabby.
Mike
“What can I do for you, Handsome?” Caleb Smith answered on the first ring.
“Tessman’s here with me. We need you to run down info on a TA here at Grand Valley State University by the name of Frisco Oliveira ASAP. He may have been seeing our missing girl, Zoe Reopelle. We need all the info you can dig up on him, starting with his picture. A bonus would be getting a hold of his schedule, so we know where he’s at right now.”
Tessman had his phone out and was tapping a message to Wilson with Oliveira’s name and everything they’d learned from Gabby Struck.
“Hold on, let me see what I can pull up,” Smith said.
Burke heard keys clicking in the background. “Did Wilson or Rogers check in with you for anything?”
“No, I haven’t heard from them,” Smith said. The keys still clicked as he typed. “Okay, I’ve got a Francisco Oliveira who’s a TA in the Political Science Department, and he’s a student in their master’s program. I’m sending you his pic now. I’ve got an address for him off-campus, same address as on his driver’s license. I’m running another search for utilities in his name to confirm that address.” Several seconds later, Smith spoke again. “Confirmed, I’ve got electric, internet, and gas bills in his name at that address.”
“Did you get access to his schedule?” Burke asked.
“Negative, on a work schedule. I’ve got his student schedule but can’t find any place where his TA schedule is posted,” Smith said. “I’ll look into his social media and see if he has any posts that show his political ideology.”
They heard more typing on the keys. “You have Zoe’s class schedule. What building and classroom numbers did she have in the Political Science area?” Tessman asked. “We can go take a look around for him.”
“AuSable Hall houses the Political Science Department,” Smith said. “I’m sending you the link to the department’s page on the website. They have pics of the professors and their office numbers. Nothing on TAs, though. And I’m pushing through Zoe’s class schedule with room numbers and the professor’s name for each class. TAs aren’t listed on it either.”
Burke brought up the picture Smith sent and studied the picture of Francisco Oliveira, who presumably went by Frisco. He was a Hispanic male who was twenty-six years old. He had black hair that hung to his shoulders and, in the photo, a goatee and mustache on his thin face. The license said he was six-one and weighed one-ninety.
Burke started the car and shifted into drive. “We’re headed to AuSable Hall now. I need two more things. I have a phone number that I need you to check out. My guess is it’s a burner, but see what you can dig up on it. And secondly, I need you to review surveillance footage from the campus. The roommate thinks it was the third week of October, late afternoon as it was getting dark out, that someone picked her up in a car by the dorm.”
“Roger that. I’ll push through whatever I can find to your phones,” Smith said.
Tessman’s phone rang. “I have you on speaker,” he answered.
“Are you heading to the Political Science building?” Wilson’s voice came through the speaker.
“Affirmative,” Tessman said.
“Smith sent us the info on Oliveira, too. We’ll proceed to his residence and see if he’s there,” Wilson said.
“How did your meeting go with the hair salon owners?” Burke asked.
“We should have sent you for that one, Handsome,” Rogers said with a laugh. “Those two would have loved you. The salon was open with no clients, just the two owners, two very obviously gay men who adored Zoe. Said she ran the front better than anyone ever had. I didn’t see much going on in the front. Even the appointment book for the day looked a little light. Maybe Monday is their slow day.”
“Did they have any insight into who her friends were or if she was seeing anyone?” Tessman asked.
