“Well, you should go ahead and talk to her, then,” Nancy said. “I’d be a little vague on the details. But, after all, she
Toni nodded.
“Next question. How will we make a positive ID?” I asked. I was a little concerned that Toni and I might have trouble recognizing Isabel. All we’d ever seen was the picture strip with Kelli and the Backpage ad.
“You said your sister knows her?” Nancy said to Toni.
Toni nodded. “Yes,” she said. “Kelli’s good friends with Isabel. She’d know her for sure.”
“How old is your sister?” Nancy asked.
“Eighteen.”
“Good. Would she be willing to come along?”
“Oh, yeah. She’d do anything to help Isabel.”
“Okay, that’s settled then.”
I nodded. “This sounds great. Give us a call when you’ve set up the date.”
“Will do,” Nancy said. “We’ll let you know when and where. We’ll want to be in place at least sixty minutes before the time of the date.”
“What will happen to Isabel?” I asked. “After you have her, where will she go?”
“We’ll take her to the King County Juvenile Detention Center first,” Nancy said. “She’ll have to spend the night there-I’m not sure I can get longer-term arrangements made this late. I’ll put a quick call in to Annie Hooper now, but it’s probably too late for today. Tomorrow, though, we’ll talk to her.”
“There’s no way she can be allowed to be sent back home,” Toni said.
“I know,” Nancy said. “Annie will have some ideas.”
“She told us she’s got a long waiting list,” I said.
“Yeah, she does,” Nancy said. “But she knows about the other facilities, too. All the facility directors talk to each other. It would be nice to see her in a place where she can get her life back together.”
“Sure would,” I said.
At a few minutes before five, Tyrone called. “We’re set,” he said.
“No problems?” I asked.
“None. She answered-said she was available tonight at eight thirty.”
“Perfect. Where we doing this?”
“We got adjoining rooms at the Snuggle Inn,” he said. “The same place you told us about. The target room is 301. Our staging room is next door at 303. When you get there, just park somewhere in the lot on the north side and then come on up to room 303. You want to be there no later than seven thirty. After that, we won’t want any comings and goings.”
“We’ll be there,” I said.
“Good. Cross your fingers.”
“Let’s call Kelli,” I said, as I walked into Toni’s office. “We’re on for eight thirty, but we need to be there no later than seven thirty.”
“So she needs to be here by seven,” Toni said.
I nodded. “That’ll work.”
Toni put her phone on speaker and made the call.
When Kelli answered, Toni explained what was going on and then asked her, “You want to come with us and help ID Isabel?”
Kelli agreed immediately. Five minutes and twenty questions later, she had all the information she needed.
“Now, let’s give Marisol a call,” I said.
“I wish we could talk to her face-to-face.”
“Me, too. But it’s too late. There’s no way we could make it to Lynnwood and back in two hours-not in rush hour. Have you got her number?”
“Yeah, I wrote it down on my pad.” She opened a file on her computer. Our general policy is to scan our notes onto our server as soon as we’re able. It gives us a good backup, and it also makes it easier to find and share information. She quickly located the number and dialed Marisol’s cell phone.
Marisol answered and told us she’d call back in five minutes. Right on time, our phone rang. “I took a break,” Marisol said. “I wanted to get to a quiet place where I can talk.”
“You’re good now?” I asked.
“Yeah. Did you find Isabel?”
“We think so,” I said. “If everything works out right, we’re going to see her a little later this evening.”
“Will I be able to see her, too?”
“Probably tomorrow,” Toni said. “We’re working with the Seattle Police Department on this.”
“Is she okay?”
“We don’t have any information one way or another,” I said. “We haven’t personally spoken with Isabel. The police did.”
“I don’t understand,” she said. “If you didn’t talk to her, how is it that you’re meeting her tonight?”
“All I can say is that we’re working with the police on this.”
“Did she do something wrong? Is Isabel in trouble?”
“No, Mary. At least, no one’s saying anything like that,” I said. I looked at Toni and shrugged before I continued. “There’s a concern that Isabel may have fallen into some bad company. We’re working with the police to pull her out of that before anything bad happens.”
“Oh my God,” Marisol said. I was a little suspicious of Mary’s sudden concern about Isabel. After all, she’d allowed thirty days to elapse before she told anyone anything at all about Isabel running away-and then perhaps only because we confronted her. But I wasn’t going to sit there and pass judgment. Like I said, I didn’t know how or why Marisol felt the way she did. Maybe she’d had an epiphany. I suppose it was enough that she was concerned now.
“Don’t worry,” I said. “We’re going to get her. And once we do-once she’s safe and sound, then you’ll be able to see her. You’ll be able to start putting your lives back together-,” I paused for an instant, “-both of you.”
“What’s going to happen to her? Where will she go?”
“You know she can’t go back with you,” I said. “Not with him around.”
She was quiet for a second, and then she said, “I know.”
“There are places that are set up to work with young girls like Isabel,” Toni said. “We’ll be working hard to find a spot for her in one of those places. Hopefully, we can get her into one of them tomorrow.”
She was quiet for a second. “Thank you,” she said. “What time is all this supposed to take place?”
“The meeting is set for eight thirty,” I said. “We should be calling you by around nine with more information.”
“Good,” she said. “Please don’t forget.”
Toni smiled. “Don’t worry. We won’t forget.”
Chapter 10
With my little excursion at the Snuggle Inn the previous night still fresh in my mind, I was familiar with the property’s layout. The small hotel is bordered on either side by similar business hotels-a Holiday Inn to the south and a Comfort Inn to the north. My guess is that except for the names, the hotels themselves are probably pretty much interchangeable. Toni, Kelli, and I pulled into the north-side parking lot at 7:25 p.m. It was still daylight outside-the sun doesn’t set until after nine at this time of year. A light, misty breeze had rolled in, and it was cool enough for jackets-probably in the mid-fifties. We hopped out and walked up the stairs to room 303. I knocked and a couple of seconds later, Nancy opened the door. “Come on in,” she said, smiling. “You can hang your jackets in
