“You feel happy or sad?” I asked.
“Happy. Definitely happy.”
I smiled. “That’s good. What’re you going to do?”
“I’m going to U-Dub,” she said. “I start in the fall. I’ve already been admitted.”
“Cool!” I said. “Outstanding! Do you know what you want to study yet?”
“Yep. I’m thinking LSJ-same as you guys.” The University of Washington offers a four-year bachelor’s degree in something they call Law, Societies, and Justice. Basically, it’s a fancy name for a criminal justice degree. Toni and I met in early 2007 when we were seniors in the LSJ program. I was still in the army, finishing my last year as a CID special agent. It’s a good education if you want to make law enforcement your career.
“LSJ-that’s cool,” I said. “Are you thinking about police work?”
“Pre-law,” Kelli said. “I want to be a DA.”
I smiled. “Excellent. Somebody to put the bad guys away. You’ll make a great DA. Runs in your family, I think.”
Toni smiled.
“Yeah, I think so, too,” Kelli said.
“Well, that’s good,” I said. I leaned back in my chair. “So what brings you here today?”
Her mood sobered quickly. Where she’d been happy and smiling a moment before, she suddenly turned somber.
“I have a friend,” she said. “I think she’s in trouble.”
Toni eyed her suspiciously, not certain if Kelli was referring to herself when she said “a friend” and, if she was, trying to determine what she meant by “in trouble.” Pregnant maybe? Big sister switching back into protective mode, I suppose.
“What kind of trouble,” Toni said.
“I think my friend Isabel’s been kidnapped,” Kelli said.
Whoa! That came out of left field! Toni and I both looked at Kelli as we scrambled to catch up mentally. “What do you mean, you think she’s been kidnapped?” Toni said.
“Hold up for a second,” I said, raising my hand. “Don’t answer that just yet.” Both girls looked at me. “Since the conversation’s headed this direction, let me grab a couple of notepads, so we can take notes and do this the right way.”
Toni looked at me for a second, and then she said, “Good idea.”
I took a couple of steno pads from the credenza behind the conference room table. While I was up, I grabbed three bottles of water.
“Kelli, why don’t you start from the very beginning,” I said as I sat back down. “Go slow. Give us plenty of details. Everything you can remember.”
“Okay,” she said.
“Start by giving us Isabel’s personal data. What’s her full name?” I asked.
“Isabel Delgado.”
“Do you know if she has a middle name?”
“I don’t know.”
“Address?”
“She lives at 4268 192nd Street in Lynnwood.”
“Just around the corner from us?” Toni asked. Toni grew up in a home on 189th Street in Lynnwood-the same home where Kelli still lived with their mother.
“Yeah,” Kelli said. “Isabel is in chorus with me. I got to know her last year. She’s just a sophomore now, but I used to drive her to school since we live so close to each other.”
“How old is she?” I asked.
“She just turned sixteen last month,” Kelli said. “On May seventh.”
“Physical description?”
“She’s Hispanic. A little shorter than me, with long, straight, dark hair,” Kelli said.
“Her eyes?”
“I think they’re black.”
“What’s her build? Is she heavy or thin?”
“She’s medium-maybe a little bit thin,” Kelli said. “But she has a really good figure.”
I wrote the information down.
“So what’s happened?” I asked, looking up. “Why do you say you think she’s been kidnapped?”
Kelli looked down at the table and gathered her thoughts. Then she looked up at me. She pushed her long hair back away from her face.
“Isabel’s had it hard,” she started. Toni and I both looked at her. I suppose the questions must have been obvious in our faces.
“At home, I mean.” That made it a little clearer.
“She’s had it hard?” I asked. “Is she being abused?” I didn’t want to come off as insensitive, but I usually find it helpful to move right to the heart of the issue-eliminate ambiguities.
Kelli nodded. “She was,” she said softly.
“Sexually?”
Kelli nodded. “Yeah.”
“You said ‘she was,’” Toni said. “And now?”
“She ran away on her sixteenth birthday,” Kelli said. “She called me once and texted me a few times, but now I haven’t heard from her in more than a week. I think something’s happened.”
I looked at her, then said, “Isabel ran away to escape abuse at home; while she was gone, she contacted you, and now she’s gone silent?”
“Yeah. Nothing since her last text.”
I wrote a couple of notes on my pad and then looked back up at her. “Let’s break this into stages, okay? First, let’s talk about Isabel’s home life. Let me ask you a few questions to help fill us in.”
“Alright,” she said.
“Let’s start by getting right to the point. Do you know who abused her?”
“Yeah. She said it was her stepfather,” Kelli said.
“Do you know his name?”
“Mm-hm. It’s Tracey.”
“Last name?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. I know Isabel kept her father’s name. Her stepfather’s is different.”
“That’s alright,” Toni said. “We can look it up. Did you ever meet this guy?”
Kelli nodded. “Yeah, a few times.”
“Tell us about him,” Toni said.
“I’d say he’s older-probably in his forties,” Kelli said. “He’s a mechanic, I think. He mostly wears a uniform. He’s always dirty and grungy.”
“Where have you seen him?” Toni asked.
“At Isabel’s house. Sometimes, I’d drop Isabel off from school late-say four o’clock or so. Izzy’s mom goes to work in the afternoons and sometimes her stepfather would already be home.”
“He works days then?” I asked. “And her mom works nights?”
“Yeah. I think her stepfather must get off in the late afternoon.”
“What’s he like?” I asked.
“He creeped me out,” Kelli said. She shuddered as she said it.
“How so?”
“The way he used to look at me,” she said. “He basically drooled.” She shuddered again. “Just the thought of him gives me the creeps.”
“Did he ever say anything? Ever try anything?” Toni asked.
“He never tried anything with me,” Kelli said. “But he used to say I was pretty. Once he even said I had a pretty figure.”
“Really? He said that?” I turned to Toni. “That’s a pretty inappropriate thing to say to a minor.”
