was in grade school with their daughter Iris, and according to interviews with the Lowes, and confirmed by the
Oliveiras, Michelle often went to the Lowes' home after school to play. She would often stay at the Lowes' from approximately three-thirty to six, at which time she would come home to get ready for dinner. As the Lowes lived just four houses down on the same block as the Oliveiras, the families admitted she walked home on most occasions unsupervised. On March 23 she left the Lowes' home at approximately a quarter to six. At six-fifteen Jennifer
Oliveira called Lynette Lowe to ask when Michelle would be home. When Lynette Lowe informed Jennifer that
Michelle had left half an hour earlier, and Josephine could not find Michelle on their block, she called the police.
The Meriden PD found no trace of Michelle Oliveira.
They compared tire tracks found on Warren Street to all vehicles registered to inhabitants of the block. All vehicles checked out. Nobody had seen Michelle after she left the
Lowes. No neighbor glimpsed the girl. Nobody came forward. Michelle Oliveira had simply vanished.
The next page contained her social security number, employment records, known addresses. And her parents'.
I looked at Amanda. She was absently sipping her coffee while eyeing me.
'Did you read this already?' I asked. She nodded.
I continued reading. In 2003, two years after Michelle's reappearance, the Oliveiras moved from Meriden to
Westport. Westport, I knew, was a much more affluent part of Connecticut. Records indicated that the Oliveiras were able to sell their home in Meriden for nearly
$800,000, nearly triple what they'd paid for it ten years earlier. That was quite a profit for a family who couldn't afford to do much refurbishing.
'What are you thinking?' Amanda asked.
'I'm thinking I'm throwing away money by renting my apartment.'
'Seriously,' she said. 'As soon as I can afford it, I'm leaving Darcy and buying a studio.'
'Good luck coming up with half a million dollars,' I replied.
'No way.'
'You want three hundred and fifty square feet in Manhattan? Damn right you'll need half a mil.' Amanda shook her head, obviously realizing that living for free with
Darcy wasn't so bad.
'One thing's for sure,' I said. 'The Oliveiras couldn't wait to get the heck out of Meriden after Michelle turned up.'
'Can you really blame them? I mean, their daughter disappears, do you really want to hang around and subject her to those memories? Subject your other children to that? I'd want to start my life over, that's for sure.'
'I guess you're right,' I said 'God, that has to be every parent's worst nightmare come true.'
I thumbed through the papers and the rest of the police reports, paying particular attention to the reports from the day Michelle disappeared and the day she returned. The police work had been thorough. More than thirty neighbors and friends had been interviewed, as well as all of
Michelle's classmates, teachers and her private music instructor, which the Oliveiras admitted cost nearly a hundred dollars a session. In the report, Carlos and
Jennifer acknowledged the expense, stating their daughter was a gifted violinist and they simply wanted to give her the best chance to 'make it.'
'Michelle's currently enrolled at Juilliard,' Amanda said. 'Full scholarship.'
'You don't say. I guess Michelle did make it. That's called beating the odds.'
I found an interview the police had conducted with
Michelle's violin teacher, a Ms. Delilah Lancaster. Ms. Lancaster was scheduled for her weekly lesson with
Michelle the evening she disappeared. At eight o'clock she showed up, unaware of the situation. According to the report, Ms. Lancaster had seen the police, got spooked, tried to run away, which led to her questioning and being a part of the police report. Delilah had confirmed their relationship, mentioning that Michelle had recently begun working through a book called Solo Pieces for the Inter- mediate Violinist. They had just begun lessons on George
Frideric Handel's 'Air,' from the Water Music. She had just completed works by Vivaldi and Mendelssohn.
Four years later, when Michelle returned, the first person she asked to speak to was Delilah Lancaster. According to the Oliveiras, nobody was closer to Michelle than Delilah Lancaster. The police ran a cursory investigation into the woman on the chance they'd find some sort of impropriety. They uncovered dozens of e-mail correspondences between the two and many phone calls to and from each other's homes, but they seemed to be more of the gifted student/dedicated teacher variety. Lancaster taught Michelle Bach and Mozart and Vivaldi, fingerboards and upper bouts. She was clearly a gifted student, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
Carlos Oliveira remarked to the Meriden Record-
Journal after Michelle's reappearance that socially, his daughter seemed to have withdrawn. She was unsure of herself, timid.
'She spends hours, I mean, hours a day locked in that room of hers, fiddling with the violin as if it's all she's got in the world. We try to push her to go outside, play like a normal girl, but all she cares about are those strings. She used to have so many friends. She was such a popular girl.
At least she's safe now, that's what matters most.'
'The music teacher,' I said. 'I think I'll give Ms.
Delilah a ring. It seems like she was the closest person to
Michelle Oliveira, and spoke to her the most after she came back. All Michelle had left was her violin. If anybody knows anything it might be the music teacher.'
I held up the folder. 'Can I keep these?'
'Sure,' Amanda said. 'But I swear, Henry, my career is on the line.'
'No worries. I'll take good care of this.'
She looked at me, as if debating whether I could be trusted. Finally Amanda stood up. She downed the rest of her coffee, flung it at the garbage. It rattled around and fell in.
'Keep me in the loop, will you? It sickens me to think this has happened to more than one child. That it even happened to one is just…God, horrible.'
'You know I will. I know what this means to you. I hope you know what it means to me. And not just from a professional perspective.'
'I know.' Amanda gathered her purse and began to walk out of the store.
'That's it?'
She looked at me, her eyes a mixture of hurt and confusion.
'That's it,' she said. 'For now, that's all I can take.'
Then Amanda left.
I watched her until the door had closed and Amanda had rounded the corner. It took a moment to regain focus.
I decided the next step was to call Delilah Lancaster. It was clear she and Michelle were very close, to the point where Delilah was contacted before any of Michelle's school friends. I figured there was a reason for that. If the violin was all Michelle had left, I needed to speak to the person who probably influenced her more than any.
I sat in the store for another few minutes, then gathered up the folder and left. I hoped that somewhere, Daniel
Linwood and Michelle Oliveira knew two people were going to fight for them.
