I nod. “Unfortunately, we are. We have video of the incident.”
A small squeak escapes her lips, and her face turns a bright shade of red as a wave of emotion washes over her. We give her a couple minutes to absorb and process the information. Violet runs a hand through her hair and sniffs loudly. She looks like she’s holding it together, though I can see she’s hanging by a thread.
“Ashley’s best friend Nicole Ross was here earlier,” she finally says.
“What did you tell her?” I ask.
“We told her she was in DC with her father. Elliot wants me to keep a lid on this,” she replies. “But Nicole’s a curious girl. We’re only going to be able to hold her off for so long.”
Astra, Paige, and I stand on one side of the large center island in the kitchen of Senator Barlow’s main residence in Arlington. Small and delicate, Violet Wagner stands on the other side of the island, her arms folded over her chest. She looks at us with wide, seafoam eyes that are rimmed red and shimmering with tears she’s struggling to keep from falling. Sobriety has been good for her. Even despite the years that have passed, she looks younger than she did in the photo of her we saw. Healthier. But it’s not difficult to see that she’s been through some things in her life.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” Astra says. “Right now, we need to know everything that you know.”
She shakes her head. “I don’t know much. I was here, like I always am, waiting for her to get home from school, and she never showed up…”
Her voice trails off, and she wipes her eyes as the tears begin to roll down her cheeks. It’s not difficult to see how torn up she is or that she’s blaming herself. I’d tell her none of this is her fault or try to assuage her guilt in some way, but there’s no point in even trying. She’s in no place to absorb my words even if I tried.
“Lieb came home and told me she never showed up for her piano lesson,” Violet said in a soft, trembling voice. “After that, I called Elliot.”
“Violet, has anybody new come into Ashley’s life lately?” Paige asks. “Or has she mentioned anybody hanging around? Maybe following her?”
She shakes her head. “No. She hasn’t mentioned anybody new or anybody following her.”
“Is that something she’d tell you or her father?” Astra asks.
“I mean… I want to think so. She’s usually open about the people in her life. Her father insists on knowing who she’s hanging out with… he has Lieb run backgrounds on them. I know it’s a little paranoid, but Ashley seems to understand and rolls with it,” she says.
“It’s not as paranoid as you might think. Senator Barlow isn’t the only person I know of who insists on background checks for the people in their children’s lives,” I say. “People in positions of tremendous wealth or power have to worry about things the rest of us don’t.”
Violet nods. “That’s what he says too. And like I said, Ashley gets it and never makes a fuss,” she says. Then after a pause she adds, “We haven’t gotten a ransom demand or had any communication with the people who took her. What does that mean?”
“It’s too early to know if it means anything just yet,” Astra says. “Sometimes, it takes these people a little while to get the courage up to make the call.”
“She’s right. It’s best to avoid reading anything into it right now,” Paige confirms.
Astra and I share a glance. All that sounds good since it helps keep emotions in check, but we both know not having any communication with an abductor is never a good thing. It usually means they have no intention of returning the person they took. Not always, but usually. There have been times when an abductor needs time to work up the balls to make that call and demand a ransom. It’s not common, but it happens.
The simple fact that this person took Ashley so brazenly, in broad daylight, though, tells me this isn’t one of those times. This a person who doesn’t need to work up the courage to call because they’re not intending to call at all. It tells me this is something else entirely. And whatever it is, I already know it can’t be good.
“Violet, we need to look through Ashley’s room,” I say.
“Why?”
“There may be something in there that might point to the person who took her,” I reply.
She wipes her eyes again. “Second floor. Third door on the right.”
I nod to Astra and Paige who head out to search the room, giving me a little time alone with Violet. The woman rakes her fingers through her hair, and she looks away. She looks lost… like she thinks she should be doing something but doesn’t know what.
“Wo—would you like a cup of coffee? A bottle of water?” she asks.
“Water would be great. Thank you.”
She nods and gives me a shaky smile, seeming to be grateful to be doing something, even if it’s as simple a task as that. Violet walks over to the refrigerator and opens the door. She stands there for a moment, though, eyes unfocused, almost like she forgot what she was doing there in the first place. She gives herself a little shake and pulls herself together. Reaching inside, she pulls out two bottles of water, then closes the door and walks over to the island again, setting one of the bottles down in front of me.
“Thank you,” I say.
“Of course.”
We both open our bottles of water and take a drink. The kitchen is filled with a silent tension that grows thicker and more awkward by the moment. As we stand there on opposite sides of the island not speaking to each other, I study her closely. Her emotional reactions seem genuine and appropriate for the situation. I don’t get the sense that she’s hiding anything.
“You and Ashley are close,” I say.
She nods and runs the cuff of her sweater across her nose as she sniffs back fresh tears. “We are. I almost feel like her big sister instead of her aunt.”
“Was she open with you?”
“Yeah. I liked to think she told me everything. I mean… I was her age once too. I know how teenage girls are,” Violet says with a wan smile. “But we spent a lot of time talking, and I don’t think she kept much from me. I hope she didn’t.”
“Did she ever mention any boys she was seeing? Did she have a boyfriend?”
“She’s had a crush on a boy at her school for a long time. But she said he didn’t know she was alive,” Violet replies. “She’s never gone out with him or anything, but I know she still likes him. His name is Tanner something or other.”
I jot the name down. “Was there anybody she did go out with?”
Violet shakes her head. “No. She’s really focused on her studies. She’s not like a lot of kids her age that way. She has a plan for her life. She has goals and dreams, and those take priority over everything else. She never goes out and parties or gets into trouble like other teenagers... Ash really seemed to stop being a kid after Sam died. It was like she grew up fast. Too fast.”
“How is her relationship with the Senator?” I ask.
