“Let me reiterate… gross,” I say.
“Okay, let me show you what we’re looking at,” Rick says.
I hear the tapping of his keys as he takes us into the website. It looks a lot like the various popular online dating websites out there with photos of girls, their stats, answers to the site’s questionnaires, as well as a personal statement. With a few more keystrokes, Rick navigates to a page that shows a picture of Ashley. In the photo, she’s made up, has her hair done nicely, and looks to be older than her sixteen years.
“She goes by the name Shelby Kittridge,” Rick says.
“Why in the hell is she trolling for a sugar daddy in the first place?” Astra asks. “She comes from money. She’s got a great family and all the privilege in the world… I don’t get it.”
As I look into the girl’s golden-brown eyes in the picture, I ponder Astra’s question. Why would a girl who has seemingly everything do something so reckless? Something so—for lack of a better word—gross? Why on earth would she put herself out there and do God-knows-what with these older men? It couldn’t be for the money. It couldn’t be for the privilege being in their arms gave her. She has those things in spades already. There’s also the fact that she can’t really go out in public with these men in the first place given that she’s underage. Not that I think the men who frequent sites like this one are necessarily looking for social companions.
So, why would Ashley take such a risk? Why would she do something that would put her in such a precarious and potentially dangerous position? As I think about Ashley’s life and the way she’s grown up, the questions rattle around in my mind. Slowly, though, a picture starts to form, and I think I hit on the answer. I think I understand it.
“I think I get it. I think maybe it’s the fact that she’s living in a fishbowl—and has been her entire life—that’s pushed her to become Shelby Kittridge,” I say.
“What? Like she developed a split personality?” Rick asks.
“No, nothing like that. Ashley’s grown up in the spotlight. She’s a Senator’s daughter, and everybody has an image of who she is—the image she’s had to portray for her father’s sake. But I think there’s part of her that wants to be her own person—that wants to live her own life,” I say.
“So, she created this Shelby Kittridge persona,” Astra finishes for me.
I nod. “Yeah, I think so.”
“But what’s up with the whole sugar baby thing? Why would she put herself out there like that?” Nina asks. “It can’t be about the money. And I really hope it’s not about the sex.”
Mo shrugs. “She can’t be this other person at her school. If she wants to experiment with sex and whatnot, she can’t do that with her classmates or anybody else in her direct orbit. Not if she wants to keep her image intact anyway. I can kind of see why she’d do something so radically different from what people expect from her. It’s crazy, but I can kind of see it.”
“I didn’t think about it until you said it, but I would imagine growing up under a microscope like that has to be suffocating. Her every movement tracked, her every activity scheduled to the microsecond… I can see why she might want to do something wild,” Rick adds.
“We can sympathize with her for growing up in a fishbowl all we want, but we have to consider the possibility that one of these men she’s talking to is the one who took her,” I say. “I’m assuming it’s older, professional men who frequent these sites?”
“That’s affirmative,” Rick replies.
“That would be a closer fit to the profile than a guy like Tyler Mayhew. An older, professional man would more likely be organized and methodical. An older, professional man is somebody who’d be more likely to pull off the abduction we watched than a kid like Tyler,” I say.
“It’s just insane to think that Ashley has this whole shadow life her father knows nothing about,” Astra says.
“It’s also kind of sad that because of her father’s aspirations, she can’t live the life or be the person she wants to be,” Nina adds.
“It’s crazy and sad, but let’s not lose sight of the fact that she’s a sixteen-year-old girl and anybody she’s seeing on this sugar baby website—if they’re sleeping with her—is committing a crime. That gives us the cause we need to start rattling some cages,” I say. “Rick, can you find out who she’s been talking to on this site?”
“Yep,” he responds. “They’ve got a DM function. That’s direct messages for you Luddites.”
“He’s talking to you,” Astra whispers to me.
I elbow her in the side, drawing a yelp from her. “You’re a jerk.”
Astra laughs. “Yeah, but you love that about me.”
“Debatable.”
The screen changes, and we get a view of what looks like an email inbox; there are literally dozens of messages from the men who frequent the site. Clearly, Ashley is a popular girl.
“It’s going to take a while to get through all these messages,” Astra says.
“Yeah. That’s a problem,” I mutter. “Rick, can you filter these out? Can you tell us who she was talking to most frequently?”
“Yep, I can do that.”
He taps away, and the list narrows down to half a dozen messages. “Those are the guys she exchanged the most messages with.”
“Terrific. That helps. Now, can you get IDs on these guys?”
“They’re all masking their identities, but I can do that. It’s just going to take me some time to track them down,” he says.
“Good. Nina, get with Rick and work up backgrounds on these guys,” I state. “Once Paige gets back, we’ll split up the list and start knocking on doors.”
“Divide and conquer,” Astra chimes in.
“You really think one of these guys snatched her?” Nina asks.
“Don’t know, but these kinds of men fit the profile,” I tell her. “It’s also the only lead we have to go on right now, so we’re going to run with it.”
“Hey, I found something that might make things easier,” Rick says.
“I’m all for that,” I reply. “What is it?”
“This particular website hosts social mixers—a place where potential sugar daddies and sugar babies can hang out, get to know each other, and set up their arrangements,” he says. “It’s like sugar daddy speed dating. And it looks like Ashley-slash-Shelby has attended a few of these mixers.”
