"Largo Taxi Company, how can I help you this evening?"
"Hi, this is Agent Mya Morgan with the FBI. I'm looking to see if any of your cabs picked up a passenger tonight, by the name of Kimberly Santiago, from address, 2121 Sands Dr, in Largo?"
"Let me check the call records, one moment, please, Agent."
She places the call on hold, and all I hear is the elevator music for what seems like an eternity but was probably less than two minutes.
"Sorry for the wait, Agent, no, we had no callouts or pick-ups for that location."
"Thank you. Have a good evening," I tell her before hanging up.
I quickly cross that one off my list and dial the next.
Two hours later, I hang up the phone to the last taxi company. I rub my eyes, as Eric and Michelle look over at me. “Not one taxi in Largo picked up Kim,” I tell them, and watch Michelle’s shoulders sag in defeat.
“I talked to her mom, and there is no emergency at home,” she admits.
Heath and Declan walk into the conference room, with Frankie following behind them.
“Boss, we searched her whole house, we can’t see anything missing. Her go bag is still packed and on the floor of her closet, as well as her suitcase,” Heath says.
“Kim didn’t leave on her own,” Declan says angrily.
“Boss, I was able to get her phone records after some back and forth with the provider,” Frankie begins, looking down at the sheet. “Seems, there were some calls from an unknown number, and when I ran it, it came back to a burner phone.”
“A burner phone?” Eric asks, sounding confused as the rest of us look.
“Yes, Sir. Seems the number started calling her three months ago. It looks like she only answered it twice in the beginning, but then quit answering it,” Heath says, looking at the phone log before handing it to Eric.
“I recall a couple of times being with her and her phone would ring, she would look at it, then ignore it,” Michelle says with a look on her face that she was thinking back to those times.
This is the first time I’m hearing about phone calls, and I try to think back to when she and I were together, and for the life of me, I can’t remember her phone ever ringing where she didn't answer it.
“Anything on your end?” Heath asks me, but I can only shake my head no.
“I still have the train station and airport to call, plus I’m still waiting to get the reports from Uber and Lyft, but I can tell you for certain no taxi company picked her up,” I tell him, as I search for the airport number next.
“Frankie, see if you can trace that burner phone back to where it was purchased. It’s a long shot to think the place may still have video, but it’s our only lead right now,” Eric says.
“On it, Boss.”
“Declan, Heath, I need you two to look into any of our past cases and see if anyone has been paroled or bent on revenge. I need to know if this is about Kim only, or is the whole team in danger?” Eric says.
“That’s a lot of people, but we are on it, Boss,” Heath says.
“You think this could be someone out for revenge?” Michelle asks Eric.
“I don’t know, to be honest, but we must look at every possibility. Is there anyone in Kim’s personal life that would want to harm her?” he asks Michelle.
“Not anyone I know of. She didn’t hang around a lot of people outside of work or me, but I don’t know much about her relationship with her neighbors,” Michelle admits, chewing on her lip.
“I’ll look into her neighbors, why don’t you go home and get some rest. I’ll call you if we learn anything,” Eric tells her.
“I’m okay. I need to be here, Eric, not at home.”
“Okay, then you can help me,” he says, leading her out of the conference room.
I pick up the phone and begin calling the airlines.
Chapter Two
SHANE
Boston
The ringing of the phone pulls me out of my semi-slumber, and I swear I just laid down in the bed and closed my eyes. I look over and see it’s seven am. “How is it possible to sleep for five hours and yet feel like you haven’t slept at all,” I groan to myself as I roll over and pull the phone from the nightstand, hitting the answer button.
“Detective Maguire,” I answer gruffly.
“Sorry to wake you, Shane, but we have another one,” my partner, Detective Nora Riley says, and I sigh.
“Where?”
“At the south side train station,” she conveys.
“A couple?” I ask.
