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CHAPTER 25

Charlotte, North Carolina Saturday, July 27, 2024

SPECIAL AGENT JOHN MICHAELS SAT AT HIS DESK AT FBI HEADQUARTERS and finished the brief he was writing about the Charlotte Margolis case. His supervisor had asked for a full summary of developments, including Agent Michaels’s plan for the first phase of the investigation. Michaels dedicated a good portion of the brief to Wendy Downing and Guy Menendez—the duo whose names were on the adoption paperwork the Hastings had provided.

Michaels spent the week reviewing the original investigation into the missing family, conducted initially by the Harrison County Sheriff’s Office and then taken over by the Nevada State Police and detectives from the investigation unit. Eventually, Michaels read, agents from the FBI stationed in Reno had gotten involved. The resurfacing of Charlotte Margolis was the first movement in the case in decades, and the information Dolly and Todd Hastings provided about the adoption was the biggest lead the case had ever seen. The original investigation centered around two theories: The first was that Annabelle Margolis had disappeared with her family to avoid being charged with the hit-and-run death of Baker Jauncey. The second was foul play.

The surfacing of Sloan Hastings, and the new development that baby Charlotte had been adopted by an unsuspecting couple, made the second theory much more likely: Annabelle and Preston Margolis had been killed, and baby Charlotte abducted by a woman using the name of Wendy Downing and an accomplice going by the name of Guy Menendez. Michaels was convinced that his best chance at figuring out what happened to baby Charlotte Margolis and her parents was to find these two individuals.

He finished the brief and printed it off. He grabbed the pages from the printer and brought them to his assistant’s desk.

“You finished for the day, boss?” Zo? Simpson asked.

“All finished. And thanks again for coming in on a Saturday. This new case has me swamped, and I appreciate the extra time you’ve put in the last couple of weeks.”

Zo? Simpson was his new assistant, assigned to him after his longtime aide retired earlier in the year. Nancy had been with him long enough to be called a secretary when she started, and never much liked being an executive assistant. Michaels loved Nancy and was still getting used to her replacement.

“It’s no problem,” Zo? said.

“I’ll let you get out of here and enjoy the weekend, but I need one more thing.”

Michaels handed Zo? his brief.

“Would you mind proofing it for me? I’ll make corrections on Monday before I send it off.”

Nancy used to read every brief Michaels wrote and was a master proofreader. Writing had never been his forte, but somehow he had chosen a profession where nearly every thought that ran through his mind was required to be summarized in writing. He felt strange asking this twenty-something-year-old girl to correct his errors. Nancy was twenty years his senior, and any corrections or suggestions she made to his briefs came from a place of wisdom and experience.

“I’ll take care of it,” Zo? said. “Have a good weekend.”

“Thanks,” Michaels said. “See you on Monday.”

He left FBI headquarters and decided to take Sunday off. His first day of rest since baby Charlotte Margolis had resurfaced.

Zo? Simpson finished the email she was working on, checked her watch, and figured she would stay for an extra fifteen minutes to make sure Agent Michaels was out of the building before she left. She was supposed to stay at her desk until 5:00 p.m., which she did most days. But when her boss left early, or was called out of headquarters with no chance of returning for the day, she always cut out early. And working Saturdays was a drag. Had she known John Michaels was such a workaholic, she’d have thought twice about taking the job.

She grabbed the three-page brief he’d given her to proof. She thought about stashing it in her drawer until next week, but that would require her to get up earlier on Monday. She decided she’d spend the final fifteen minutes of her Saturday reading it. A few sentences in, she was glad she had. Baby Charlotte Margolis, missing since 1995, had resurfaced, and Agent Michaels was heading up the investigation. Zo? knew the case well. She was a true crime fanatic and had taken a job at FBI headquarters—and endured the long series of rigorous interviews and background checks—specifically for the thrill of being so close to criminal investigations. Now, after three months on the job, she was getting a look at her first salacious case.

Zo? was active on many true crime websites and was a regular listener of the podcast Unsolved with Ryder Hillier. Ryder had covered the Westmont Prep killings in Indiana a couple of years earlier, and had since taken on rock star status in the true crime universe. Ryder depended on her listeners to provide clues and tips about the cases she covered on her podcast. Baby Charlotte and the missing Margolis family from 1995 had been featured on Unsolved. Ryder Hillier promised to keep the case high in her stack of stuff, and to revisit it for the thirtieth anniversary next year. Ryder had also encouraged her army of loyal listeners to drop her a line if they stumbled over any new leads or tidbits about the case. Zo? had stumbled over more than a tidbit. Baby Charlotte Margolis had resurfaced in Raleigh, and her boss was working the case. It was pure gold.

Not only was Zo? in a position to break a new lead for Ryder Hillier and Unsolved, if she played her cards right she could continue to follow the case secretly from behind her desk and without her boss knowing about it. In her excitement, she considered ripping off an email to Ryder Hillier, but reconsidered. The FBI did not tolerate leaks, so she’d have to be careful. She shouldn’t use her work computer to reach out to a well-known journalist. She’d wait until she was at home. Or better yet, she’d go to a coffee shop and log in through their free Wi-Fi using a secure VPN. Then, she’d break the story about baby Charlotte’s miraculous return.