Page 24 of State of the Union (First Family 3)

“Thanks. We’re excited and scared and all the things.”

“You’ll be great parents.”

“Thank you. I hope so. Talking with LaToya this morning was so upsetting. I tried to put myself in her shoes, not knowing where my child was for eleven years. She’s twenty-four now, if she’s still alive, and LaToya has had to miss her all that time and live with the not knowing. I’d go mad.”

“I don’t know how people handle some of the stuff life throws at them. The things we see on this job… It’s a lot sometimes.”

“It’s a lot all the time.”

“True,” he said with a laugh.

“People join our squad thinking it’s going to be so cool, and sometimes it is,” Jeannie said. “Working with Sam is amazing, especially now that she’s first lady and bringing all that glam to us. But most of the time, it’s heartbreak and drudge.”

“Yeah, but it’s also satisfying to get justice for our victims and their families.”

“It is, even if it doesn’t change the fact that the victims are still dead and their families changed forever. That’s one of the reasons why I was intrigued by the Deasly case. Maybe she’s still alive, and we can reunite her with her family. That’s not something we get to do very often as Homicide detectives.”

“What’s our plan for Richmond?”

“Before Christmas, I spoke to the ex-boyfriend of Daniella Brown, LaToya’s former friend. LaToya did a lot for Daniella, giving her a place to stay and paying for two trips to rehab with money she didn’t exactly have lying around while supporting three kids on her own. LaToya and Daniella’s ex confirm that Daniella was obsessed with Carisma and referred to her as her daughter.”

“And the mom didn’t say anything about that?”

“At the time, she let it slide, thinking Daniella loved Carisma, and so what if she called her a daughter? That didn’t change the truth about who her mother was.”

“I can see that.”

“Carisma looked up to Daniella, loved to talk fashion and movies and celebrities with her. As a working single mom, LaToya appreciated the attention Daniella gave to Carisma.”

“What about LaToya’s other kids? Did she have a rapport with them, too?”

“She did, but she was closest to Carisma. They were ‘special’ friends, is how LaToya put it.”

“Was she ever concerned about Daniella taking off with her?”

“Not for a second. It never occurred to her that something like that could happen, mostly because LaToya was basically supporting Daniella, too. Like, where was she going to go, you know?”

“Does LaToya think it’s at all possible that someone else took both of them?”

“She acknowledges that’s possible, but not probable. For one thing, they weren’t together when they went missing. Carisma was walking home from school and was seen talking to someone in a car. A witness didn’t see her get in the car, but it’s assumed that she did.”

“Do we have a description of the car?”

“The witness wasn’t sure what kind of car it was, but it was an older sedan, maybe a Corolla or Civic in either navy or black.”

“That narrows it down to thousands of possibilities.”

“Yep. Daniella was at LaToya’s the afternoon of Carisma’s disappearance, but then she went out to get coffee that same night and never came back. LaToya said that in all the confusion over Carisma’s disappearance, it took her a full day to realize Daniella was gone, too. That’s when she started to suspect the two events were related.”

“If it’s related, I’d want to know who was in the car and how they were attached to Daniella.”

“With the ex-boyfriend’s help, I did some digging into people she was close to at the time, and one of them was an uncle who was only a couple of years older than her. He drove a navy-blue Corolla at the time.”

“What do we know about him?”

“Reggie Parks, age forty-two now, in and out of trouble all his life, beginning as a juvenile and escalating into drugs, robbery, B&E.”

“So, it wouldn’t be much of a leap to add kidnapping to the list.”