At seven sharp the next morning the team was assembled in the conference room, large coffees in hand, to get started on this investigation. Hemi had brought in several platters earlier, piled high with danishes, muffins, croissants, and fruit for the group. Everyone had gotten a plate and were enjoying the food.
“So let’s get started at the beginning,” began Luke as he took a bite of a danish and smiled deliciously. “I want to go over everything we have so far. Then we can decide how to proceed, make some assignments and go from there.
Just then Max walked in looking worn out. “Good morning team,” he said.
“Hi Max,” they replied.
“I hope you don’t mind, but I would like to sit in for a little while Luke, in case you have some questions I can answer,” he explained.
“Sure Uncle Max that would be helpful,” answered Luke. “Didn’t you get much sleep? You don’t look so good.”
“No, I haven’t been sleeping well since this all started and your Aunt Irene is inconsolable with all these girls missing. She is troubled that they all worked here and thinks there must be a connection,” said Max as he took a seat.
“Well if there is a connection, we are going to find it! Right team?” exclaimed Luke.
“That’s right!” they all responded enthusiastically.
“OK,” Luke began again. “The first woman that went missing was Christine Blakely. She is eighteen years old and had been employed at The Palace for about a year.” He turned to hang an 8x10 photo of her on the board that Irene had printed on the computer from her employee name tag photo ID. She was a cute girl with long brown hair and brown eyes. He then started a timeline on the dry erase board to coincide with the time she was last seen. “Max can you help with when she went missing?”
“Yes, Christine was last seen walking towards Sunset Beach late afternoon about four months ago,” Max answered. “The staff likes to go over to that beach on their time off. It’s less crowded then our own Paradise Beach and more secluded. Another employee said she saw her leaving and reported it when she never returned.”
“What was the name of that employee?” asked Sophia.
“Her name is Lea Monroe,” Max said sadly looking at down at the table. “She was actually the second one to disappear.”
Everyone looked at him in surprise. “Seems like more than a coincidence,” said David. They all agreed.
Luke took out her photo and hung it on the board and added her name to the timeline. She was a tall blonde with blue eyes and very pretty. “When was that Uncle Max?” he asked.
“About 3 months ago,” replied Max. “She is twenty-two years old and was like a protector to the other girls working here. Even though she was young she was very mature and acted motherly to them. She didn’t have much family to speak of. Come to think of it, none of the girls that went missing had family in this area. Does that seem odd?” he asked looking puzzled, just now thinking if that fact.
“It’s definitely something to put down under similarities, but we’ll get to that after a while,” answered Luke.
“OK,” said Max. “She had worked here about eight months and had mentioned to Irene that she was heading out to collect seashells at Honeymoon Cove. It was early evening, maybe around five o’clock. She didn’t check back in that evening and Irene got worried and came and told me about it. Since Lea lives here we like to keep track of them at night also. Irene usually does a walk through the living quarters before she heads home every night.”
“Do all of the staff live here?” Ava asked questioningly.
“All of the ones that disappeared did, but not all of the staff live here,” Max stated. “Some of our employees commute locally. We do have living quarters for people who have no family in the area or can’t afford to own or rent on the island, though. As you can guess a hotel of this size has over 400 employees ranging from kitchen help and housekeeping to landscaping and maintenance. We house about twenty of those at the moment.”
“OK, good, thanks for that information Uncle Max,” said Luke excitedly jotting down some notes. “Are the women’s room still available?”
“Oh yes,” said Max. “We have not touched anything just in case they return.
“OK, thanks,” replied Luke.
Picking up another picture Luke told us about the next women that went missing. “This is Bella Francis. She is nineteen and went missing a couple months ago. She worked at the Palace for about six months before that. Max, do have anything to add about her?”
“Yes, a maintenance employee saw her walking towards Honeymoon Beach about four o’clock that afternoon,” he answered. “He said hello to her and she told him she was going for a swim. He only mentioned it to me because I was walking around the grounds that evening asking people if they had seen her. She was a very nice girl, but very shy.”
The photo showed a demure young woman with very dark brown curly hair and green eyes. She was very pretty. Luke added her name to the time line.
“The last person missing is Susanna Yvonne,” Luke continued as he hung her picture and wrote her name on the time line. She had blonde hair and blue eyes. “She is eighteen years old and has worked here for three months and disappeared a little under a month ago. Max?”
“Same story as the others I’m afraid,” Max replied sadly. “She went out to Sunset Beach early in the evening to take a walk and never came back. It’s just a shame! Max whimpered on the edge of tears. “We have to find out who is responsible for these poor missing girls.”
“We will Uncle Max,” exclaimed Luke as he went around the table to comfort him. “We have some of the top people here to work on this. We will investigate all the information and uncover who is behind this, OK?”
“OK son,” answered Max quietly as he looked up into Luke’s eyes. “But most important, will you bring them back?”
Luke looked around the table pausing at each team member individually, especially Sophia. He felt confident that they could solve this. The unknown variable was if the women were still alive or not.
He remembered Ava and Sophia’s compassion at the banquet concerning their own daughters and knew they were both a good addition to this team. And David was tenacious when it came to uncovering facts.
He thought for a minute and said to his uncle “We will do our damnedest…”