It was late afternoon on the first day of the team’s investigation and Luke could not believe what they had uncovered already. They spent the afternoon looking over all the evidence again and getting the board updated and organized and were ready to make some additional assignments and re-cap everything. Max had bowed out to spend some time with Irene, so it was just the team.
“Let’s put everything in order and come up with a possible scenario,” started Luke. “We’ve got some good leads, we just need to follow them and see where they take us.”
“Christine was seen a few weeks before her disappearance with a man with brown hair ‘looking friendly,’ let’s say. She gets a note to meet at the beach. She goes missing. Lea is asking the same man about Christine,” Luke continues. “She gets a text to meet at the beach. At some point she ends up in the cave and drops her bracelet. She goes missing. Then Bella gets caught sneaking out a tall blonde man from her room before she goes missing. We will assume she was also lured to the beach, for now. Susanna is seen in a car with a tall blonde man and also gets a note to meet at the beach. She goes missing.”
“There is video footage that looks to be deleted and there are spare room keys that have come up missing,” Luke says. “It could be someone trying to cover their tracks. I personally do not believe these men were boyfriends. They may have acted like that to the girls, but I think they were being manipulated, but why?”
“Some other information I think we should look at is the referrals to this resort by another resort or by a person. Also, I think we should look into the families. Something seems suspicious there. “Everyone agree so far?” Luke asked.
“I do,” said David as Ava and Sophia also expressed their approval. “Where do you think we should go from here?” David asked.
“Well David, I’m glad you asked,” Luke said smiling. “I made an appointment for you for first thing in the morning with detective Laura Hart on the mainland. She’s the lead on these missing person cases. I would like you to tell her what we’ve found so far; and see if there is anything she can tell us that we don’t already know. I would also like for you to take the wrappers in to be fingerprinted, if possible.
“OK, no problem,” said David. “What time?”
“Nine,” said Luke. “You’ll have enough time to get some breakfast first and then drive over there. You can take the silver SUV.”
“OK,” David confirmed while setting an appointment on his phone.
“While David is doing that I’m going to hang around here and show the pictures around and check out the granola bar wrappers. I’m also going to try to see Luther to ask him about the security footage,” Luke said.
“Ava, are you still reviewing video?” Luke asked her.
“Yes, but I should be done soon,” she replied. “I haven’t found anything else yet worth reporting.”
“OK,” Luke said. “After you finish that, I would like you to take the family information and see if you can locate them. You’ve got all the girls names and descriptions and Bella’s family picture. You also have the family history from the bible. Check with the towns of the resorts they worked at and see if you can find anything, OK? I would also like you to call those resorts and see if they have any information about the transfers. ”
“Sure thing!” Ava said eagerly.
Next Luke looked at Sophia and smiled. “Sophia, since you did such a good job with Irene, I would like you to talk to as many other women on staff as you can between the ages of 18 and 22. Show them the pictures of the two men on the video. I want to know if anyone at this resort is considering a liaison with either one of them, OK?”
“That’s a good idea Luke. I would be happy to work on that,” Sophia answered. “I had almost forgotten about the possibility of another disappearance. I’ll get started on that right away.”
“You can start in the morning,” Luke told her then paused for a minute before saying “I was wondering if I could take you out to dinner tonight.”
Sophia blushed and looked at Ava and David who were giving her the thumbs up behind Luke’s back. That made her smile.
“OK, Luke. I’d be happy to do that too,” She replied with a grin.
“Awesome. I’ll come around your room and get you about six thirty if that’s ok,” Luke said.
“Sounds good,” she answered collecting her things and getting ready to go up to her room.
“Well on that note,” David said while turning to Ava holding out his elbow. “Would you care to join me in the fine dining room for a buffet dinner?”
“Absolutely!” she said while taking his arm, smiling at Luke and Sophia as they walked out of the room giggling.
“I’m going to straighten up in here then I’ll walk you up if you want,” Luke told Sophia.
“OK, I’ll help you,” she replied. “Should I take this tray of deserts back to the kitchen or leave it for later?”
“I would just leave it. We can always snack on it tomorrow,” Luke answered.
“Ready?” he asked when they were done arranging things as he held out his hand for Sophia to take.
“Ready as I’ll ever be,” she responded taking his hand…