“We’d like to have Tex look at Dakota’s electronics also.” Pratt stated, facing Candy and her husband.
“Whatever. She took it with her to that b…”
“This is your last warning Mrs. Ruiz. Sheila had nothing to do with your daughter’s disappearance. Whoever took both girls is responsible.” Diesel ordered, slightly raising her voice, clearly pissed off.
“Not a problem. Let me go call him and we’ll get the ball rolling.” Wolf said as he stepped away from the group to make his call.
“Sheila, you’ve told Shane exactly what happened at the time the girls went missing. Can you describe the woman who bumped into you?” Brocard asked as she got her notepad out.
While Wolf called Tex for assistance, Sheila gave the description of the woman she bumped into just before the girls disappeared. Alpha Squad took down notes that struck out at them about the scene.
“Did she have her phone in her hand?” Diesel asked, looking up from her notebook.
“Not that I can recall. I admit I was looking down at mine. Tina and Dakota were talking about a boy that had asked Tina out and were laughing.”
“Why were they laughing about that?” Shane asked, confused.
“Because Tina was begging me to have a sit-down discussion with you, Eddie and Pattrick. Begging me to make sure you guys not calling their teams and Alpha Squad to interrogate the boy before they left for the dance. While Dakota was teasing Tina about the boy picking her up at the house, Eddie had sent me a text asking if he needed to pick up dinner on his way home. It’s when I looked down to read the text when the woman and I bumped into each other.”
“Were the girls in front of you, next to you or behind you when this happened?” Rameriez asked, with a look of serious thought on her face.
“What are you thinking Rams? Raso asked, her head going to the side.
“Answer the question first Sheila and then I’ll be able to answer Raso’s question better.” Rameriez prompted.
“They were in front of me, why?” Sheila asked confused.
“Then this was planned. If the girls were in front of you, and this woman wasn’t paying attention, she would have either clipped one of the girls or ran into them.” Rameriez said, voicing her train of thought.
“Shit, she’s right. If the girls had moved out of the way, they would have said something to Sheila.” Shane commented, agreeing with Rameriez.
“The girls were too caught up in laughing about the prom.” Sheila responded, not liking the train of thought the women were getting at. “I mean why would the girls have been targeted?”
“It doesn’t take much for a girl to be picked, Sheila. If the girls were noticed at school, walking somewhere or just even walking the mall, they can become targets without even realizing it. Most girls, if they are without a parent or an adult, they usually get hit with the ‘I’m a photographer and you are model’ speech. But if they are with an adult, they have to come up with a different approach.” Cortez answered, sympathetic.
“Nine times out of ten, they had been watching the girls for a bit and signaled to someone else to make their move when you looked down to your phone. Had you seen something and tried to stop them, it could have gone one of two ways.” Brocard said softly.
“I’m lost, surely someone would have stepped in to help us if I screamed out.” Sheila cried out.
“Not always mom. Sadly, in today’s society, many tend to stand back afraid to get caught in the middle.” Shane answered, wrapping her arms around her mother-in-law.
“Or they stand around filming it thinking they’ll get fifteen minutes of fame off of a video.” Diesel griped from the sidelines.
“Wolf” Brocard yelled out. “Ask Tex to look at the mall security cameras if he can, in case they wanna give us lip here. Give him the time stamp of Eddie’s text coming in about dinner and go from there.”
Chapter 4
Alpha Squad split up into pairs once the teams were tasked with areas to search. Brocard had Rocco’s team, Pattrick’s team, herself, Shane and her partner Dallas to work searching everywhere inside of the mall itself.
Members of San Diego PD came to help with Wolf and Eddie’s teams. Cortez, two of Dominick’s friends that went by L.A. and Reno, assisted the large group with searching the parking lots and parking garages. Highlander’s team, Pratt, Raso and Dominick looked behind the mall area, in the trash dumpsters and the alleyways.
York, Rameriez, and Diesel left the mall to go and talk with the girl’s high school principal and all the teachers that the two girls came into contact with at school. Dakota’s mother stayed in her seat arguing with her husband who refused to call his teammates for assistance in the search. Tex, from him chair at home, started going through security cameras at the mall while he waited for the information he needed to pop up on the two girls digital footprint.
Four hours of searching brought all six teams back together, exhausted, frustrated and defeated. Sheila was visibly upset as the teams walked back towards the food court area. As they came into view, they saw Candy and Ruiz bearing down on Sheila, yelling and screaming at her.
Pattrick, Eddie, Shane, Pratt, and Dominick rushed forward to intervene between the two groups of people. Pratt grabbed Sheila by the arm, pushing her towards Eddie and Pattrick before grabbing onto Candy, twisting her arm behind her back at the same time she reached behind her back for her cuffs.
Dominick and Shane grabbed Ruiz by his arms to stop him midstride as he stepped towards Pratt. When they grabbed him, Ruiz twisted, swinging his fist towards Shane who ducked, grabbing Ruiz’s forearm as it past her face. Shane kneed him in the balls just before she twisted his arm in a twist lock, sweeping his feet out from under him, taking Ruiz to the ground before he could recover.
