Jesse had included a meticulous point-by-point narrative of his investigation, from the day his sister was taken through to the present.
On July twelfth, twenty-six years prior, seven-year-old Jordan Best had been playing alone in the yard of their grandparents’ Morgantown, West Virginia, backyard when she went missing.No one knew how long she’d been gone when her absence was noticed by her grandmother, who came out to tell her it was time to come inside.
Eleven-year-old Jesse had been playing with a neighborhood friend at the time and had returned to a search in progress.
At the time, their maternal grandparents had custody of Jesse and Jordan after both parents had been deemed unfit by the courts due to ongoing drug dependency.Sam learned that his parents were in and out of rehab and jail for most of Jesse’s childhood, and he’d had irregular contact with them throughout his life.
His grandfather had been employed as a mechanic at a local car dealership, while his grandmother was a homemaker.In addition to Jesse’s mother, who was their third child, his grandparents had four other adult children who lived nearby with their families.He had seven first cousins around his age who were regular visitors to the grandparents’ home, where money was always in short supply.
Local and state police were brought in to search for Jordan, along with dogs trained to find missing people.Jesse’s most vivid memory from the first hours were the dogs sniffing Jordan’s precious stuffed bear to get her scent.
That heartbreaking detail stood out to Sam as the sort of thing no one would ever forget.
Hours stretched into days, which became weeks and months with no leads and no sign of Jordan, even with the FBI involved.
Jesse had pleaded with his grandparents to figure out where his parents were at the time of Jordan’s disappearance, but they refused to pursue that avenue because they didn’t want them involved.
“The last thing we need is them coming in here stoned out of their minds and making everything worse than it already is,” his grandfather had said.
“But what if they took her?”Jesse had asked.
“They’re not capable of something like this, and I don’t want to hear another word about involving them.”
And with that, the conversation had been shut down.
Jesse had gone around his grandparents by contacting local authorities and asking them to investigate the whereabouts of his and Jordan’s parents at the time of her disappearance.He was told by a local sheriff that they’d spoken to both parents and had learned they had alibis for the time of her disappearance, thus shutting down that avenue.
I never believed they talked to our parents at the time of the initial investigation, Jesse had written.Finding them would’ve taken days or even weeks, and it felt like a brush-off.I’ve since tracked down both my parents and attempted to determine their whereabouts at the time of the disappearance but haven’t been able to confirm their alleged alibis.Both claimed to have no knowledge of what happened to Jordan.
I don’t believe them.Even if they know where she is, they’d have no reason to tell me, especially since I’m now a federal agent and could arrest them for withholding evidence in an ongoing investigation.
Other people I’ve investigated include some friends of my grandfather’s, who were always around before Jordan disappeared and suddenly stopped hanging out afterward.
He’d made a list of the men, including their criminal records, which had been updated over the years as new crimes were added to drug dealing as well as weapons and domestic abuse charges.
I’ve done in-depth surveillance on all of them and uncovered no sign of a young woman in their midst who’d now be thirty-two years old.
Jesse had included time-lapse photos of what Jordan might’ve looked like at various points in the years since she went missing.
“What a fucking nightmare,” Sam muttered as she absorbed the details of the case.
“What is?”Nick asked as he came up behind the sofa to massage shoulders that’d gone tight with tension as she read the disturbing narrative.
“My colleague, U.S.Marshal Jesse Best, has asked me to look at a cold case involving his younger sister, who went missing when she was seven and he was eleven.”She showed him the photo of Jordan.
“Wow, she looks a little like Aubrey.”
“I thought the same thing.”
He came around to sit next to Sam.“What a heartbreaking thing.”
“Jesse finds people for a living but has never been able to find his baby sister.I can’t imagine how heavily that must weigh on him.”
“You’re going to help him carry that load, aren’t you?”
“How can I not after reading all this?”
“You’ve got a lot on your plate as it is, babe.Should you take on more?”
