“He’s had several calls with Ayers over the last two weeks.”
“He was there the first night at the pizza party. He called her Deliverance.” I knew I knew him. “He’s a football player.”
“He might be our point of contact then.” Barry nods and pulls out his phone to make two calls, one to Baas and one to the police. Not sure why he’s even informing the cops after the way they acted. Daisy’s fucking missing and no one is looking for her.
“Okay, I have everything set and it’ll go live in three minutes.” Gloria checks her laptop again. “Barry, you good with all this?”
He nods and waves, speaking to who I think is the cops.
“What’s going live?” I ask.
Gloria brings her laptop over to show me the Raptors social media pages. “We’re going to release a site wide missing person’s report with a plea to contact us or the police with any information on Daisy. We have her photo plus the photos of the two of you that you sent me. I also have Ayer’s photo as a person of interest in her disappearance. I was careful with the wording as per Cherese so we don’t get sued in case it’s not him.” She holds up her hand when I start to protest. “I believe its him, but we have to protect the team as well.”
I nod, understanding. Its more than the police are doing and I’m so very grateful.
Dylan pulls out his own phone. “Hey, I’ll call up the team and get Mitch to call and the girls to call all the boyfriends and we’ll share everything to our social media as well. The Raptors have reach, but even they can’t compete with college sports teams and all the fans. We’ll ask for it to be shared by everyone. Her picture will be everywhere within minutes.”
I’m overwhelmed by the support. I know every sports team on campus will share the posts.
“I’ve spoken with the mayor and he has agreed to lean on the police to make sure everything that can be done is being done.” Barry snaps his phone shut. “He will get results faster than we will by simply calling and asking them for an update. The mayor will keep me informed of their progress.”
“Mr. Krantz, there’s a sandwich here for you, Gloria, and Cherese.” Mom nods toward the small kitchen island where three plates of very large sandwiches are sitting.
“Why thank you, Mrs. Hutchinson.” He goes over and picks one up. “I haven’t eaten since lunch today when Gloria made me aware of the potential problematic situation with Ayers. I started researching and forgot to eat as I went down the rabbit hole.”
Barry’s phone rings as he’s chewing. “Hello?”
Mom grimaces as you can clearly see everything he’s eating when he talks. It doesn’t bother me.
“You’re sure? Okay, I’ll let them know.” He hangs up, swallows and turns to me. “Will has made no phone calls, texts, or emails to Ayers. Baas had his people pull his phone records and emails.”
“He got a warrant fast,” Collin muses.
Barry grins. “Baas moves quickly because he doesn’t use warrants. He has very good hackers on his team. The police are forced into going slowly because of warrants and things like evidence, probable cause, reasonable suspicion, and the like. I know you all feel like they aren’t doing anything, but they are moving as quickly as they can within the confines of the law. Baas is just faster. He’s better too.”
I don’t know about the police doing everything they can, but I let it go. As long as people are looking for my girl, I don’t care.
“One more thing.” Barry looks hesitant and we all sit up. “They found Daisy’s phone on the side of the road. The screen was cracked, consistent with it being thrown from a moving vehicle. Baas’ team informed the police and waited until someone came to collect it as evidence.”
She doesn’t have her phone. We can’t track her. Every little ounce of hope I had dies with that realization. She’s gone and I may never see her alive again.
“Don’t lose hope.” Barry comes over and lays his hand on my shoulder, squeezing. “Baas’ team are exceptional. They’ll find her. That phone is the best clue we have. There is someone right now going through the CCTV footage on that street. She’ll find the vehicle the phone was thrown from and when she does, we’ll have new clues…the vehicle, who it’s registered to, and we might get lucky enough to be able to track the vehicle itself. We’re much closer than we were.”
“How do you know so much about this stuff?” Collin asks.
Barry shrugs. “I read a lot.”
Collin starts to argue, but I shake my head. I don’t want Barry irritated. He’s helping me find my girl and that’s all that really matters.
It settles down for a bit after that and I pull out my phone to share all the different social media postings. I even did a live Instagram post asking for anyone with information to post it and call the police. I know I probably should have asked, but I need to feel like I’m doing something. Anything is better than just sitting here waiting for someone to tell me they found her dead body.
I’m still floored by how the posts are blowing up. There have been millions of shares across platforms. Hopefully someone will see something. It’s what I’m holding onto right now, that and the possibility of identifying the car.
“Wasn’t there cameras in the parking garage?” I ask, my brain fixating on cameras. “Shouldn’t that have caught whoever did this?”
“The cameras on the first floor of the parking garage don’t seem to be working.” Barry sounds as frustrated as I feel. “The hotel put in a request for the management company to repair them, but so far they have not been given a date as to the repairs will be made. Daisy has an excellent civil case against the management group should she decide to pursue it. All three of them do to be honest.”
Given Daisy’s financials, it might be something to look into for her. She’ll never want for anything as long as I have breath in my body, but knowing how independent she is, having her own money will make her feel like the independent woman she is.
