The Orphanage by the Lake

by Daniel G. Miller

“I’m no boat track expert, but it sure as heck looks like mine. Who...

“Are…you…the private detective?” she says, trying to find her air. Her lips vibrate with fear.

“Yes, hi, I’m Hazel,” I say and give a soft wave so as not to intimidate her.

“I don’t have much time. I have to get back to class, but I wante...

With shaking hands, she hands me a picture of Mia that looks like something you’d find in a yearbook. She’s wearing a chunky, oversize red sweater and leaning up against a tree next to the lake, smiling. You can see the glint of sunshine bouncing off her round cheeks, and there’s a flash of optimis...

“Flip it over,” says Penny as she hurrie...

Apparently, there’s not enough crime here to justify a stand-alone police force, so they just lean on the Warren County Sheriff’s Office,

I’m not confident that this elite squad is going to find Mia.

I sit in my car for a minute watching the rain. I can’t escape the look on Penny’s face when she handed me that card. Raw fear.

“You can call me Bobby, Hazel. And the reason I wanted to grab food was because I don’t trust anyone in that office to keep their mouth shut. You probably noticed I was a little curt with you on the phone earlier.”

“This is going to be a quiet lunch. Then what are we even doing here, Bobby?”

“We’re just two friends having lunch.” He gives me a wink.

“Aah, so if I were to ask my friend how life is at work, he might tell me what he’s been up to.”

“He might, if you were to be open about what you’ve been up to.”

Ok Bobby, I hope you’re a nice one

“Okay, since we’re friends, Bobby, why don’t you tell me how work’s been?”

“Thanks for asking, Hazel,” he says mockingly. “It’s been pretty frustrating, now that you mention it. A few months ago, we got a report from a local children’s home that a girl had gone missing. My partner and I were assigned to investigate the case. So we investigated.”

“And what did you find?”

“We found that the girl almost certainly left on her own accord. Her backpack and toiletries were gone. She’d made her bed. There was no sign of a struggle. Her roommate said she was in bed at...

“Of course. No criminal records. Cell phone records show that all the staff who live on campus were on campus the whole evening, with the exception of Sonia Barreto.”

“Yeah, she said she was in the city. I assume you confirmed that?”

“Correct. Got her at the restaurant and the hotel in Manhat...

“We checked the security cameras. No vehicles on the roads, no people on the ground. There was nothing, but as the saying goes, you can learn something from nothing.”

“You mean if there’s nothing on the cameras, then whatever happened had to happen off camera?”

“Yep. The only cameras on the grounds point to the front and sides of the building, presumably because those are the only points of entry by car or by foot. And it’s a pretty solid system. N...

“So if she left the grounds, it would have to be...

“You go...

“But that leaves just the lake. It’s fifty-degree water. I just don’t buy that she swam and crawled through a mile of rock and scrub br...

“That was what was interesting. When we went down to the water with the bloodhounds, they tracked her right to the shore. At that location on the shore, we n...

Neil, the security guy, seemed to think that was from his boat.”

“So for a staff member to take Mia by boat alone, they would have to leave the campus without being caught on camera, get a boat, and then return to pick Mia up?”

“That’s right.”

“Any cameras on neighboring properties...

“No, and that’s where things get weird.”

“What do you mean?”

“I presented what I found to my boss and requested more resources so that we could reach out to homeowners on the lake and get access to their security cameras to see if they caught anything. I figured we might get lucky and see a boat pass by a house and maybe get a shot of the make or the name of the boat.”

“Yeah, probably not a lot of boats on the lake in the middle of the night, so if a camera catches it, you at least know where they’re headed. It’s not a lot, but it’s something.”

“That’s what I said. But my boss ...

“What?...

“He said we’re a small department and we don’t have the resources to chase after an orphan girl who’s clearly just run ...

it’s hard to argue when your office is wedged in the corner of the volun...

Making me think of the case going on right now with Emmanuel Haro :(

“So either Mia left alone, she went with someone from the children’s home, or whoever she did go with is smart enough not to bring a phone and not to stop at a hotel?”

Something the cop who pulled me over on the way up here said to me echoes in my mind.

“Bobby, do you know if any other girls have gone missing from Sa...

“Yeah, there’s been runaways, but that’s not uncommon when you’re dealing with kids from broken homes. In fact, it’s a big part of the reason my boss doesn’t want to put any more resources toward this investigation.

The roommate might

know more than she’s letting on.

“Probably best we don’t talk anymore, Hazel. I’ve already said more than I should, but I wanted you to have a fighting chance picking up where I left off. Good luck.”

“How did you know when I’d be home?”

“Oh, I was watching you on Find My Friends.”