The Promise (8 page)

              The girl stood up to leave. “I hope she did run away. That means she’s alive, right.”

              Gallagher smiled, “It’s a positive sign of survival, yes. Please hold on to your money in the future, okay?”

Sara smiled and walked out the door leaving Gallagher to sit there pondering the obvious question,
“Did Allison Taylor run away to get back at the two most important people in her life?”

He now had a favorite new scenario for the missing Allison Taylor.

Chapter
Nine-the Media

              “Hey Gallagher, there’s someone here to see you! It’s some lady from Channel Two.”

              The detective groaned to himself, “
The press has arrived, how lucky can one man be.”
 

             
An attractive blonde woman walked up to him, “Detective Gallagher, I’m Cherise Cannon from Channel Two news. How are you today, sir?”

              Without looking up Gallagher mumbled, “Busy. Leave your card.”

              She laughed, “Come on detective, play nice. I just want to check out a possible story here.”

              He turned to face her. “Oh, are you referring to the story of the re-opening of the Kent Weldon murder case from twenty years ago? I have the press release right here. Thanks for coming down.”

              She smiled smugly, “No, but thanks. I am here to ask you about the disappearance of Archer Taylor’s daughter, Allison. We have it on a good source that she went missing a week ago and,”

              Gallagher bluffed, “Well unfortunately, your good source is way off base. We have our sources and they are telling us that Miss Taylor went on a little vacation up by Dahlonega to do a little hiking before school starts,”

              Cherise Cannon was not fazed, “Well, my source is her mother, Ashley Taylor.”

              Gallagher knew he was beaten.

He cursed to himself, “
That damn broad! No wonder Arch divorced her. What a big mouth.”

He feebly tried one last time to keep his fingers in the dike before the water gushed through, “Oh, Mrs. Taylor told you that her daughter is missing? That’s news to me.”

              “Yes, Detective Gallagher, here is some more news to you. Ashley Taylor is sitting down with me on camera and doing an exclusive interview tonight on Channel Two. Care to fill in some of the details so we get the story straight?”

              Gallagher was furious, but he remained calm on the outside, “No details to give. A girl is walking across the campus and vanishes in thin air. Beyond that I have no comment.”

              Cherise had her notebook out and was writing everything he said, “You think she is a runaway?”

              Gallagher nodded slightly, “It is one of the scenarios we are pursuing, possibly.”

              “On the record the Athens police believe Allison Taylor ran away?”

              “Whoa. Hold on here!” Gallagher exclaimed, “I have no official comment on the surety of this girl’s disappearance. This investigation is in its initial stages. Scratch that I even half agreed with you. In all honesty, we don’t know what happened.”

              “Fair enough, Gallagher,” she purred. “Off the record, what do you think happened to her?”

              “What I believe off the record?” He glanced at her notebook. She closed it and smiled at him.

“Off the record, I think she was abducted. She is not the kind of girl to run away or play a practical joke on her friends and family.

There is a possibility she went voluntarily to help out a friend. We are checking into whether she had any enemies who may have wanted her out of the way. That’s all we have for right now.

I would appreciate it if you would go slow on reporting this. Can you cancel your interview tonight?”

              The newswoman shook her head, “No, sorry. The station wants this interview and beyond the ratings value, we think it’s a good idea to get the word out and let everyone in Georgia see this girl’s face.

Someone may have seen her and could help us find her. I would think you would be in favor of that, detective.”

              Gallagher snorted, “I want to find the girl. There are benefits to you covering this and to the potential leads we are going to get in locating her.

But, it is a giant pain in the butt to work with the press and guaranteed to unleash all the idiots out there who will now be calling to inform us they saw her at a 7/11 in Chattanooga. I was hoping we could find her quickly and move on with our lives.”

              “It’s too late for that, detective. Here’s my card. I would appreciate it if you have any new information. Give me a call. I would like to work closely with you on this. Have a good day, sir.”

              He looked down at the card and realized that now all hell was about to break loose. At that moment he wished he were on a plane somewhere to a deserted island.

The kind that didn’t have any electricity.

Chapter
Ten-the Roommate

              Gallagher found Elie by the coffee machine and told her about his encounter with Cherise Cannon. “I saw her go into your office, Mike. That’s why I stayed away. I don’t want my face plastered on the news right now.”

He smiled, “Smart girl, Larsen, let me see you out. I think she’s gone now.”

After the detective and his partner walked down the stairs and were alone, Gallagher suddenly felt protective.

              "Be careful out there. If this Promise group is tied to the Taylor girl's disappearance you’ll be in danger. Page me immediately if you run into any kind of trouble. Okay?"

              Larsen smiled at the sudden rush of paternal sentiment in her partner. "I got it Gallagher. See you around, Irish!"

              Gallagher couldn’t resist a trivia question, “Hey, who was the original actor cast as Indiana Jones?”

              Larsen looked dumbfounded, “I have no idea.”

              The detective laughed, “Tom Selleck. But, he had a contract to do the pilot of Magnum P.I. so he said no.”

              Larsen was  confused. “I have never heard of Magnum P.I. See ya, Gallagher.”

              With that she walked down the hall and out the door to her car. Gallagher suddenly felt old. 

              "Hey, Gallagher," a voice rang out, "The lab just came back with something you might be interested in!" 

The detective turned and saw one of Dr. Lowe's assistants coming quickly towards him. He asked the predictable question, "What’s that?" 

              The lab assistant smiled, "The outdoor vacuum picked up a hair from Allison Taylor!"

              Gallagher sniffed, "Big deal. That just proves that she walked along the sidewalk. We already know that!"

              The assistant continued smiling, "Yeah, but there’s a fiber intertwined with it, a strand of black hair. Jet black."

             
That could be a significant piece of news, or not.

It could mean that the abductor or the friend who helped the Taylor girl disappear had black hair. It could also mean that the black hair could have been in Miss Taylor's hair earlier in the day.

It could mean something or it could mean nothing.

Gallagher was thinking strategically in his mind, “
If we finally get a suspect in this case, we can compare hair samples. I need to see Dr. Lowe.”

              "Well, it’s not much, but it’s something!" The lab expert walked with Gallagher down the hall in silence as they both tried to somehow put this newest revelation in perspective. 

The frustration they felt was buoyed a bit by this new finding, but it was still meaningless until they found someone's DNA to match it.

              As Gallagher sputters, Elie Larsen aka Bree Kelly pulls into the parking lot of the Colony school and heads up the back stairs to her new "home." As she unlocks the door she quickly realizes her roommate has moved in as well.

She drops off her last box of resource books and flops on the bed. As she sits waiting for Verna Oden, she notices some of the items that belong to her room partner.

She looks around the room and casually drifts over to the other side facing the door in case Miss Oden drops in without warning.

              There is a duffle bag on the bed and it contained basic toiletries. Hairbrushes, deodorant, toothpaste, feminine hygiene products, hair spray, shaving cream, razor, hair dye, make up kit, powder, skin lotion and an intriguing bottle of hair dye.

              Elie keeps her eye on the door and pulls out the bottle of dye. “
She dyes her hair.”

Looking at the bottle she noticed it wasn’t purple or orange in coloring but basic black. She thought to herself, “
The girl wants black hair, I wonder why?”

             
She pokes through the remaining contents of the bag and sees nothing else that is   revealing about her roommate. She carefully puts the articles back in the soft case and walks over to the shelf above the desk and looks at the types of books her roommate prefers to read.

She scanned the tomes along the row, "Society and the Individual", "The Healthy Family", "Woman to Woman", "How to Negotiate Anything", "Tae Kwon Do for Beginners!"

Only one volume stood out from the norm; it was a volume entitled, "The Art of Seduction." Elie reached up and pulled it out.

As she is thumbing through the book she hears the door open and she quickly turns to see a very attractive young lady with a broad smile. "And you must be Bree," the smile announces to her.

"I’m your new roommate, Verna Oden, nice to meet you."

              Taken a bit by surprise, Elie glances quickly at the duffle bag to see if she had put everything back in its place. She had. As she holds the book in one hand, she extends the other one and greets her new roommate. "It’s nice to meet you, too, Verna. I was just, uh, looking at some of your books here and...."

              Verna glances at the tome in Bree's hand and laughs aloud, "That one isn't mine. It belongs to my brother! He thinks he’s God's gift to women. Here, I’ll take that off your hands and make sure he gets it back."