Page 47 of The Perfect Betrayal

“Yes,” Jessie agreed, “but it’s a calculated one.”

Meanwhile, there was still radio silence on Joel Cisco. Riddell had sent a unit to search Cisco’s boat, but they came up empty. It was unoccupied. He told them to stay in the yacht club parking lot in case the man showed up.

There were additional units positioned outside Cisco’s home and his office, though there was no sign of his car at either.Captain Parker had authorized Jamil to get approval to access the GPS location data for both his phone and vehicle, but the authorization hadn’t come through yet.

“I say we have the officers parked outside Cisco’s house knock on the door and talk to his wife,” Riddell suggested grumpily over the conference call line.

“It’s 4:15 in the morning,” Beth reminded him over speakerphone. “Are we sure we want to do something that dramatic?”

Jessie thought about for a moment and decided that they did.

“I think Riddell is right on this one,” she said. “At this point, with Crittendon and Dwyer in custody, Joel Cisco is the default next potential victim. And right now, we don't yet have access to his GPS data. By the time we get it, it could be too late. We can't err on the side of caution any longer."

“What does that mean exactly?” Beth asked.

“Let’s have the officers knock on their front door,” Jessie said. “Maybe Cisco has been home all night and we didn’t know it because his car is in the shop. If not, we ask his wife where he is. If she doesn’t know, maybe she has “Find My” on her phone and we can track him that way. But we need to start getting aggressive here. Cisco could be in danger as we speak.”

“I’ll have them approach the house now,” Riddell said.

“In the meantime,” said Jamil, who had been quiet during this entire conversation, “I think I may have just found your ghost victim.”

“Who?” Jessie and Riddell demanded in unison.

“Her name is Heather Silver,” Jamil told them. “Her photos match the sketch that Stanton provided. She is—or would be—27 now, but she'd have been 24 at the time of the yacht party."

“Why are we only hearing about her now?” Riddell demanded gruffly.

“Because she wasn’t reported missing within the three month window after the yacht party occurred,” Jamil explained. “To be honest, looking that far out felt like a stretch as it was. Who would wait three months to report a missing person? Turns out there was a good reason for it.”

“What?” Jessie asked.

“Heather Silver was reported missing by her younger sister, Monica, three and a half months after that night,” Jamil said. “According to Monica’s statement, she was doing field research in the Amazon rain forest for her degree in Applied Biological Sciences and had minimal phone and internet access.”

“They didn’t keep in touch at all?” Jessie pressed.

“Monica said spoke to her sister just before she went into the field,” Jamil said. “Heather was moving to L.A. the following week from Baltimore. Apparently, Monica e-mailed her several times and tried to call her twice but never got a reply. She chalked it up to connection issues or Heather just being too caught up in her new life to spare a minute."

“So that would have Heather moving to L.A. only two weeks before the yacht party,” Beth calculated. “It might explain why no friends reported her missing. She might not have had any yet.”

“Who knows where she was living either?” Ryan added. “Maybe she was staying at a cheap motel or crashing in a hostel until she found an apartment. Then there’d be no landlord to demand rent payment and report her if they didn’t get it.”

“That’s probably right,” Jamil confirmed. “I can’t find any record of a Heather Silver in any county database. She isn’t listed with the DMV, probably because people don’t have to get a California license or plates until they establish residency. She was just too new to town to put down any roots yet.”

“Which would also make her very appealing to a group of guys looking to take advantage,” Jessie noted. “A girl new totown, without a support system, just trying to find her way. Then she meets up with a bunch of rich yacht club guys who want to show her a good time. She was ripe for the picking.”

“But I still don’t get how her disappearance wasn’t reported until her sister came back to the country,” Riddell said. “Didn’t she have any friends or family back in Baltimore who got concerned when they couldn’t reach her?”

“The officer who took Monica’s statement back then asked the same question,” Jamil said. “According to her, they didn’t have any living family. Their dad split when they were little, and their mom died in a car accident when they were teenagers. They were put in the system, bouncing around foster care, until they were eighteen,.”

“And friends?” Jessie asked, feeling an ache of empathy grow in her chest.

“None of note,” Jamil said. “According to Monica, Heather struggled with addiction and checked in and out of multiple rehab facilities. She never developed any strong, long-term personal relationships. She was supposedly trying to change that by making a new start out here.”

“Not the best place for a new beginning if you don’t have your head on straight,” Riddell muttered.

Jessie noted that the comment, while harsh, was true. L.A. could crush the dreams of the most self-assured person. A young, friendless, parentless person with no support system and a history of drug abuse was a sitting duck for the predators out here.

“Did they do any investigation?” she asked, though she knew the answer.

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