Part 42 (1/2)
”Try 'missing child,' ” Jack suggested.
She typed it in and groaned when the tally bar reported nearly a million hits. But at the top of the list she noticed a number of organizations devoted to finding missing children. A click on one of the links took her to e screen filled in, and was dismayed to learn it had been founded in 1995.
”This isn't going to work. She's been gone too long.”
”Probably right.” Jack said. ”But there's a search b.u.t.ton over on the left there. Give it a shot.”
She did. The next screen allowed searches by region, by age and physical description, or by name. Gia chose the last. She entered ”Portman” in the last name field, 'Tara' in the first, and hit enter. The screen blanked, then a color photo began to take shape. Blurry at first, but increasingly sharper as more pixels filled in.
Hair... Gia felt her saliva begin to vanish when she saw that the child was blond.
Eyes... her breath leaked away as blue eyes came into focus.
Nose... lips... chin...
With a cry, Gia pushed back from the keyboard so hard and fast she might have tipped over if Jack hadn't been behind her.
Jack caught her. ”What's wrong?”
”That's...” The words clogged in her throat. Her tongue felt like clay. She pointed to the screen. ”It's her! That's the child I saw in the house!”
Jack knelt beside her, clutching her hand as he stared at the screen.
”Gia... really? No doubt?”
Her voice was a whisper. ”None. It's her.”
Jack reached for the abandoned mouse and scrolled down the screen.
TARA ANN PORTMAN;.
Case Type: Nonfamily Abduction DOB: Feb-17-1979 Height:5'4”-135cm Weight: 60 lbs-28 kg Eyes: Blue Hair: Blond Parents: Joseph and Dorothy Portman Circ.u.mstances: Tara was last seen in the area of the Kensington Stables in the Kensington section of Brooklyn near Prospect Park after horseback riding.
Date Missing: Aug-16-1988 City of Report: Brooklyn State of Report: NY Country of Report: USA The photo above is how Tara looked the year she was abducted. The photo below is age progressed to age 18. Posted 1997 The age progression showed a strikingly beautiful teenager, a cla.s.sic homecoming queen if Gia had ever seen one.
But Tara Portman never made it to her prom. Gia felt her throat constrict. She never even made it to high school.
”I don't like this,” Jack said. ”Any of it.”
Of course not. What was there to like? But Gia had never known Jack as one for obvious statements.
”What do you mean?”
”Abducted kids. First I get involved with one, now you. It bothers me. Too...”
”Coincidental?”
”Right. And you remember what I was told.”
Gia nodded. ”No more coincidences.”
The mere possibility that such a thing might be true sickened her.
”You think Tara and Due might be connected?”
”I don't see how. I mean, there's such a long span between, but then... no more coincidences.” He shrugged. ”Let's see what else we can dig up on her.”
The page listed an email contact and three phone numbers: a toll-free for the Abducted Child network, one for the local Brooklyn precinct, and one for the family.
”Abducted 1988,” Jack said. ”That doesn't fit with the sixties song, but if that's the girl you saw, we'll worry about the song later.”
”That's her.”
Gia stared at that nine-year-old face, wondering who could have a soul so dead that he'd want to do harm to such beauty, such innocence?
”Look,” Jack said, pointing to the screen. ”Posted in 1997, when she was eighteen. She'd been gone nine years and the family was still looking for her.”
”Or looking for closure.” She looked at him. ”Jack, we've got to do something.”
”'We'? You and the baby are staying far away from Astoria and that house, remember?”
”All right then, you-you or somebody else has got to find her remains and let her family bury her.”
”I'll take care of it,” he said. ”Just promise me you'll stay away from there.”
”Look at her, Jack. Look at that face. How could you believe that child could hurt anyone?”
”Something awful happened to 'that child.' Abducted and killed are bad enough, but who knows what was done to her in the time between? She's not an innocent child anymore. She's not even human. And I don't like that she appeared to you and no one else.”
”Look what she wrote for the Kentons: 'Mother.' That's me. A mother of one and mother-to-be of another. She wants her mother and I was the closest thing to one in that house.”
”Could be,” Jack said slowly. ”But I still don't like it.”
”Jack, if she was looking for her daddy she might have appeared to you.”
”Why isn't isn't she looking for her daddy?” she looking for her daddy?”
”Maybe he'd dead, or her folks were divorced, or maybe she was raised by a single mother.”