“Oh, Ethan.” With a sobbing laugh, Rae laid her cheek on the top of his head.
“I’ve got a sister,” Peabody told him. “And two brothers. Sometimes we said silly and mean things to each other because it’s what you do. That’s all. But I love them, and they love me, just like you love Mina and she loves you.”
“I’m not going. Somebody killed my sister, and I’m not going out for a stupid snack.”
“Okay.” Oliver leaned over, got his arm around both of them. “It’s okay. We’ll stay together.”
“All right. All right.” Rae straightened in her chair. “You’re considering the possibility of child trafficking.”
“We are. So were the investigators on Mina’s abduction. The investigation’s in its very early stages, but we consider this a high probability.”
“She hadn’t been raped.” On the table, Oliver clutched his hands together. “Dr. Morris confirmed that. You may not think that should be important to us after—”
“No, sir. I understand it’s important to you as her family. It’s also important to Detective Peabody and me as investigators.”
Eve took out another photo—this of the underwear. “Mina was wearing her school uniform pants and a white short-sleeved shirt, not the shirt she wore when abducted. She also wore these. Do you recognize them as hers?”
The instant Rae took the photo, she shook her head. “God, no. Mina would never—she’s much too young. She most usually wears a sports bra, cotton blend panties—hip skimmers they call them. And from the look of these, she couldn’t afford them on her allowance. She liked young, sporty, nothing like this.”
Rae looked back at Eve. “She had a French manicure. I didn’t think—I couldn’t think when we saw her. But she had a French manicure. Fresh, wasn’t it?” She rubbed a hand on her temple. “Mina thought they were boring and old. Whenever we went to the nail salon, or she went with her friends, she got color. I usually got a French, and she’d roll her eyes. ‘Boring, Mom.’”
Now she looked down at her son again, then took a long breath. “They were grooming her. Whoever took her, they were grooming her, for trafficking, for sexual slavery.”
“Why would they want her in traffic?”
Oliver rubbed Ethan’s arm. “It’s not that kind of traffic, baby. Don’t interrupt now.”
“We’re working on that possibility,” Eve told them.
“Could I see the photo of the other girl again?” Rae asked. Then nodded when Eve showed her. “Yes, she’s striking, isn’t she? A strikingly pretty girl, like Mina. You haven’t found this girl?”
“Not yet.”
“Why do you think she and Mina were together when Mina was killed?”
“We’re not going to share certain details with you at this time, but we believe she was.”
“Maybe they were friends, Mom. Mina liked her girlfriends. She talked to them all the time.”
“Yes, maybe they were friends. Maybe she wasn’t alone.”
Eve stayed where she was after Peabody escorted them out. They’d held up better than she’d expected. She could be grateful for that, just as she was for the opportunity to see and judge the family dynamic.
Close, tight, but not smothering.
Peabody came back with tubes of Pepsi and Diet Pepsi. “I didn’t program your coffee into the AC in here.”
“This is fine, thanks.”
“They’re going to stay, at least a day or two. They’re going to visit the spot where we found her body.”
“Did they tell you that?”
“They didn’t have to.”
Nodding, Eve cracked the tube. “The possibility Mina ran or got into a vehicle with someone was always low. It’s now below zero for me. She didn’t run from that, from them, and everything says she had too many smarts to climb into a ride. The mother? She’s smart, sharp, and observant.”
“She knows her kids.”
“That’s right. The underwear, the manicure—not a choice. Adds weight.”
She pushed up, drank from the tube as she paced. “Roarke’s asking the Miras over for dinner tonight.”
“Oh. Nice.”
Eve shook her head. “Working dinner—consult dinner. I don’t much like the combination, but it got away from me. He got away from me. He keeps popping up here at Central unexpectedly lately. Have you noticed that?”