Chapter 15

Isabella answered their questions while Wyatt retrieved a yellow legal pad and made notes on it.

"Are you married?" Wyatt interjected among Dave's questions.

"No."

"Ever been married?"

"No. Is this relevant?" she asked Dave.

Dave and Wyatt ignored her question and continued asking her about what kind of car she drove, the tag number.

"Okay, how did you come to know Amanda?" Dave asked her.

"I met her at the gym where we're both members. It's near the school where I work."

"How did you become friends with her? Did you approach her or did she approach you?" Wyatt asked.

"Amanda introduced herself to me one day at the gym. Then she invited me for coffee after our workout, so I guess you could say she approached me."

"When did she first meet you?" Wyatt asked.

"About six months ago. I had recently broken up with my fiancé and needed a friend. I guess I was vulnerable and she won me over."

"Where did you go for coffee?" Dave asked.

"It's a local coffee shop with a real trendy name on Ridge Street near the school. I don't remember the name exactly, but it's something like Groovy Grounds or something similar."

"Interesting name. Maybe we can get a video surveillance with a description of Amanda," Wyatt interjected.

"What's Amanda's last name? Maybe she has priors," Dave asked.

Isabella shrugged her shoulders and shook her head from side to side. "She never actually told me her last name. I just always knew her as Amanda, and I never asked her that I remember."

"Can you tell us Joe's full name, if he works and where?"

"Amanda introduced Joe as Joe Snead but neither of them ever mentioned their jobs. Amanda lives in a beautiful, affluent condo building so she had to work somewhere. She always dressed real nice too."

"Can you describe them? Did they have any accents or tattoos? Did any of them wear watches? What kind of clothes did they wear?" Wyatt asked her.

"Well, Joe is tall with handsome face, crooked nose though. He dressed nicely enough in jeans, T-shirt, sports coat, dress shoes. He sometimes pulled his shoulder-length dark brown hair back in a ponytail.

"I didn't see any tattoos on either Amanda or Joe or any jewelry either. They wore regular blue jeans and indiscernible t-shirts most of the time. Oh, and Amanda always wore stiletto shoes, always."

"Where did Amanda live? Do you know her address?" Wyatt asked.

She shrugged and shook her head. After a few more exasperating questions from both Wyatt and Dave with the same response from Isabella, she turned to Wyatt with pleading eyes shaking her head. "Is all this really necessary?"

"In order for us to help you, we have to know anything and everything." Wyatt responded softly, giving her an I-warned-you glare. "Some of it may seem unimportant right now, but it might lead to some little tidbit we can use later."

She nodded and addressed Dave. "Okay, but I went through all this with Wyatt last night. It seems like a waste of time, and frankly, I can think of numerous other things we could be doing to get me out of this fix."

"Like what?" Wyatt asked.

"Like tracking down Joe and Amanda, getting to the park and backtracking to where they held me. The longer we wait, the colder their trail gets."

"And what do you plan to do when or if you find them?" Wyatt asked.

"Well, I hadn't gotten that far yet, but at least I would be doing something."

"They sound like they're experienced traffickers to me, Isabella." Dave explained. "They've been doing it for a while, too. It happens every single day to young women and children. They start abducting kids as young as ten years old, infiltrating middle schools, befriending a kid, making all kinds of promises of money and easy work. Then they're abducted and delivered.

"The abductors get paid and start all over again. The abductees are left to serve a lifetime of slavery without their families ever being aware of where they are or if they are dead or alive. And it happens all over the world, more in the United States than most people can imagine."

"We know you're anxious to find them and, believe me, we are too." Wyatt interjected again. "We'll be doing all you want us to do and much more, only we'll have more information and a plan ready to implement and apprehend them when we find them. And we will find them. Okay? Just try to be a little more patient a bit longer."

Dave changed the line of questioning. "Tell us about your fiancé, his name, date of birth, where he works, his home and work addresses?"

"Ex-fiancé, please," she said as she gave him all the pertinent details she could while hanging her head, embarrassed to have been so gullible.

"When did you first meet him?" Wyatt asked.

"We went to the same high school, and even though he was a number of years ahead of me, we hung out with the same kids. He asked me out on dates but my dad wouldn't allow it. He said Michael was too old for me. Michael would get really mad but then come back the next day asking again."

"Did he have any prior arrests?" Wyatt asked.

"I'm not aware of any arrests," she answered, "but even though I knew him from high school, I didn't keep track of him all the time."

"What does he do for a living?" Wyatt asked.

"Well, I don't really know. When we first started dating, he had just gotten back from Central America. He had been there a number of years, not sure how many."

"What did he do while he was there?" Dave asked.

"I don't know. He never wanted to talk about it, and I didn't press him for answers," Isabella explained.

"What happened then?" Dave asked her.

"What do you mean?"

"What happened between you and Michael?" Dave asked.

"I really don't understand how this could possibly be of any relevance," she retorted snootily.

"Maybe you and Michael had a falling out and he wants revenge. How would you know?" Wyatt asked.

She acquiesced and said, "When I first started dating Michael, he wowed me with kindness, and devotion. He quit his job after I moved in with him, leaving me to figure out how to pay all the bills. He also became very demanding and controlling of who I saw, when I saw them and even what I said to them. And then one day I came home-I left and never looked back."

"Did he threaten you?" Wyatt asked.

"Oh yes. Telling me I owed him, I'd pay, that sort of thing."

"Did he say how you'd pay?" Wyatt asked.

"Of course not. He doesn't have a clue. He was too angry with himself for getting caught and losing his meal ticket," Isabella replied, once again crossing her arms over her chest in a huff.

"After you left, did Michael try to contact you?" Wyatt tapped his pencil on the table.

"Yes, a couple of times. He called and threatened to get me fired from work and thrown out of my apartment. I had to get a restraining order. Then I moved into an apartment building with a security guard. Oh, I also changed my phone number to an unlisted number."

"When did you hear from him last?" Dave asked.

"I haven't heard from him in months."

"What about your parents and siblings? Are they still living? If so we'll need their personal info as well."

"I only have my mother. My father's gone, and I don't have any brothers or sisters."

"What your mother's full name and address? We'll need to check with her and make sure she's safe," Wyatt said.

After relaying all the pertinent information to them regarding her mother, Isabella asked Dave, "Will you let her know I'm okay? I'm sure she's frantic with worry about me."

He looked at her with raised his eyebrows, tilting his head to the side. After a minute or so of unspoken words, his implication dawned on her.

"You can't possibly think my mother had anything to do with this, can you? She loves me. She tries to look out for me. She never liked Michael. We argued about him many times, especially when I moved out of her house and in with him. She told me many times he was trouble. But she'd never do anything to hurt me, ever."

"Did your mother need any money, or did she recently take out a loan? Maybe receive a large sum of money?" Wyatt asked.

"No, no, to everything. You're wrong, way wrong to even think it! It's absurd! When my father died about ten years ago, he left us both with enough money to live on comfortably for quite some time. I told you my mother has nothing to do with this. I think we're wasting valuable time here." She stood and walked over to the sink.

"You're probably right, Isabella, but we need to check out every angle, and of course, we need to make sure your mother isn't a victim or in any kind of trouble, remember?" Dave asked.

She nodded. "Okay."

"So, how did you get to Amanda's house, if you didn't know her address?" Dave asked.

She explained how she followed her handwritten directions.

"Where did you park your car at Amanda's? Was it in a residential area? Did you notice any neighbors or anyone outside maybe walking the dog? Do you remember seeing a fire hydrant, a church, or a traffic light, any street signs?" Wyatt asked.

Bombarded with questions by both Wyatt and Dave, she expected them to turn on the bright lights or hook her up to a lie detector machine at any moment.

"What happened next?" Dave asked.

She retold her story in its entirety as she stood with her back leaning against the sink. "I only remember bits and pieces of people, persons, and things after I left Amanda's."