Cup of Tea

Detective Gordon Marshall’s shift wrapped up at 5:00, and the rest of the Ryder PD staff took on various tasks for the Eric Walker investigation. His partner, Detective Susanne Kwong, was part of the forensics team who was in charge of locating Eric’s cell phone and tracking down its last known and (potentially current) whereabouts. Marshall was heading over to the Walker residence to speak with Sabrina, both professionally and personally, to get her take on the case, so far.

Sabrina was expecting his company, so she was making both of them a nice warm cup of tea while he was on his way. And within a few minutes, the doorbell rang, and Sabrina immediately answered the door for him. “Nice seeing you again,” he said with a smile as she let him in.

“Thanks. I made both of us some tea,” she said.

“That’s really nice of you. I’d really like that, thanks.”

Sabrina went into the kitchen and poured each of them a nice, steaming fresh cup of tea and gradually delivered his cup, setting it down on the coffee table. Then she brought hers over and took a small sip of it.

“What did you make of the assembly meeting this morning?” Marshall asked. “Did you think it was helpful enough in bringing awareness to Eric’s disappearance?”

“I thought it was really helpful. I also think that there should be media coverage.”

“You’re right. There should be. We’ll encourage the neighborhoods to set up posters and contact the newspaper, TV stations, everything. We’re gonna get his name out there, so he won’t be a forgotten one. We’ll do everything we can, Sabrina. In the meantime, the forensics team is trying to track down where his phone is, so it might lead us to a step closer to finding out where he was last seen on Monday night.”

“That’s good news. Hopefully, we get something out of that. The phone tracking, I mean.”

“Yes. There’s a pro to all the digital technology that we have now. It makes it easier to solve cases like this, so it’ll pinpoint Eric’s exact location that night. But I’m here to talk to you about my interview with Daphne Portorreal, the girl who threw that party on Monday and specifically uninvited Eric.”

“Okay. How did that go? The interview?”

“It was… Okay, I guess. Daphne told me the things that you and I have already figured out… Including the fact that Eric was also positive for HIV. Did you know that? And if so, do you have any idea who he might have gotten it from?”

Sabrina sighed. “Yes, I knew he was positive the minute he told me. He didn’t exactly specify who he got it from, but I knew it couldn’t have been any of the girls from school. I think it might have been some older girls he and his friends from the football team were… I don’t know the word for it.”

“It’s okay. So, in addition to seeing Olivia Lansing, Kari-Ann Maloney, and Heather Rivas, he’d been seeing other girls from other schools? Like, college-aged, you mean?”

“Yeah. He liked to associate with a wild crowd, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Trent and Owen were a part of it, too, being that they were all on the football team. You know, it’s the typical high school stuff. The athletic guys want to go on a crusade across town, find girls wherever, and get into bed with them. Even now, I doubt that my son is the only one who’s positive for STDs because every one of them took part in doing what they did. You know, objectifying women and encouraging Eric to act like a ‘player’, seeing three girls all at once: Heather, Olivia, and now Kari-Ann. They all feed off each other, often bragging about ‘doing it’ with older girls. And I just… I don’t know.” Sabrina shook her head. “Do you think I’m a crappy mom for not having seen the signs earlier? Like, in a way, I also enabled him to act like this?”

Marshall put his arm on her shoulder to reassure her. “No, don’t beat yourself up, Sabrina. As a parent, there’s only so much that we can do for our kids when we’re not constantly supervising them 24/7. I’m a father myself, too. And I know one thing for sure: At that age, they’re allowed to make wild, reckless decisions and do stupid things. Sometimes we don’t always have full control of the things that they do.”

“I know, but still.” Sabrina sighed. “I’m a single mom, and I’m busy all the time. Henry had been giving him a hard time lately. That relationship had been fractured way beyond repair. I don’t know… Not to justify his actions, but I think he just wanted to get his father’s attention. Frank was like this when we were first married, so I’m afraid he picked up on most of Frank’s worst qualities. And I didn’t do anything about it. I didn’t get him the help that he needed sooner before all this started happening. Being suspended from school and all.”

“Again, don’t be so hard on yourself. Things happen for a reason. At least he acknowledged that he needed help. It was better late than never, and that’s very important. I don’t think any of us can ever truly understand what it feels like to be ostracized by your friends at school, but I imagine it must have been pretty lonely for him. But at least he had you, and he had Frank. That’s a good thing. Don’t you agree?”

“I agree.” Sabrina smiled. “I still can’t help but think that he’d gotten infected by a college girl. That should’ve been my sign to act sooner.”

“Well, look. We’re doing everything we can to figure things out about this case, so it’s not the end just yet. Stop pitying yourself, Sabrina. It isn’t entirely your fault, just a tragic set of uncontrollable circumstances leading up to this incident. But after talking to Daphne, I learned that she illegally obtained access to alcohol that had been served at the party, leading to Eric’s drunkenness. Were you aware of that?”

“No, I was not. I was not aware of any party taking place that evening. All I knew was what Eric told me: that he was going to get his sweater back from Trent. I would assume that somewhere along the way, he might have gotten word of this party taking place at Daphne’s, and that’s where he saw the action taking place without him.”

“How do you think he got word of that?”

“I have no idea. Probably from social media. Kids tend to post way too much information on there these days, so I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s how he got word of the party taking place. I assume that’s where Trent was because on Friday, Eric told me that all his friends from the football team have dropped him once he admitted to the whole school about what he did to Heather.”

“Being rejected by your peers is an awful feeling.” Marshall jotted down a few notes in his notepad. “I’m sorry, but you don’t mind me taking notes, do you?”

“No, of course not. Anything you learn must be helpful.”

“And word on the street, according to Daphne, is that Kari-Ann Maloney was one of the attendees at the party who offered to give your son a ride home after getting his sweater. Daphne says that she doesn’t remember seeing Kari-Ann return to the party after having dropped Eric off, and neither did anyone else. But then again, everyone else was probably getting wasted or intoxicated, so no one else would have known who was there and who was gone. But by Daphne’s account, Kari-Ann might have been the last person to see your son before he disappeared. What do you make of that theory?”

“Hmm.” Sabrina took a moment to consider Kari-Ann’s possible involvement in her son’s disappearance. “I guess it’s not surprising. Eric told me that Kari-Ann dumped him once he confessed the whole thing to the school on Friday. But why would she offer to give him a ride, if she was angry with him? That’s the thing.”

“You don’t think it’s possible that Kari-Ann might have had a hand in this, do you?”

Sabrina shrugged. “I mean, I should hope not. If she did, then–pardon my French–but what a fucking shame on her.”

“I mean, if you think about it, Sabrina, the timeline kind of matches. If she offered to give him a ride home after getting his sweater, and you never saw him again after that night, the main question is, where did Kari-Ann really drop Eric off? Don’t you find that a little suspicious?”

“Yeah, I guess I do. But like I said, I should hope that she’s not hiding anything. Eric would always let me know if he was going somewhere. He definitely didn’t let me know if he was going anywhere else that night. It was just to get his sweater from Trent and then come back here. That’s all. If he was going to see my brother Jason, then he certainly would’ve let me know. Jason lives right around the corner.”

“So, you wouldn’t mind if I reached out to Jason?”

“I don’t mind. I already reached out to him on Monday, asking him if Eric ever stopped by his place. He said no, he hadn’t seen him at all.”

“Okay. I’ll still talk to him, just in case. Do you have his address?”

“Yeah, I’ll text it to you.” Sabrina sent Marshall her brother (and Eric’s uncle) Jason’s address.

“Thanks. I’ll go see him in a little bit. I know you feel like you did the right thing by waiting out the full 48 hours. I think that’s a common misconception in our line of work to say that a person cannot be considered officially missing if it hasn’t reached the 24-hour mark yet. I’m sorry you felt that that’s what you needed to do, and that you spent the next two days in agony and panic, wondering where your son is. Truth be told, we would’ve been not-so-objective about it, given his impending charges against Heather. And his infamous reputation across school. But I promise you this, Sabrina. We will find him. We will get our answers. We’ll get him justice. At the end of the day, he’s still your son, and nothing he’s ever done will change that. We’ll bring the person who did this to him to justice.”

“Thanks.” Sabrina smiled as a tear slowly ran down her face.

“By the way, how were things between Eric and Frank? And Henry, before he left?”

“Not so well with Henry, but we had a mutual agreement that we were better off apart than we were together. He confided in me about the loss of his young daughter many years ago back in Brazil, which he never really got over. And I guess some of that manifested into the way he treated Eric. Like, he was never used to relating to young people when they reach a certain age, so…”

“Totally understandable. Sometimes, the loss of a child can affect you in a way that you’re unable to relate to them. It happens. But thank God you have Frank, right? How were things with Eric and Frank?”

“Surprisingly, it went well. I called Frank so that Eric could have a chance to talk to him and tell him what happened. I asked Frank to not judge our son for his mistakes, and Frank was a great listener and supported him. It made me feel good. We let Eric know that we both have his back and we will help him get through this together.”

“That’s really good parenting, Sabrina. You did a great job of letting your son know that you will always love him and support him, no matter what. He knew he was loved, and that’s why I refuse to believe that he’s just a runaway. I know that he’s not a runaway, that someone out there did something very bad to him, and they know where he is. We’re gonna bring that person–or persons–to justice because they’re not gonna get away with it. We’ll bring media awareness to this case so that we’ll have all the additional resources we need to help search for him. Anything that’ll give us a clue, such as where his phone was last seen, a piece of his clothes, anything at all. Don’t worry, Sabrina. We’ll bring justice for your son, and hopefully bring him home to you.”

A tearful Sabrina gave Marshall a warm embrace. She couldn’t thank him enough.

“No need to thank me just yet,” Marshall said. “I still have a million other people to question, which of course includes Frank. Do you know if he’s changed his number since going back to Texas?”

“Yeah, he has a new number now, which is the one I call him on. I’ll send it to you.”

“I’d appreciate that, thanks. Anyway, it was really nice talking to you and updating you with all the information that we have so far. Please feel free to contact myself or our fellow staff, anytime, at the PD for additional information, anything you might consider significant to the case and we’ll check up on it.”

“Of course, Gordon.”

“Take care of yourself. I’ll give Frank a call, and I’ll have one of my partners contact Henry, too. I’m going to speak to your brother now, and I’ll let you know what he says.”

“Okay. Sounds good.” Sabrina opened the door for him to walk him out, and they gave each other a goodbye hug.

“I’ll speak with you again soon, okay?” he said as he headed out to his car, en route to Jason Zeuermann’s house.