I had been thinking about how to answer this very question on my cab ride over to One PP. What would they need to know? How could I distill Charlotte’s essence into words?
“Charlotte’s twenty-five and a graduate student in creative writing at NYU,” I begin. “She lives uptown, at One Hundred and Eighth and Riverside. She has a boyfriend named Zach. Zachary Rawls. They’ve been living together for a year, probably a little less than that. He’s an actor. Of course, that really means he’s unemployed. The last time my sister and I discussed Zach, which was a few weeks ago, she said she was thinking about ending things with him, but I don’t know if she ever said anything to him about that. I guess I should say that my sister and I are very close. Even though she’s six years younger, we’re really best friends. We talk or text multiple times a day, every day. The last time I saw her was Tuesday. We had lunch at Tom’s Diner, at One-Twelfth and Broadway. Actually, that’s not right. We met to have lunch, but I got called back to the office before our food arrived. The reason she wanted to meet was because she had this exciting news—that her first novel was going to be published and she wanted me to be the first person she told. I normally would have heard from her that night, but I didn’t. Then the next day I got caught up in something and didn’t focus on the fact that I hadn’t spoken to her all day. That was yesterday. I spoke to Zach this morning, at around six. That’s when he told me Charlotte didn’t come home last night.”
Gabriel nods as I give him this download, careful not to interrupt. Standard police intake procedure.
“Okay,” he says when I come up for air. “It’s good that you’re close with your sister; that will help us. And that’s important information about the boyfriend too. Let me start with the obvious question. Did she have any enemies? Anyone who might want to hurt her?”
“No. Everyone loved her.” He smiles, and although I’m sure he didn’t mean for me to take it this way, it strikes me that he doesn’t believe me. “Seriously. Ask anyone.”
“I believe you, Ella. So, if there weren’t any enemies, what about other men aside from the boyfriend?”
“No one,” I say with conviction, but as the words come out, I realize that I might not know if she was cheating on Zach. After all, I wasn’t going to share with her my night with Dylan Perry, although in that case it wasn’t because I was embarrassed, but so as to not reveal my life as Cassidy. But perhaps the point is still the same. No matter how close Charlotte and I were . . . are . . . we still probably keep secrets from each other.
“You know, I don’t think there was anyone else, but who really knows what people choose to tell you about themselves? Especially family. I guess it’s possible she’d keep that kind of thing to herself.”
“Fair enough,” he says. “Any exes that I should be aware of?”
“No. I mean, she had boyfriends from time to time, but she’s been with Zach for more than a year, and she was single when they met. So I can’t imagine anyone from her past coming back now to harm her.”
In a matter of seconds, I’ve ruled out everyone but Zach. Could he have hurt Charlotte? She had shared with me that Zach had a hair-trigger temper, but she’d never even hinted that he’d gotten physical with her. Although, now in hindsight, maybe her reference to his volatility was that hint and I didn’t pick up on it.
“Now you said it’s been two nights since you’ve heard from your sister?”
“Yeah, but Zach—her boyfriend—didn’t call me until early this morning.”
“I know, but you think it’s odd you didn’t hear from her all day yesterday, right?”
Gabriel has latched on to my suspicion that Zach might not be an ally in the search for Charlotte. The boyfriend is always the first suspect, so I’m sure he was heading there even without my help. Still, I’m glad we’re on the same page.
“Yeah. And I didn’t speak to her the night before that either. Our last conversation was in person, on Tuesday. Two-fifteen or so. Usually we communicate every day. Multiple times. Without fail.”
“So the fact that she didn’t reach out to you Tuesday night could mean she was involved in something intense, and that could be relevant to her disappearance.”
The phone rings. Gabriel answers by barking his last name into the receiver. Then, “Yeah, I’ll be right out to get him.”
“Zachary’s here,” he says to me in a softer tone than he’d used on the phone. “It’s best if I talk to him alone. Then I’ll ask him to step out, and I’ll fill you in about the next steps. Sound good?”
“Sure,” I say, although nothing sounds good right now.
Zach is sitting in the same wooden chair in the hallway outside of Gabriel’s office that I’d previously occupied. When I approach, he stands and embraces me—which has to be the first time he’s ever done that.
Standing behind me, Gabriel extends his hand to Zach.
“Mr. Rawls, I’m Gabriel Velasquez. I’m very sorry we have to meet like this, but I greatly appreciate you coming in. I’ve already spoken to Ella, so why don’t you and I spend a little time together?”
I look for some tell of surprise from Gabriel that Zach is African American. If Zach’s race was not what Gabriel was expecting, he doesn’t show it.
Gabriel leads Zach back down the hallway, and I replace Zach in the wooden chair. As soon as they retreat into Gabriel’s office, I begin to cry.
Zach’s with Gabriel for an hour. When the office door finally swings open, Zach exits and then proceeds to walk right by me. No hug. Not even a good-bye. He wants to get out of the building as fast as possible.
Gabriel is a step behind him. “Come in,” he says to me.
I’m literally shaking, holding my hands together so as not to show it, as I wait for Gabriel to tell me what Zach had said. I knew he hadn’t confessed because if he had, they would have arrested him. But something must have happened, or Zach wouldn’t have fled the building like it was on fire.
The time it takes to reenter Gabriel’s office is less than thirty seconds, but feels interminable. Fortunately, he gets to the point right away.
“The interview did not go well,” Gabriel says. “Zach’s scared, which is understandable. I mean, everyone knows that the boyfriend is the first and sometimes only suspect in these types of things. Most people in his position, if they’ve got half a brain, shut us down. But I got the distinct impression that he’s hiding something, and that means we’ll be focusing a lot of attention in his direction.”