Detective Dan Hallam, Bay View Homicide Division, sat reading the missing persons file of one Annie Belmont. When the file first landed on his desk, he didn't think it belonged. She was a missing person, what did that have to do with Homicide? There wasn't much in the file. Pictures of the scene, interviews of friends and her son. Forensics report on the analysis of the blood spray pattern and smears, and a fingerprint report that was odd to say the least. With the exception of the fingerprints on the door belonging to her son, there was not one single fingerprint anywhere in that room. Every visible surface wiped clean, totally devoid of any type of foreign matter except the blood and cat hairs belonging to the deceased's cat. She's not coming back, not this one. He had hopes that after he read the report that she could safely stay a missing person. So much for wishes. Dan laid the report on his desk, he needed a cup of coffee, this was turning into a file that he needed to do more than skim through and he needed to stretch his legs.

When he returned to his desk, Dan opened the folder again and took out the interviews. He looked to see who did the work. Sgt, Sally Armstrong had done the work on the son. He decided to start with that one. She was thorough, always the best at these kind of interviews. If there was anything to be gotten, Sally would get it.

SA: "Jamie, we need to find your Mom, and we need help with that. I need you to tell me everything you know, no matter how trivial and unimportant you think it is, I need to hear it. I need you to be honest in your answers to my questions, even if they hurt or make you angry. Just remember we are trying to find your Mom. That's the most important thing, and we won't be able to do it if you don't tell me everything I need to know. Do you understand?"

Jamie: Yes.

SA: "I want you to think carefully about your walk home from school yesterday. Did you see anything out of the ordinary? A car that might not have belonged? A delivery vehicle in front of someones home when you knew they were'nt there?"

Jamie: "Well, there was a white van driving too fast going toward Montrose, I didn't see where it came from though."

SA: "Good Jamie, is there anything you remember about it?"

Jamie: "I think it was a florist van, but the lettering was so faded I couldn't say for sure. It was kinda rusty, old looking and I didn't think anyone used that kind of thing for deliveries. Usually they have newer ones."

SA: "You are right there, they want people to remember them so they use newer clean looking vehicles for floral deliveries. Is there anything else? Anything different about the house?"

Jamie: "No, nothing.........She's dead isn't she, my Mom I mean?"

SA: "Jamie, we don't know that, right now she's a missing person and we're trying to get information to try to find her. If she's out there, we'll find her. Now, what did your Mom do while you were in school? Did she ever tell you about her day?"

Jamie: "Well sometimes she went shopping and had lunch with Alan, or her friend Brenda. She went to the Golds Gym 3 times a week for her aerobic class. Sometimes she went to the Spa for massage and beauty treatment. My Mom is a very pretty lady, she says it takes a lot of maintenance to keep your looks up. Mostly she stayed home on the computer."

SA: "What did she like to do on the computer?"

Jamie: "She talked to people, played games, the usual stuff."

SA: " What does the usual stuff mean? I just want to be sure we aren't missing anything."

Jamie: "Well, if we were going on vacation, she booked airlines and hotel rooms, she reserved tickets to shows and concerts, made dinner reservations at restaurants. She shopped online sometimes, usually at Ebay, she didn't trust some of the other places. She was signed up at a few of those single sites where you can meet men.
She said she wasn't interested in getting married, but she wanted someone to go out with when I spent weekends with my Godfather Alan."

SA: "Did she ever meet anyone?"

Jamie: "Not that I know of, she never said anything. She told me that since I was the man of the house she'd have to introduce me to anyone she was going to go out with. I think she was kidding."

SA: "I see. How often did you spend weekends with Alan?"

Jamie: "Every other weekend. Alan picks me up after school on Friday and we drive to Converse to visit his Mom. We usually come home Sunday night around 6, unless Monday is a holiday, then we stay until Monday afternoon."

SA: "You mentioned Brenda, did your Mom have any friends besides Brenda?"

Jamie: "Not close friends, she had a lot of friends, mostly we entertained them for dinner and parties on Saturday night. Brenda is the only one I know of that she might have told things to. You know about dates and stuff. My girlfriend Amy says that everybody has one friend to share girl stuff with. I guess Brenda would be my Moms."

Dan set the transcript down on the desk again. Picked up the interview list and there was an entry for a Brenda Landry. He also took a look to see what, physical evidence, if any had been taken from the residence. Halfway down the list there was an entry for the computer and 10 boxes of floppy discs. He noted that they were stored in the evidence room, and no report was in the file regarding any attempt to read her records. Just the blood analysis on the keyboard and monitor. He picked up the phone and called the Forensics Unit. After talking with the Department Head, Sam Tallman, he decided to go down to the evidence room to sign out the computer and the discs. He would deliver them himself with a request to read all files to see what, if anything would surface.
It wasn't much of a lead, but they didn't have any leads at all. Have to start someplace, and with the kid saying she spent all day on the computer and belonged to some singles sites, this was as good a place to start as any.
There'd better be something in those files or Dan wasn't going to be able to pull any chestnuts out of this fire. Not without a miracle, and the kid deserved to know what happened to his mother.