The Doll Collector's Son

Chapter 3: Jordan

     Like I said, she had it worse.

"I'll tell her in time, I just... we've never really talked about it in my family. My mom never really told me about him or that day. What I know is from the internet. She tried to shield me from it, and we've just always skirted around it. How can I possibly bring it up to Marina, when I don't even know where I came from?" I said.

Annalise stayed quiet for a beat of time. It was the most we had talked about it.

"Maybe you should ask your mom about it. Maybe it's finally time.." Annalise suggested.

I nodded. Maybe it was. We shut off the personal talk and focused on the tasks for the day. Since we'd just found Martina the day before, we decided to visit with her family first. Their home was in a small neighborhood close to the field office. Mr. and Mrs. Perez had dutifully gathered Martina's electronics and handed them over with no hesitation. Annalise took them in as I pulled out a notepad. They immediately hammered me with questions about their daughter. They would be formally identifying the body today, but wanted to know what to expect.

Annalise stepped in, she was better at breaking the ugly news to people. I admired that about her, especially because I wasn't very good with feelings. Annalise managed to calm them down enough to begin asking questions.

"Did you speak to your daughter before she disappeared?" I began.

"No, she's been busy with school. We just assumed she was either studying or working a clinic." Mrs. Perez said, sniffling into a used tissue.

"Had she mentioned having problems with anyone lately? Anyone strange showing up at her apartment or clinics?" Annalise continued.

"No, everyone liked her. I knew she was really enjoying her clinic. If there were problems, she didn't tell me."

"Does she live alone or with a roommate?"

"Alone, but her best friend is there a lot, I'm sure. Her name is Shanice Clements."

I scribbled it down, asking for a complete list of her daughter's friends and the name of the clinic.

"Oh wait, she was using a dating app." Mrs. Perez suddenly remembered.

I refrained from looking at Annalise. I already knew what she was thinking.

"It's called Still Fishing, I think. God I can't believe you kids still even use those things."

I couldn't believe that thing still existed. Even Madame Daphne had shut down shortly after The Mistress was exposed. Annalise gripped her pad, as I wrote down the note.

"Is there anything that you think might help us find your daughter's killer?" I asked.

Mrs. Perez paused for a few minutes, preparing to shake her head. "She's been working with schizophrenic patients lately. She's never mentioned anything bad about them, but maybe, maybe their meds stopped working, or one just snapped."

Annalise and I stood, thanking them for their help, and asked them to call us if they thought about anything else. We set her electronics in the trunk, preparing to meet with the next family. The interviews were grueling, emotional, and so full of information. We had so many people to talk to, we delegated half of the list to the other members of our task force. Annalise dropped off all the electronics with IT to go through, then we headed back out to visit Martina's apartment.

Martina had lived in a nice gated apartment complex, which nearly eliminated the chance of it being a random stranger that came in and grabbed her. We flashed our badges to the guard, who quickly let us in. Annalise stayed behind for a few moments to discuss retrieving the footage and interviewing him briefly about that night, while I went to find the landlord. He was expecting us and had gladly accepted handing over Martina's key. She hadn't paid rent in a month, so he was eager to get her things out.