Читать книгу Limb from Limb - George Hunter - Страница 29

Media interest in Tara Grant’s disappearance was becoming so intense, Hackel decided to hold daily 11:00 A.M. press briefings in the conference room at police headquarters. Two large cardboard blowups of Tara’s portrait were placed on easels on each side of the podium from where Hackel gave his daily updates. One of the photos was the picture that was originally released by police in the missing persons flyer, depicting Tara in a dressy sweater and scarf. The other photo was a shot of Tara leaning back slightly in a rocking chair and turning her head to smile at the camera.

“I figured having a press conference each day would allow me to pass information on to the media, and allow the media to ask me questions, without having to make a million phone calls every day,” Hackel said. But each morning, the sheriff grimly reported the same thing: there was nothing new; there was still no sign of Tara.

Reporters, who crowded elbow to elbow at the large wooden table that dominated the narrow conference room, pressed Hackel: was Stephen a suspect?

Hackel maintained that Stephen Grant was not—although the sheriff continuously expressed frustration that Stephen refused to help with the investigation.

“It’s become very clear at this point he doesn’t want to cooperate with us,” Hackel told reporters. “You would think he would be right there at our side, wanting to get all the information he could get from us. But he hasn’t called us once. Think about that. He called us and said his wife is missing, but since then, he hasn’t once called us to ask how the investigation is going, or if we have any new information,” Hackel said.

“We’re getting support from other family members, and from Tara’s workplace,” the sheriff said. “The only person who is not cooperating with us is Stephen Grant.”

Detective Sergeant McLean was after another search warrant—an effort to trace Tara’s whereabouts by the location of her personal/work cell phone. The warrant covered all incoming and outgoing calls from Tara’s Cingular cell phone account from February 9 onward. The warrant also directed the Cingular National Subpoena Compliance Center to provide a list of all recorded cell site locations activated by this number during this time frame.

But like every other road pursued in the investigation so far, this one was a dead end.

Out of the public eye, Verena Dierkes quietly boarded a jet at Detroit Metropolitan Airport, bound for Frankfurt.

The young nanny was leaving Michigan behind, months earlier and under vastly different circumstances than she had planned. But her memories, and her secrets, soared toward Germany with her.