Chapter 4:
As Eddie drove to the car rental location, she contemplated how to handle the staff at the agency. She could come off as sweet and friendly but in light of the current situation, that wasn't the best choice. A missing child was far too serious and time sensitive for that approach. If she came off with too tough of a representation they were likely to be defensive, regardless of whether or not it was necessary. If watching Danny had taught her anything, she'd noticed that his often overly insistent or aggressive approach had a tendency to make things harder than they needed to be when gathering evidence. He was so successful because he had the advantage of working alongside Maria Baez, who played good cop to his bad cop when needed. No, if Eddie was going to learn anything from the staff, she'd have to split the difference.
She could probably get them to lower their guard by being ambivalent. She decided to pretend that she saw no real probative value in their records but needed them as a formality. She would present herself as worried for the little girl, and eager to get back to the "real" investigation. Hopefully, she could learn something from the staff when they thought her attention was elsewhere. In reality, the only time her attention was anywhere by on Emelia's disappearance, she was thinking about Elizabeth. As much as it troubled her, she couldn't stop imagining how devastated she and Jamie would be if she was taken from them.
Capitalizing on that feeling, she walked inside and up to the receptionist. Quickly scanning the room, she noticed she had a good view of several computer terminals. The entire building was small with only two closed doors visible. One solid door with no lock on the handle or door jam would likely lead to a break room and rest rooms for the employees. It had no name tag or markings. The other door was also solid, and the handle had a keyhole. It looked like something that might open up to a closet or storage room, rather than a private office. Eddie realized that in all likelihood, she was able to see all of the computers used by employees.
As soon as Eddie made eye contact with the thirty something man behind the desk, he seemed surprised and uncomfortable. Another female employee stood up and approached the counter as well when she heard her colleague say, "Good morning, officer." Both employees appeared unsure of why the police were there, but not exactly defensive or nervous. Eddie decided to start by impressing upon them the seriousness of the situation for Emelia and her family. Without any greeting and a rushed expression, Eddie produced the search warrant that was provided to her by the detectives. She made sure to tell the employees that the police were trying to contact "all" the rental agencies in the area that vehicles on the road yesterday afternoon. While she alluded to "multiple" rental locations, there was only one place and one vehicle that Eddie and her colleagues were interested in.
When the woman spoke up and asked what they needed to do, Eddie quickly but nonchalantly told her that they needed the last six weeks of rental records and attempted to seem flippant about the request. Then, she used her phone to pretend to speak with her sergeant about having made the "2nd stop" and promising to join the search once she had visited ALL of the rental agencies just in case the employees were reporting back to anyone. She continued to use the fake phone call to allude to following up on the leads they had about the parents. Eddie just hoped that if there was a connection between someone in the rental agency and the kidnappers, the parents were not connected to their crime.
"Do you need names and addresses only or copies of their licenses too?" asked the female employee who had positioned herself at the computer terminal. "Warrant says complete records, might as well include pictures...I'll make sure we get you a reimbursement form for the paper and ink." Eddie replied with ambivalence. The woman's colleague was curiously monitoring the interaction from his place at the front counter but seemed comfortably unconcerned about the nature of the information being delivered. He watched them like a curious onlooker. Eddie had not revealed anything about the particular vehicle being sought so she watched as pages and pages of information streamed from the printer. As soon as the printer stopped, two inches of paper sat in the tray. Eddie used the evidence bag she brought to collect the stack, sealed the bag and initialed it along with the employee who provided the information.
Leaving the employees with their copy of the warrant as well as a form to reimburse the company for the printer supplies, Eddie grabbed the evidence and headed for her car. She could only imagine that both employees had begun sharing details of their strange morning before Eddie had even pulled out of the parking lot. Just in case any of the people they gossiped to had any connection to the crime or the media for that matter, Eddie knew they needed to begin pouring through the information as soon as possible.
Once the detectives knew she had the information they needed, they directed her to meet Detective Petersen back at the detective bureau of the 2-9. When she breathlessly arrived with the package he greeted her by asking, "You wear reading glasses?". When she nodded negatively, he said, "then let's get started."
Two hours, four cups of coffee and a shared pizza later, Tom Petersen heard Eddie say she had found the rental they were looking for. A maroon Ford sedan had been rented to Julio Anthony three days before the kidnapping. The car was due to be returned the following day but both of them were sure it would either be late or reported stolen soon. Once he had the name they were looking for, Tom decided to direct Eddie back to the family's house to round out her shift.
