The Stolen - Jason Pinter [40]
her head, obviously realizing that living for free with
Darcy wasn't so bad.
"One thing's for sure," I said. "The Oliveiras couldn't
wait to get the heck out of Meriden after Michelle turned
up."
"Can you really blame them? I mean, their daughter
disappears, do you really want to hang around and subject
her to those memories? Subject your other children to
that? I'd want to start my life over, that's for sure."
"I guess you're right," I said "God, that has to be every
parent's worst nightmare come true."
I thumbed through the papers and the rest of the police
reports, paying particular attention to the reports from the
day Michelle disappeared and the day she returned. The
police work had been thorough. More than thirty neighbors and friends had been interviewed, as well as all of
Michelle's classmates, teachers and her private music
instructor, which the Oliveiras admitted cost nearly a
hundred dollars a session. In the report, Carlos and
Jennifer acknowledged the expense, stating their daughter
was a gifted violinist and they simply wanted to give her
the best chance to "make it."
"Michelle's currently enrolled at Juilliard," Amanda
said. "Full scholarship."
"You don't say. I guess Michelle did make it. That's
called beating the odds."
I found an interview the police had conducted with
Michelle's violin teacher, a Ms. Delilah Lancaster. Ms.
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Lancaster was scheduled for her weekly lesson with
Michelle the evening she disappeared. At eight o'clock she
showed up, unaware of the situation. According to the
report, Ms. Lancaster had seen the police, got spooked,
tried to run away, which led to her questioning and being
a part of the police report. Delilah had confirmed their relationship, mentioning that Michelle had recently begun
working through a book called Solo Pieces for the Inter-
mediate Violinist. They had just begun lessons on George
Frideric Handel's "Air," from the Water Music. She had
just completed works by Vivaldi and Mendelssohn.
Four years later, when Michelle returned, the first
person she asked to speak to was Delilah Lancaster. According to the Oliveiras, nobody was closer to Michelle
than Delilah Lancaster. The police ran a cursory investigation into the woman on the chance they'd find some sort
of impropriety. They uncovered dozens of e-mail correspondences between the two and many phone calls to and
from each other's homes, but they seemed to be more of
the gifted student/dedicated teacher variety. Lancaster
taught Michelle Bach and Mozart and Vivaldi, fingerboards and upper bouts. She was clearly a gifted student,
but nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
Carlos Oliveira remarked to the Meriden Record-
Journal after Michelle's reappearance that socially, his
daughter seemed to have withdrawn. She was unsure of
herself, timid.
"She spends hours, I mean, hours a day locked in that
room of hers, fiddling with the violin as if it's all she's got
in the world. We try to push her to go outside, play like a
normal girl, but all she cares about are those strings. She
used to have so many friends. She was such a popular girl.
At least she's safe now, that's what matters most."
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Jason Pinter
"The music teacher," I said. "I think I'll give Ms.
Delilah a ring. It seems like she was the closest person to
Michelle Oliveira, and spoke to her the most after she
came back. All Michelle had left was her violin. If
anybody knows anything it might be the music teacher."
I held up the folder. "Can I keep these?"
"Sure," Amanda said. "But I swear, Henry, my career
is on the line."
"No worries. I'll take good care of this."
She looked at me, as if debating whether I could be
trusted. Finally Amanda stood up. She downed the rest of her
coffee, flung it at the garbage. It rattled around and fell in.
"Keep me in the loop, will you? It sickens me to think
this has happened to more than one child. That it even
happened to one is just...God, horrible."
"You know I will. I know what