Firewatch Ch 5

“Seems age-typical,” Flores remarks once she and Wilde are alone in Hailee Siegel’s bedroom.

Wilde considers the twin bed, the small desk, the TV, and the bookshelf. A few plushies and fragrances are displayed along with quite a few photos of a dog that must no longer be with the family. “Damn it.” She picks up a charging cord from the desk. “No desktop. She’s got her computer with her.”

“That’s good. It increases the probability that she went somewhere by choice,” Flores says.

Wilde goes to the bookshelf. “Frozen poster on the wall, Junji Ito on the shelf.” She taps a volume.

Flores looks for herself. “Lots of kids read that stuff.”

“Do lots of kids read Aleister Crowley?” Wilde points at a different book.

“Who?”

“A real weirdo. She’s got Dracula. I could never get through it. I think we’re in trouble.”

Annoyed, Flores moves in front of her and catches her eye. “What am I missing?”

“I think she had an interest in the occult and she met some people online. And then she met them in person. And now she’s gone. I know how it sounds.”

“You suspected something like this.”

“People don’t mutilate cattle for their health,” Wilde replies, checking behind each book on the shelf. She pulls a thick one down and flips through it. “Whole shelf of movies and TV shows.”

“So?”

“So, she’s not a collector. People who buy physical media like to collect things. But this isn’t a collection. Something’s missing. Something we don’t know to look for. Come on.” Wilde heads back into the hallway. “Mr. Siegel?”

He appears immediately, followed by his wife. “Did you find something?”

“Nothing game-changing. Were you aware of your daughter having any particular interest in the occult?”

The parents exchange a look.

“She liked scary things,” Mrs. Siegel says hesitantly. “That’s not weird. I like scary things. I have an old Jaws poster.”

Wilde holds up a hand to stop her. “So, she didn’t talk about anything like that? That was never discussed? Would you guys have freaked out if she’d brought up interest in the occult?”

“Uh…” Mr. Siegel shakes his head. “I don’t think so. You mean like being a Wiccan or something? We don’t care. People go through phases with that stuff. That’s not that unusual.”

“OK. OK.” Wilde drags her hand over her face. “You said she was withdrawing in the past year. Spending more time with online friends. You got any names?”

“No. She made her socials private,” Mrs. Siegel said. “Can you get into that?”

“Theoretically, but not right here, not right now. But I want you to email her usernames to me as soon as we leave here.” Wilde hands over her card. “Was there anything unusual in terms of her interests? I notice she has some stuff in there that seems odd. Some old TV shows on DVD. A couple of books that aren’t the usual college girl stuff.”

“That’s recent,” Mr. Siegel says. “I actually made a joke about her phone, and—are you guys old enough to remember what computers used to be like? A big, heavy tower and a fat CRT monitor? You remember that stuff?”

Flores watches Wilde’s eyes harden.

“I do,” Wilde says.

Mr. Siegel scratches his head. “She wanted to know about that. That’s the kind of stuff that would have bored her to death when she was younger. She asked me a lot about what the internet used to be like, and floppy disks, stuff like that. She went to a couple of garage sales and bought old VHS tapes that she would find there. I thought it was some kind of hipster thing.”

Wilde looks hungry now. “Where are these tapes?”

[ Back on Monday ]