“All right. I’ll keep seeing what I can find. So far, the Brandenbergs are centered around Wayne.”
“That’s two hours from here.” He looked at the school again. “St. Mary’s?”
Caleb looked up from his computer. “Isn’t that the school in town that closed a few years ago?”
“Maybe. I wonder if there’s one in Wayne.” A few clicks and he had a phone number. “Hello, this is Detective Westmont with the Lincoln Police Department. Could I speak with someone in the office who can confirm whether a student is enrolled there?”
The woman who had answered hesitated. “I can’t give you that information. Let me see if the principal is available.”
“Thank you.”
A minute later a woman came on the phone. “Principal Hayes. I understand you have some questions about a student.”
Todd identified himself and then explained what he needed. “We’ve got an unidentified girl that we think is Eliza Brandenberg. Could you describe her for me?”
“Eliza?” The woman’s uncertainty trembled in her voice. “She and her family moved several months ago.”
“She had her St. Mary’s school ID in her backpack.”
“That’s unexpected. Was it a black backpack with pink Legos across the bottom?”
Todd looked at the area where his desk intersected with Caleb’s where the backpack sat. “That’s the one.”
“It’s the only one like that I have seen.” The woman’s concern deepened. “I’d describe Eliza as thin and very blonde. She’s a highly intelligent child. She’d just started entering the difficult teen years where she was pushing her parents and they were considering where the boundaries should be.”
“Any concerns about drugs?”
“With Eliza?” The woman’s shock seemed genuine. “Not at all. She was too smart to mess with something that as she would tell you could kill you the one time you experimented. She well understood times had changed and fentanyl made playing around with drugs incredibly risky. Her adoptive brother had died of an overdose making it incredibly unlikely she would ever do anything like that.”
“Her brother was adopted.”
“You misunderstand me.” The woman paused as if wanting him to make the connection, but Todd would wait her out. “She was the one who was adopted.”
“And she was beginning to act out.”
“Just a bit. Like she was testing her parents’ love. After her brother died, things were hard.” She sighed. “He was well loved but that didn’t protect him. He overdosed the first time he experimented. A bad batch made its way up here. The other two kids survived, but he didn’t.”
“What are her parents’ names?”
“Why?”
“We haven’t located them.” He tapped the card against the desk. “The only way we know Eliza’s name is this student ID card.”
The woman sighed. “I don’t understand.”
“I don’t either. I’m hoping her parents can help fill in some gaps.”
“William and Odette.”
“Where did they move?”
“Waverly. From one W to another. Eliza thought it was ridiculous. Not happy to leave her friends.” The woman paused. “Will she be okay?”
“I hope so. Thanks for the information. Can I call you if I have more questions?”
There was a brief pause. “Sure. She was always a sweet girl. Her brother’s death impacted the entire family, but I think it hurt her most. He was the star of the family. He had a scholarship to play football in college. And then he was gone.”
“There was quite an age gap.”
