Page 34 of Guess Again
“Last night I did some digging and looked into the location of where calls originated from in the six months leading up to her disappearance. Nothing stood out except one call that pinged a cell tower in Chicago. She made the call two days before she went missing, and I want to know if there’s any way to figure out where, exactly, she was in Chicago when she made that call.”
Christian squinted his eyes and took a moment to process the question. The man was clearly in his element.
“I’d have to get my hands on the SIM card.”
“We can do that. You just have to wear gloves.”
Christian pointed at the phone. “Bring that with you and come into my office.”
Ethan grabbed the evidence bag that contained Callie Jones’s cell phone and followed Christian through the first floor until they came to the end of a long hallway. Christian opened the door to reveal a large room filled with several computer monitors, a standing desk, and an eighty-five inch television mounted on the wall. As soon as Christian entered the room, each monitor simultaneously blinked to life.
Christian shrugged and tucked a long strand of sandy blond hair behind his ear. “You can take the kid out of Silicon Valley, but you can’t take Silicon Valley out of the kid.” He raised his eyebrows and widened his eyes. “Let’s take a look at that phone.”
CHAPTER 31
Chicago, Illinois Saturday, July 26, 2025
THE DAY AFTERETHAN VISITEDCHRISTIANMALONE HE MADE THE DRIVEfrom Cherryview to Chicago. Using GPS tracking software and identifying the cell towers the phone signal pinged, Christian had triangulated Callie Jones’s likely location when she made the call from her cell phone on Thursday, July16, 2015. Christian offered a disclaimer that he couldn’t be sure, but also gave Ethan the impression that he had little doubt that the call had originated near the corner of West Division Street and North Milwaukee Avenue in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood. And, specifically, from 1152 North Milwaukee Avenue.
Ethan pulled to the intersection now and stopped at the red light, taking in the establishments on each of the corners. There was a Polish deli on the southwest corner, a dry cleaners across the street, and veterinary clinic next door. The light turned green, and Ethan pulled through the intersection. As he headed down Milwaukee Avenue, he came to the address Christian had provided and saw a Planned Parenthood clinic on his right.
A block down he found a parking spot on a side street and pulled his Wrangler to the curb. He doubled back to the clinic and walked inside. The woman behind the reception desk offered a confused expression when he walked in.
“Can I help you?” she asked.
Ethan removed his DCI badge and showed it to the woman.
“My name’s Ethan Hall. I’m an agent with the Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation. I need to ask a few questions about a missing persons case from a few years back to see if there’s any way to confirm that the victim visited this clinic.”
The woman seemed unequipped to handle Ethan’s inquiry.
“You probably need to speak with my supervisor.”
“That would be great.”
A moment later a woman emerged from the back.
“Hi. I’m Cheryl Stowe.”
Ethan made the same introduction.
“I’d love to help you,” Cheryl said. “But patients who visit the clinic are protected by HIPAA regulations, so I wouldn’t be able to tell you if the person you’re looking for visited the clinic or not.”
Ethan nodded. “Understood. The girl I’m interested in is named Callie Jones. She went missing from a small town up near Madison in 2015. I’ve got good forensic cell phone evidence that places the girl at this location at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, July 16, 2015, two days before she disappeared. The only reason I can think that a seventeen-year-old girl who lived in Wisconsin was standing outside this building in Chicago was to visit this clinic. Maybe because she was pregnant and looking to have an abortion. The forensic evidence placing her here was strong enough for a judge to issue a warrant that allows me to take a look at your records.”
Ethan produced the search warrant but didn’t mention that the judge, who issued it at 8:00 p.m. the previous night, was a close personal friend to Governor Mark Jones.
The supervisor swallowed hard and nodded her head. “Of course. I can show you anything you need. I just need to make a call and run it past my boss.”
“Of course.”
Thirty minutes later Ethan was sitting in Cheryl Stowe’s office as she typed on her computer.
“I run the clinic now as the supervisor,” Cheryl said, “but back in 2015 I was a nurse. Our digital records go back to 2008, so we should be able to access what you’re looking for from July of 2015 through the electronic medical records system. If this girl came to the clinic, I’ll know in a minute. You said her name was Callie Jones?” Cheryl asked as she typed. “You have a date of birth?”
“August 7, 1997.”
Cheryl finished typing and shook her head.
