Before She Disappeared

Before She Disappeared Plot Summary

Introduction

# Before She Disappeared: A Search for the Forgotten The nightmare always begins the same way—Frankie Elkin sinking into dark water, her lungs burning as she searches for answers at the bottom of a lake. But this time, when she jolts awake on a train bound for Boston, the dream feels different. More urgent. The skeletal face of Lani Whitehorse, the last missing person she found, still haunts her vision, whispering "too late, too late." Frankie has made finding the forgotten her life's work. Fourteen missing persons cases across the country, each one a puzzle that law enforcement has given up on. She travels light—one suitcase, no permanent address, no family waiting for her return. Just an endless string of cold cases and the ghosts of those she couldn't save in time. Now, drawn by an online plea from a desperate brother, she's arrived in Mattapan, Boston's most dangerous neighborhood, searching for sixteen-year-old Angelique Badeau. The Haitian girl vanished eleven months ago after walking out of school on a Friday afternoon, leaving behind only a backpack hidden under a bush and a family that refuses to believe she ran away.

Chapter 1: Chapter 1: Arrival in Mattapan - The Seeker and the Sought

The first thing Frankie notices about Stoney's bar is the smell—stale cigarettes, grease, and something indefinably hopeful buried beneath the decay. The second thing she notices is that every eye in the place is watching her, the lone white woman who clearly doesn't belong in this corner of Mattapan. Stoney himself is a weathered Black man with salt-and-pepper hair and the kind of stillness that comes from surviving everything life can throw at you. When Frankie asks about the bartending job, he simply says "No" and goes back to drying glasses. But she doesn't leave. Instead, she picks up a towel and starts helping, working in comfortable silence until he grudgingly admits she can pour drinks and the room upstairs comes with a roommate—a feral cat named Piper who hates everyone. That evening, Frankie climbs the stairs to meet Guerline Violette and her nephew Emmanuel in their cramped apartment. Guerline is a certified nursing assistant with the bearing of a woman who has carried too much weight for too long. Emmanuel, thirteen and gangly, has the protective stance of someone forced to grow up too fast. The apartment is a riot of color—yellow walls, red furniture, green plants everywhere—but the empty space on the couch where Angelique used to sleep feels like a wound. Guerline's English carries the music of her native Haiti, and when she speaks of her niece, her voice breaks just slightly. Angelique wasn't the type to disappear, she insists. The girl had plans—medical school, a future, a way to keep the family safe from deportation. Emmanuel nods fiercely, his laptop covered in stickers from the digital memorial he's built for his sister. He's been posting online for months, trying to keep her case alive when everyone else has moved on. As Frankie leaves their building, she feels eyes tracking her movement through the darkness. This neighborhood keeps its secrets close, and she's just announced herself as someone who intends to dig them up.

Chapter 2: Chapter 2: Threads of a Life - Family, Friends, and Secrets

Detective Dan Lotham finds Frankie the next day, standing outside Angelique's school and studying the bushes where the girl's backpack was discovered. He's a big man with the buzzed hair of former military and a face that's seen too many fights—broken nose, scarred ear, the kind of weathered features that tell stories without words. His irritation radiates off him in waves as he watches this civilian insert herself into his case. But Frankie has already figured out something the police missed. The location where Angelique's bag was found isn't random—it's a blind spot in the school's surveillance, a place students use to stash contraband before entering through metal detectors. More importantly, Angelique had to have gone back inside the school to change clothes, which means someone propped open the emergency exit for her. At Le Foyer Bakery, over flaky meat patties that taste like heaven, Detective Lotham grudgingly shares what he knows. The investigation stalled because Angelique seemed to have vanished into thin air. All those cameras, all that technology Boston prides itself on, and somehow a fifteen-year-old girl disappeared without leaving a single trace on video. When Frankie tracks down Angelique's best friends, Kyra and Marjolie, outside the school during lunch break, she learns that something had changed in Angelique the summer before she disappeared. The girl had become distant, distracted. Kyra is convinced it was about a boy—first love, maybe even sex. But Marjolie, hurt that her best friend might have kept such a secret, insists Angelique would have told them everything. The conversation is cut short by the school bell, but not before Frankie notices the yellow ribbons both girls wear pinned to their clothes. Eleven months later, they're still hoping their friend will come home. As the girls rush back to class, Frankie catches sight of a tall, skinny Black man in a retro tracksuit watching her from across the street. When she blinks, he's gone, but the chill of being observed follows her all the way back to Stoney's.

Chapter 3: Chapter 3: The Second Shadow - Livia Samdi and Hidden Connections

Emmanuel appears at Stoney's the next morning with his battered laptop and a discovery that changes everything. His sister has been taking online courses to graduate early, and someone just completed one of her assignments—eleven months after she disappeared. The essay is crude, handwritten on torn paper, but hidden within it is a coded message using the lyrics from an 80s song: "Never gonna give you up." Except two words don't belong to the song: "Help Us." Detective Lotham arrives with crime scene urgency, but it's not the police lab they need—it's the realization that Angelique is alive and trying to communicate. The essay was uploaded from an internet café in Roxbury by someone using a fake ID with the name Tamara Levesque. The attendant remembers a Black girl in a red baseball cap who paid him twenty dollars to post her assignment, then disappeared when her phone rang. The coded plea confirms what Frankie suspected—this isn't about one missing girl. The "us" in Angelique's message suggests others are in danger too. But who? Emmanuel is safe at home. Angelique's friends are accounted for. The mystery deepens when Frankie visits the rec center where Angelique spent the summer before she vanished. Frédéric, the Haitian director, remembers Angelique from the fashion camp—a quiet girl who loved to sketch. But he also recalls another student, one who always wore a red baseball cap and seemed to spend more time watching Angelique than participating in class. When Frankie shows him the registration list, one name jumps out: Livia Samdi. Charlie, her new friend from AA, recognizes the name too. At a meeting months ago, Livia's mother had mentioned her daughter running away. The pieces start falling into place with sickening clarity. Two girls from the same summer program. Two disappearances months apart. And now, a desperate message suggesting they're together and in terrible danger.

Chapter 4: Chapter 4: Blood Money - Counterfeit Bills and Real Danger

The lamp in Angelique's corner of the family room seems innocent enough—a ceramic base painted in cheerful checks of red, purple, and turquoise. But when Frankie unscrews the bottom, rolls of cash come tumbling out onto the floor. Thousands of dollars in tightly bundled bills, far more money than any teenager should have hidden away. Guerline's gasp of horror tells Frankie everything she needs to know. This isn't the family's money, and its presence in their home is as shocking to them as it is to her. Detective Lotham bags the evidence with grim efficiency, but the forensic results only deepen the mystery. Mixed in with legitimate twenties are counterfeit hundreds—sophisticated fakes from a Russian operation that's been flooding the world with near-perfect currency for decades. The Secret Service agent who arrives to examine the bills explains that these aren't the work of local criminals. The counterfeits require master craftsmen, specialized equipment, and connections to international crime syndicates. It's the kind of operation that doesn't recruit teenage girls from inner-city Boston. And yet, somehow, Angelique had gotten her hands on a significant stash. Meanwhile, the search for Livia Samdi leads to a very different kind of family. The Samdi household reeks of neglect and desperation. Johnson, Livia's older brother, is a low-level drug dealer with more attitude than sense. Their mother, Roseline, is a functioning alcoholic who can barely remember her daughter's favorite color, let alone her friends or activities. But when Frankie presses for details about Livia's disappearance, something shifts in Roseline's demeanor. The house isn't safe for girls, she whispers. If Frankie finds her daughter, she shouldn't bring her home. The warning comes just as footsteps pound toward them from the front of the house. Roseline shoves Frankie out the back door as gunshots split the air. Running through the maze of Mattapan's streets, Frankie feels the familiar terror of being hunted. The nightmare memories of another time, another place, another person she couldn't save crash over her. By the time she reaches safety, she's sobbing uncontrollably, lost in a past that refuses to stay buried.

Chapter 5: Chapter 5: Messages from the Missing - Coded Pleas for Help

Charlie spots Angelique at a wireless store, trying to buy a burner phone with the same fake ID she used at the internet café. The girl in the red baseball cap bolts when she realizes she's been recognized, leaving behind only questions and a growing sense of urgency. Two public appearances in two weeks suggests Angelique is trying to make contact, but something is preventing her from simply asking for help. The investigation into Livia's background reveals a girl with extraordinary talent trapped in impossible circumstances. At Boston Polytech, her AutoCAD teacher describes a student with an intuitive understanding of three-dimensional design and manufacturing. Livia could create complex plastic molds, design intricate mechanical parts, and see how individual components worked within larger systems. She was preparing for a national competition when she disappeared. But talent alone doesn't explain the connection to counterfeit currency. The 3D printer at school could create plastic objects, but counterfeiting requires sophisticated printing presses and specialized inks. There's no obvious path from designing fidget toys to manufacturing fake hundreds. Yet the timing is too precise to be coincidental—Angelique disappears, then Livia, and somehow counterfeit bills end up hidden in a ceramic lamp. The breakthrough comes when Detective Lotham realizes they've been looking at the surveillance footage all wrong. For eleven months, they searched those videos for one missing girl. But knowing about Livia changes everything. When they review the cameras from Angelique's last day at school, they're no longer looking for a lone teenager. They're looking for two girls who might have been working together. The grainy footage finally reveals what they missed before—a figure in a red baseball cap near the school's emergency exit, timing her movements to avoid the cameras. Livia was there that Friday afternoon, helping Angelique change clothes and hide her backpack. Whatever plan the girls had, they executed it together. And whatever danger they're in now, they're facing it as a team. The coded message takes on new meaning: "Help Us" isn't just about Angelique and some unknown victim. It's about two friends who got in over their heads and are now trapped in a situation they can't escape alone.

Chapter 6: Chapter 6: The Web Unravels - Following the Trail of Two Girls

The pieces of the puzzle begin forming a picture, but it's one that makes Detective Lotham's jaw clench with frustration. Two intelligent, talented girls from different worlds somehow found each other and got involved in something that put them in contact with sophisticated criminals. Angelique's academic ambitions and Livia's technical skills created a partnership that should have led to bright futures, not disappearance and danger. The counterfeit bills suggest the girls weren't just victims—they were participants in whatever scheme ultimately trapped them. But the nature of their involvement remains maddeningly unclear. Livia's 3D printing abilities could contribute to counterfeiting operations, but only as a small piece of a much larger puzzle. And Angelique's careful planning and attention to detail would make her valuable for coordination and execution. What's becoming clear is that both girls had been living double lives for months before they disappeared. Angelique's secret phone, her hidden cash, her ability to move around the city undetected—all point to activities her family knew nothing about. Similarly, Livia's after-school hours at the technical school provided cover for projects that went far beyond classroom assignments. The red baseball cap becomes a crucial detail, linking the girl who watched Angelique at summer camp to the figure caught on surveillance footage to the person trying to buy phones with fake identification. Livia has been Angelique's shadow and partner throughout this ordeal, but now they're both running out of time. Detective Lotham's decision to keep the latest developments quiet reflects the delicate nature of their situation. If Angelique and Livia are being held by criminals sophisticated enough to produce near-perfect counterfeit currency, any public attention could put them in greater danger. The girls' apparent freedom of movement suggests they're not locked in a basement somewhere, but rather trapped by threats against their families or each other. As Frankie walks through Mattapan's streets, she feels the weight of responsibility settling on her shoulders. Fourteen previous cases, fourteen missing persons found—but never in time to save them. This time feels different. This time, the missing are still alive and fighting to come home. The question is whether Frankie can decode their messages and follow their trail before whoever is holding them decides the girls have become too much of a liability.

Chapter 7: Chapter 7: Into the Darkness - Kidnapping, Murder, and Final Gambit

The phone call that shatters everything comes at three in the morning. Emmanuel's voice cracks through the static, desperate and terrified. He's been taken—thrown into a white van by men who knew exactly where to find him. Guerline's wails echo through the apartment as Frankie arrives to find the front door splintered, furniture overturned, and blood on the kitchen floor. The message is clear: Angelique's family is no longer safe. Whatever game the girls have been playing with their captors, the rules have changed. Detective Lotham arrives with crime scene tape and grim efficiency, but they both know time is running out. Emmanuel's kidnapping isn't random violence—it's leverage, a way to force Angelique into compliance. The breakthrough comes from an unexpected source. Johnson Samdi, Livia's drug-dealing brother, appears at Stoney's bar with tears streaming down his face and blood on his hands. His sister is dead, he sobs. Found strangled in Franklin Park, her red baseball cap missing, her young face peaceful in death. The girl who'd spent months in the shadows, helping her friend survive, had finally run out of luck. But Livia's murder reveals the fractures in the criminal conspiracy. Johnson describes a tall, thin man in a tracksuit—Deke Alarie, recently released from prison and desperate to reclaim his place in Boston's underworld. Deke was Livia's half-brother, a man who'd abandoned his family for crime only to return seeking redemption through blood ties. He'd found his little sister grown into a young woman with talents he could exploit. The fake university scheme emerges in all its sophisticated horror. Gleeson College existed only in cyberspace—stolen photos, fabricated faculty, course catalogs designed to fool immigration officials. Hundreds of foreign nationals could use its credentials to apply for real student visas, gaining legal entry to the United States. The operation was worth millions, and Livia's technical skills had made it possible. But Deke's attempt to protect his sister had come too late. His partners had grown impatient with Livia's deteriorating mental state, her increasing desperation to escape. When she tried to run, they silenced her permanently. Now only Angelique remained, trapped between her captors' demands and her love for her kidnapped brother.

Chapter 8: Chapter 8: Justice in the Shadows - The Recreation Center Confrontation

The recreation center squats in the darkness like a sleeping beast, its metal walls hiding secrets that have festered for months. Frankie approaches through the shadows, her borrowed baseball bat feeling inadequate against the magnitude of what lies ahead. But inadequate weapons are nothing new—she's been fighting losing battles her entire adult life. The white van parked outside tells her she's in the right place. Blood stains the cargo area, and the metallic scent of violence hangs in the air like a promise. Emmanuel is inside somewhere, probably hurt, definitely terrified. Time is running out for both Badeau siblings. Inside, the building echoes with the sounds of captivity. Frankie moves through the corridors like a ghost, avoiding the guards who patrol with casual brutality. When she finds the makeshift computer lab where Angelique has been held, the scope of the operation becomes clear. Dozens of workstations, sophisticated printing equipment, and walls covered with fake university materials. The confrontation with Frédéric Lagudu shatters her last illusions about human nature. The recreation center's executive director, the man who'd dedicated his life to helping at-risk youth, had been the architect of their destruction. His cultured French accent and gentle demeanor mask the soul of a predator who saw opportunity in teenage desperation. "You stupid bitch," he snarls, pressing her face into the floor until her nose breaks and blood fills her mouth. "You should have minded your own business." But Angelique is there, battered but unbroken, her love for her brother giving her strength to fight back. The girl who'd survived eleven months of captivity isn't going to surrender now, not with Emmanuel's life hanging in the balance. The baseball bat in her hands becomes an instrument of justice, connecting with Frédéric's skull just as Detective Lotham bursts through the doorway. The final gunshots echo through the building like thunder, and then it's over. Frankie lies bleeding on the classroom floor, her shoulder on fire where the bullet tore through muscle and bone. But she's alive, and more importantly, so are Angelique and Emmanuel. For the first time in fifteen cases, she's brought someone home breathing.

Summary

The Angelique Badeau case closed with justice served but scars that would never fully heal. Frédéric Lagudu died in the recreation center he'd corrupted, his criminal empire crumbling with him. The surviving conspirators faced federal charges for immigration fraud, kidnapping, and murder. But for the families touched by their crimes, justice was cold comfort against the weight of permanent loss. Angelique returned to school with plans to pursue medicine, carrying Livia's memory like a sacred flame. Emmanuel threw himself into computer programming, finding solace in the logical certainty of code. Frankie Elkin disappeared into the American landscape as quietly as she'd arrived, carrying her battered suitcase and her burden of the lost. Somewhere in another city, another family was learning that hope was a luxury they could no longer afford. But hope was exactly what Frankie offered—not the false promise of happy endings, but the harder truth that someone, somewhere, still cared enough to look. In a world that forgot its missing with casual cruelty, that had to be enough. It had to be everything.

About Author

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Lisa Gardner

Gardner reframes the thriller genre by focusing on psychological depth and authentic investigative processes, bridging the gap between fiction and real-world criminology. Her work often explores themes of survival, trauma, and the psychological aftermath of violent crimes, all set against complex mysteries and intense psychological suspense. Her characters, such as the missing persons expert Frankie Elkin, bring to light the overlooked narratives of those who vanish without a trace, while her dedication to thorough research ensures that each story resonates with credibility.\n\nIn addition to her gripping storytelling, Gardner's career traces a journey from initial forays into romance writing under the pseudonym Alicia Scott to her acclaimed status as a thriller novelist. This transition allowed her to engage with darker, more complex narratives, which have captivated audiences worldwide. Her novels, such as "The Perfect Husband" and "The Neighbor," demonstrate her ability to craft suspenseful tales that challenge readers' perceptions of crime and justice. Readers benefit from her deep character studies and plot twists, finding not just entertainment but also insight into the human condition.\n\nGardner's impact extends beyond her novels, with accolades such as the Silver Bullet Award from the International Thriller Writers for her advocacy work, illustrating her commitment to social issues. Her books, translated into over 30 countries, have secured her a prominent position in international literature. As an author whose works are adapted into TV movies, Gardner continues to influence the genre while engaging readers with stories that balance thrilling narratives with thoughtful explorations of psychological and social themes.

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