Case Type: Nonfamily Abduction
DOB : Feb-17-1979
Height:5'4"-135cm
Weight: 60 lbs-28 kg
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Blond
Parents: Joseph and Dorothy Portman
Circumstances : Tara was last seen in the area of the Kensington Stables in the Kensington section of Brooklyn near Prospect Park after horseback riding.
Date Missing : Aug-16-1988
City of Report: Brooklyn
State of Report: NY
Country of Report: USA
The photo above is how Tara looked the year she was abducted. The photo below is age progressed to age 18. Posted 1997
The age progression showed a strikingly beautiful teenager, a classic homecoming queen if Gia had ever seen one.
But Tara Portman never made it to her prom. Gia felt her throat constrict. She never even made it to high school.
"I don't like this," Jack said. "Any of it."
Of course not. What was there to like? But Gia had never known Jack as one for obvious statements.
"What do you mean?"
"Abducted kids. First I get involved with one, now you. It bothers me. Too..."
"Coincidental?"
"Right. And you remember what I was told."
Gia nodded. "No more coincidences."
The mere possibility that such a thing might be true sickened her.
"You think Tara and Due might be connected?"
"I don't see how. I mean, there's such a long span between, but then... no more coincidences." He shrugged. "Let's see what else we can dig up on her."
The page listed an email contact and three phone numbers: a toll-free for the Abducted Child network, one for the local Brooklyn precinct, and one for the family.
"Abducted 1988," Jack said. "That doesn't fit with the sixties song, but if that's the girl you saw, we'll worry about the song later."
"That's her."
Gia stared at that nine-year-old face, wondering who could have a soul so dead that he'd want to do harm to such beauty, such innocence?
"Look," Jack said, pointing to the screen. "Posted in 1997, when she was eighteen. She'd been gone nine years and the family was still looking for her."
"Or looking for closure." She looked at him. "Jack, we've got to do something."
"'We'? You and the baby are staying far away from Astoria and that house, remember?"
"All right then, you-you or somebody else has got to find her remains and let her family bury her."
"I'll take care of it," he said. "Just promise me you'll stay away from there."
"Look at her, Jack. Look at that face. How could you believe that child could hurt anyone?"
"Something awful happened to 'that child.' Abducted and killed are bad enough, but who knows what was done to her in the time between? She's not an innocent child anymore. She's not even human. And I don't like that she appeared to you and no one else."
"Look what she wrote for the Kentons: 'Mother.' That's me. A mother of one and mother-to-be of another. She wants her mother and I was the closest thing to one in that house."
"Could be," Jack said slowly. "But I still don't like it."
"Jack, if she was looking for her daddy she might have appeared to you."
"Why isn't she looking for her daddy?"
"Maybe he'd dead, or her folks were divorced, or maybe she was raised by a single mother."
"Or maybe her daddy's involved."
Gia hated that thought but had to accept it as a possibility.
"None of that matters as much as finding her. We can let the police sort out the rest afterwards."
"I'll handle it," Jack said. "I'll be in touch with Lyle tomorrow and see how far he wants to take this. Maybe I can talk him into tearing up his cellar floor."
"And me?"
"You work on your paintings and whatever else you usually do on a Wednesday."
"Yes, Poppa."
He kissed her cheek. "Please, Gia. Stay safe and stay put."
Gia nodded. "Okay."
But she couldn't take her eyes off the Portman family phone number at the bottom of the screen... a 212 exchange... right here in Manhattan...