July 2004
After
a baffling evening with Bianca on the night of July 3rd, I
returned to the club for her next usual shift on July 6th. She was not
there. I was truly worried. A phone call to the club on July
8th confirmed my fears. Bianca had gone off the schedule to "give
it a rest for a while." I was utterly devastated. Bianca had told me
about
her other job at an auto insurance agency in Brighton that was "owned
by Russians."
Its name was never revealed, but she had mentioned that Commonwealth
Avenue was significant to its location. A highly inadequate Internet
search at the
time revealed only one agency in Brighton, located on Washington
Street. The next day I drove
there in an attempt to find her. Parked across
the street from the agency was a car that was exactly like the
rare convertible that Bianca drove. Being short on time, I left a note
on the car urging her to call me. There was no response. I returned on
Monday morning the 12th to see if I could intercept her between the car
and
the office. But there was no sign of the car anywhere. The following
day I called the club again for an update. She had told them it would
be two months before she returned, if at all.
She did not give the club any new number where she could be reached.
Just two weeks earlier, she had told me enthusiastically, "Don't worry.
I'm not going anywhere. I'm staying right here." I then returned to the
agency on Washington Street. They did have a Brazilian girl working
there but she was not Bianca. I was told there are 39 insurance
agencies in
Brighton alone. I made a more complete list of agencies within
walking distance of the car I had discovered, and on the 19th I
returned to Brighton. But there was no sign of
her at any of them, even one right on Commonwealth Avenue. By late
in the month, I had concluded that Bianca had also quit her insurance
job. Then, on the afternoon of the 27th, I ended my effort to find
her in Brighton and regarded my search as a failure.
|
July 2005
The elation over the discovery of Galaxy Insurance
as the agency
where Bianca had worked quickly gave way to the reality that
information from her former coworkers was sparse and there was little
they could do to advance the search. In addition, my link
to them was purely second hand through one of my private investigators.
Everything was being filtered through his particular hunches and
interpretations. He convinced me to try another phone study to see if
we could uncover Bianca's
"American mom." It was not cheap. Yet, according to him, it produced no
usable results. Realizing that people are likely to volunteer more
information when they are comfortable and at ease with you, I wrote a
letter to Galaxy management thanking them for their time in
helping us. My intent was to win their sympathy and trust. But as the
month
wore on, it was increasingly apparent that the search had stagnated
into
another impass. |
July 2006
To mark the second anniversary
of Bianca's disappearance, I completed an overdue rewrite of the "My
Experience of Bianca" essay. I was surprised at how exhilarating and
joyful the exercise was. It emerged as largely the complete, compelling
story it is today. While in the midst of the rewrite - and thinking
about the need for a cell phone - I asked myself an interesting
question. Is there any way I could obtain or be assigned Bianca's
old Framingham cell phone number? Research from a few months prior
indicated that the number was likely available. Anyone who has obtained
a previously assigned phone number knows that on occasion, someone will
call looking for the previous customer, particularly during the first
few years. But alas, a representative of T-Mobile told me that all
numbers are assigned randomly. There is no way I could request
assignment of a specific number, even if it is available and part of
the T-Mobile network. Toward the middle of the month, I resumed my big
mailing project that dominated the spring and summer months. A mailing
to every Brazilian flavored business I could find in Framingham and
MetroWest had been completed. There were no replies. Now I wanted to
reach all real estate agencies not on the original Brazilian list with
the outside chance that I would find Bianca's "American mom."
|
July 2007
As the month began, I was
digesting a short email message from a gentleman who had patronized
Claudia as an escort. He had even provided me with her escort
cell number. He had just returned from Rio where he had met with her.
He had shown her this web site and she replied that she is not the girl
I am looking for. In my response to his message, I happened to mention
Bianca's excellent English language ability. Had this gentleman the
decency to answer my reply, it would have saved over $1000 in additional
spending and five extra months of anguish and unnecessary effort. But he
never did. Nevertheless, I was able to confirm Claudia's work as an escort.
Although I had searched through nearly 50 web sites devoted to escorts in
Rio several weeks prior, her listing had evaded me because I lacked the
model's working name. Her phone number also matched the one I had received.
Within a few days, I decided to call the number, posing as a potential
customer if I wasn't recognized. To my surprise, the number had been taken
out of service. Several days later, I also discovered that Claudia's escort
listing had disappeared and her Orkut profile was also missing. At the time,
I drew the only conclusion I could make: she was rejecting me and trying to
push me away. That perception made the final weeks of the month the most
emotionally difficult since March 2005. |
