"Someone is eager to talk to you," he said. "If that has to do with Elisa—"

  "It doesn't. It's my father."

  "Oh." He said nothing else for a minute, and she hoped he would drop it, but it was Cooper, so, of course, he didn't. "Why don't you want to talk to him?" he asked.

  "I'm on a case."

  "That's not the reason. What happened between you?"

  "It's none of your business," she said, as she heard the ding of a text message.

  "Looks like he's trying to get a hold of you another way."

  At the next light, she took out her phone again and read the text: I know you're in LA. We need to talk. Please call me back. She shook her head in disgust. It was just like her dad to believe she'd drop everything to speak to him.

  "Everything okay?" Cooper asked.

  She set down her phone shook her head. "Nothing has been okay with me and my dad since I was a little girl. He found out I'm in LA. He wants to see me."

  "What happened after the divorce? Did you continue spending time with him? I know you moved away, but I thought you'd come back in the summers."

  "I'm sure you were relieved I didn't," she said sharply.

  "So you didn't see your father at all?"

  "I told him I didn't want to be at our old house, so he rented a house on the beach in San Diego for two weeks, and I visited him there. He was barely around except for dinner. I didn't realize he was turning our beach vacation into an opportunity to schmooze with some clients in that area. The next year I saw him for Christmas in Aspen for a week. Same thing there. Then he got married, and I guess he thought he needed to look like a better father, so the next few vacations were slightly better. Then he and his new wife started fighting, and I felt like I was back where I'd been. By then I was in college, so we stopped forcing time together."

  "You said you haven't seen him in six years. What happened six years ago? You would have been twenty-six then."

  "I really don't want to talk about my father."

  "Just tell me what happened."

  She sighed, knowing that Cooper could be as persistent as she was when it came to getting a question answered. "I was in LA for a work trip, and I agreed to meet him for dinner. He wanted me to get to know his new girlfriend, who was twenty-five years old, a year younger than me. But he showed up late for dinner, because he got tied up having sex with a paralegal in his office."

  "He told you that?"

  "Oh, no. He said he had a meeting. But halfway into dessert, his paralegal showed up at the restaurant and said exactly what had happened. All hell broke loose. My dad had lied to two more women, both of whom seemed to have feelings for him, and I just couldn't stand it anymore. I told him we were done, and I left. I haven't talked to him since."

  "Sorry," he said, sympathy in his voice.

  She shrugged. "I don't need a father."

  "What happened with your mother? Did she remarry?"

  "Five years ago. Greg is a decent guy. He's very different from my father, very quiet, kind of meek. They don't fight. It's all very calm. In fact, they do yoga together. I guess that's what she needed—some peace."

  "I'm glad she found happiness."

  "Me, too. Once she met Greg, she finally stopped ranting about how horrible my father was, how much he'd hurt her. She started looking forward instead of back."

  "Why do you think your dad wants to see you now?"

  "I have no idea, and I don't really care. He was a terrible father, husband, and family man. He's narcissistic and cold, and sometimes I worry that…" Her voice fell away as she realized how much she was revealing to Cooper.

  "Worry about what?" Cooper prodded, sending her a sharp, questioning look.

  "This isn't a session. I'm not laying on your couch."

  "No one lies on the couch. What do you worry about?"

  "That I might be a little too much like him," she said finally.

  "No way. You're nothing like him."

  She appreciated the defense, but argued, "You don't know me anymore, Cooper."

  "Then tell me why you think you might be like him."

  "I have tunnel vision on the job. I lose track of time. I work all night long when I have to. I'm not good at relationships. I don't trust anyone. And love…that seems like a bad idea. Sometimes I think I'm dead inside." When Cooper didn't say anything, she gave him a quick look. "Forget I said all that. I don't know why I did. But you always had a way of getting things out of me."

  "Only because I was willing to listen when you wanted to talk," he said quietly. "I don't believe you're dead inside. I think you probably care too much. You want to fix everything that's broken, but you can't."

  "I do like to fix things," she conceded.

  "Then why don't you want to fix your relationship with your father?"

  She thought about that for a moment. "I don't think he deserves it."

  "He didn't cheat on you, Andi."

  "It felt like he did. My mom cried on my shoulder so many times. She told me all the ways he'd hurt her. She wanted me to hate him, and I did. But there was a part of me that wanted him to show me he was better than I thought he was. Every time I gave him the chance to do that, he failed."

  "Does that mean you're done? No more chances?"

  "I don't know," she said with a sigh. "I'll probably have to talk to him at some point."

  "Or not. You don't have to forgive him, Andi. But if hating him hurts you, then he's winning."

  She frowned at his far too insightful words. "I don’t need you to analyze me, Cooper."

  "It's what I do. I can't help it," he said with a small smile.

  "Let's talk about you," she said, eager to change the subject. "Are your parents still together? Are they happy in their marriage? What's going on with your sister? She must be all grown up now."

  "Monica is twenty-seven years old. She manages a bakery and is perfecting her baking skills."

  "Twenty-seven? I remember her at nine. She was a sweetheart, and she always liked to hang out in the kitchen and bake with your mom, so her job makes sense. Is she married?"

  "Very single. My parents are still together. They seem happy enough. They've been through a lot together, that's for sure."

  "Your mom was always so friendly to me, so welcoming. I loved being at your house for dinner. It was much more fun than mine. Your dad would tease your mom, and she'd turn red and laugh. It felt like there was a lot of love between them."

  "There still is, but they both wrestle with a lot of guilt about Kyle."

  "Do they still live in your old house?"

  "They do. They should have moved away years ago, but my mom loves that house, and even when the neighborhood turned against us, she refused to move. She wanted to hold her head high and prove to everyone that they were wrong about Kyle. I'm not sure she ever achieved that, but she gave it a hell of a try." He paused. "Kyle killed himself in that house. Did you know that?"

  She shook her head. "I didn't. I'm sorry, Cooper."

  "My dad found him. My mom was out to lunch when it happened. My father blames himself for not realizing that Kyle was in a bad place. But Kyle had actually been doing better right before that day. Maybe he'd decided he was ready to move on, to let go, and that eased the pressure that was always inside him. We'll never know. He didn't leave a note."

  Her heart went out to Cooper and his family and also to Kyle. He'd been a little odd, but he'd never been mean to her, and she knew he'd struggled to fit in, to find his way in the world. At some point, it had just gotten to be too much for him. Maybe that wouldn't have happened if she hadn't seen his car or pointed him out to the police. Or maybe it would have. She'd never know that, either.

  Her work phone rang, and she picked it up. "Hi, Savannah. Have we gotten any leads from the press conference?"

  "Yes. A lot. We're going through them. Some of them seem worthless, but that's par for the course. We did, however, get an interesting anonymous tip that Shana Grier, Neil's ex-wife, was extremely angry that Neil had a baby with Claire. Apparently, he'd refused to have a child with her. That was one reason they divorced. Then a few months later, Claire turns up pregnant. I put in a call to Ms. Grier," Savannah continued. "Her assistant told me she was out of the office until three."

  Andi checked her watch. It was a little before one, so she had some time before Shana would be back. "I'll go to her office then. Text me the details."

  "Will do. How did your meeting with Flores go?"

  "One of his staffers, Tyler Holmes was driving Flores's car. Tyler is a friend of Daniel's, or at least knows him. But he's in class right now and won't be back at the gym until tonight. I'm going to head over to Solange's house shortly and see if she's heard from her son."

  "I just spoke to her again," Savannah said. "She says Daniel left last night and hasn't come back since then."

  "He didn't sleep there?"

  "Mrs. Guerrero said no, but maybe you can get more out of her. I stressed that Daniel needs to get in touch with us as soon as possible."

  "Okay, thanks for the heads up. Let me know if you get anything else."

  "Will do."

  She had a feeling the trip to see Solange was going to be a waste of time, but she didn't have a better idea, and maybe she could get more from the woman in person. Or maybe Cooper would be able to do that, since he knew her, and she might consider him to be more of an ally than an adversary.

  "News?" Cooper asked as she ended the call.

  "A tipster suggested Shana Grier was extremely upset with Neil for having a baby with Claire when he wouldn’t have one with her. What do you know about that?"

  "Neil told me he never wanted kids until he met Claire, so I can't say the tipster is wrong, but I don't see Shana kidnapping Neil's kid."

  "It's a long shot, but I'll talk to her later today. She's out until three." She paused. "I suppose you know Shana, too?"

  "Not well, but we've met."

  "Does she dislike you as much as she hates Neil? If so, maybe you should sit out that meeting?"

  "She doesn't dislike me at all. She was the first person to read my books. She actually talked to me before Neil did, but when they divorced, he got my project in whatever settlement they made." He pulled his phone out of his pocket to read a text. "Damn," he muttered.

  "What's wrong?" she asked quickly. "Is that Neil?"

  "No, it's my sister, Monica. My mom called in a panic. Dad isn't doing well. Tomorrow is a bad anniversary. She wants us to come over."

  She saw the pain in his eyes and realized the anniversary had to do with Kyle's suicide. "I'm sorry."

  Cooper looked around. "I know you want to get to the Guerrero house, but do you think you could drop me off? We're closer to my parents' house than to where I left my car. I can get a ride back with Monica, but it would be faster to just go from here."

  "Of course," she said, as she changed lanes and directions. She didn't resent him wanting to get to his parents if there was some sort of emotional crisis going on, but she was unnerved by the idea of going back to her old neighborhood. There were so many memories there, so many bad memories. But she was just going to drop him off and leave. She could handle that. As she glanced over at Cooper, she saw the hard line of his profile. "Are you okay?"

  "No. I wish I knew how to help my dad. But nothing I say eases his guilt. It has sunk down deep into his bones, into his soul."

  "I don't think you can talk someone out of that kind of guilt," she said quietly.

  "I know, but I still can't stop myself from trying. Kyle had problems, but he wasn't a bad person. His brain just didn't work like everyone else's." He cleared his throat. "It will be ten years ago, tomorrow, that he took his life, but it feels like yesterday."

  Ten years, she thought. Cooper would have been twenty-two, and Kyle, twenty-five. And Monica was probably seventeen at the time.

  Kyle's suicide was no doubt the motivation behind Cooper's books, his desire to help free falsely convicted criminals, to go after the criminal justice system. Cooper wanted to do anything and everything he could to make sense of what had happened and try to stop it from happening to someone else's family.

  She didn't believe Kyle had killed himself just because he'd been a person of interest in Hannah's kidnapping. By the time he committed suicide, eight years had passed since Hannah disappeared. The spotlight had long since faded. Kyle had had other problems, as Cooper had said.

  But maybe she was just trying to let herself off the hook, because she hadn't ever needed Cooper to make her feel guilty, she'd seen what had happened to Kyle and Cooper's whole family when the police and FBI zeroed in on him. She'd wondered even then if maybe she'd made a mistake, but she couldn't talk to Cooper. He'd cut her off. His anger had been beyond anything she'd ever seen from him, and she'd been defensive, because she didn't want to be wrong.

  As she got closer to their old neighborhood, her nerves tightened, and she braked hard at the stop sign by Hannah's house, her mind going back to that hot summer night, to her and Cooper riding their bikes to this very corner, hearing the police sirens, seeing the neighbors coming out on their porches wondering what was wrong.

  She drew in a shaky breath. It felt like it was yesterday.

  Cooper shot her a piercing look. "Are you all right?"

  "I'm fine," she said automatically, but she didn't feel fine. She felt sick to her stomach.

  "You've never come by here, have you? You only visited your dad at other locations. So, this is the first time since you left that you've been on this street."

  "That's right, and I don't plan to stay long."

  She turned the corner ready to slow down just enough for Cooper to jump out of the car. She wasn't going to look at her old house. But when she pulled up in front of his home, his sister and mom were standing on the sidewalk, and her queasy feeling got worse.

  "You might have to stay for a minute," Cooper told her.

  "Oh, God," she muttered. "Do they hate me as much as you do?"

  "Looks like you're about to find out."

  Chapter Thirteen

  Andi didn’t want to talk to Cooper's mom Joanne, or his sister Monica. But Cooper was already getting out of the car and both women were looking at her with varying degrees of surprise on their faces. She couldn't just drive away. She had to face whatever was about to come her way. Unfastening her seatbelt, she stepped out of the vehicle, walking around the car to join them on the sidewalk.

  She told herself she was an adult now, a federal agent, but looking into Joanne's warm hazel eyes, she felt like she was a little girl again.

  "Andi," Joanne said, opening her arms.

  She was shocked by Joanne's response. She hesitated, then moved in for a hug. Joanne felt thin and more fragile than she used to. But she was still a good hugger. She still made Andi feel warmth and comfort.

  As they broke apart, Joanne's gaze swept across her face. "My goodness. You're beautiful, Andi."

  She flushed at Joanne's words, acutely aware of Monica and Cooper watching their interaction. "I'm sorry to hear that Doug isn't feeling well," she said, referring to Cooper's father.

  "And I'm sorry I overreacted." Joanne said. "Doug is all right. I thought he wasn't talking to me, and it scared me, because he used to do that right after Kyle passed away. It would take him days to get out of a depression so deep he couldn't speak. But he had his earplugs in, and he just wasn't hearing me. I panicked too quickly. With the anniversary tomorrow, I assumed the worst."

  "Well, I'm glad he's okay," Cooper said. "That's all that matters."

  "He actually seems surprisingly okay," Joanne said. "Doug told me that I need to stop worrying about him, that he's handling things. And I should believe what he says. Anyway, since you're all here, come in and say hello. But don't tell him I called you." She paused. "You can say that Andi wanted to say hi."

  Cooper gave his mother an incredulous look. "You think Dad will believe that?"

  "Well, you are with her." Joanne gave her son a puzzled look. "Why are you and Andi together? I never thought I would see the two of you in the same space again."

  "Andi is an FBI agent. She's investigating the kidnapping of Neil's daughter, Elisa," Cooper said shortly. "Neil asked me to consult on the case."

  "Oh, I heard about that on the news this morning. I hope that little girl is all right," Joanne said, fresh worry in her eyes.

  "We don't know anything yet," Cooper replied.

  Joanne turned to Andi. "I have to say I'm not at all surprised you ended up as an FBI agent. Your father actually mentioned that to me a few years ago."

  "I wasn't surprised, either," Monica put in. "You loved to play detective, Andi. You and Cooper used to make me answer the pretend phone for your fake detective agency."

  She couldn't help but smile at the reminder. "You were good at that."

  "And you were always trying to keep the teachers and the school on their toes," Joanne added. "Your mom used to worry that you would get yourself in trouble."

  "I think my mother was more worried about her own problems than what I was doing at school," she said dryly.

  "How is your mom?"

  "She's good. She remarried and lives in Chicago."

  "I heard your father is going to sell his house after all these years," Joanne said.

  Now, she was the one who was surprised. "I hadn't heard that."

  "Yes. He's been talking to Kim's son, Will, about listing the house."

  "Well, it's probably past time for him to leave this neighborhood. I never really understood why he wanted to keep the house anyway."

  "You haven't spoken to him then?"

  "Not in a long time."

  Joanne nodded, understanding in her eyes. "I can still hear the bitter note in your voice, Andi. Your dad broke your heart and your trust a long time ago."

  "Yes, he did."

  "Well, please come in. Just for a few moments," Joanne pleaded. "It will be a wonderful distraction for Doug and for me." Joanne didn't wait for them to answer, just headed toward the house.