As Joanne got up to get dessert, the doorbell rang.

  "I'll get that," Monica said, eager to leave the table.

  Andi looked at Cooper, who was sitting across from her. "I've gotten great at clearing a room."

  "You had help from the cookies and the doorbell."

  "And the reminder of what happened to Kyle."

  "That, too," he admitted.

  "Your mom is wonderful. I don't think I've ever known anyone as generous as she is." She felt an odd moisture gather in her eyes, and she blinked it away. She didn't get emotional. She didn't cry—ever. But she felt like tears were not that far away, and that was a shocking feeling.

  Cooper gave her a funny look. "Andi? What's going on?"

  Before she could answer, she heard voices getting louder. She looked to the doorway as Monica entered with an older woman, a woman she hadn't seen in a very long time. It was Kim Lassiter—TJ's mother. Kim was a curvy, short blond, now in her early sixties, wearing a white blazer over a sunny yellow dress that was as bright as her smile. Kim looked great, but there was a tightness to her face that suggested she'd had some work done. She certainly hadn't allowed herself to age as naturally as Joanne had.

  "Hello, Andi," Kim said. "TJ said he saw you last night, and that you were with Cooper. That floored me. But here you are again."

  "It's nice to see you, Mrs. Lassiter."

  Kim waved her hand at her. "Oh, you're all grown up now, Andi. You can call me Kim. I saw your dad a few weeks ago. He really misses you. I hope you'll spend some time with him."

  "We'll see."

  "Your father told me you're very busy with your job."

  She couldn't imagine how her father would know if she was busy or not. Despite his recent calls today, he had never tried that hard to see her. It was a little baffling that he was doing so now.

  "Kim," Joanne said, as she returned to the table with a plate of cookies that she'd apparently warmed up. "Are you hungry? I have some chicken salad and cookies."

  "I wouldn't mind a cookie. You are the best baker I know." Kim took the seat that Doug had vacated. "Is Doug around? I've been thinking about you all this week. I just wanted to stop in and say hello, ask if you need anything. I know this is a hard time for you."

  "That's very kind of you," Joanne said, as she sat down. "We're fine. It's always a hard week, but we get through it, because we don't have a choice."

  "I still remember when our boys used to hang out in my basement playing video games together. Will and Kyle and TJ and Cooper. It's hard to believe Kyle is gone. It was such a tragedy. Kyle was always kind to the younger kids, too. One time, when TJ was little, his bike broke down several blocks away, and Kyle walked him home to make sure he was safe. Kyle would have never hurt little Hannah, not in a million years."

  "Kyle loved younger kids," Joanne said, nodding her head in agreement. "They were easier for him to deal with. They didn't have expectations. They didn't judge his behavior like kids his age did. Thank you for sharing that, Kim."

  "I'm not sure if it helps or if it hurts to hear the memories."

  "It helps more than anything," Joanne said.

  "I hope so. Hannah has been on my mind all day since I heard about that other little girl going missing this morning. It brought back sad memories for me. So many days passed when I'd look at the yard between our two houses and wonder if someone had crept through there and taken Hannah out of her bed. I didn't sleep well for months after that. I kept checking on my kids every night."

  "We all did that," Joanne said solemnly. "It was a difficult time."

  "It was." Kim's gaze swung back to Andi. "Are you working on that case with the FBI?"

  "I am."

  "Well, that makes me feel better. I know how determined you are, Andi." Kim paused. "You were so caught up in Hannah's case, did you ever look it up when you started working for the FBI?"

  "I did," she admitted, feeling the heat of everyone's gaze on her now. "I went through all the reports. I even talked to the agent who ran the investigation to see if he had any new thoughts about it, but he told me he'd hit dead ends everywhere he turned."

  "I doubt he made many turns," Cooper said, bitter anger in his voice.

  She wasn't going to defend Agent Burnett. "I may take another look at that case, see if there are any parallels to the current one."

  "Do you think there's a connection?" Monica asked in surprise. "So many years apart?"

  "I don't know. But both kids were taken out of their homes with no sign of a forced entry." She got to her feet. "I should get back to work."

  "Your father is very proud of you. I hope you know that," Kim said, as she rose. "He's not a man who's good at expressing his feelings, but when he talked to me about your job, he was beaming with pride."

  She found that ridiculously hard to believe, but she wasn't going to argue with Kim.

  "I should go, too," Kim added. "And Cooper, TJ said he'd love to get drinks with you sometime and reconnect. I know you split apart in high school when everything was going on, but you were so tight when you were little kids. I hope you can find that friendship again."

  "It would be great to spend more time with TJ. His girlfriend seemed very nice," Cooper said.

  "Yes. Naomi is lovely, although I think she may be a bit more ambitious than my son, who I love dearly. But the only thing TJ has ever cared about is music, and it's hard to make money at that."

  "Well, money isn't everything," Joanne said. "As long as your kids are happy, that's all that matters."

  Kim's expression softened in sympathy. "You're so right, and I'm very lucky to have my boys. They kept me going after Steve died."

  "I was sorry to hear about your husband's death," Andi said. "I still remember when Steve used to be the grill master for our Fourth of July parties."

  "He always loved to grill," Kim said. "Although Steve was never willing to accept that some people just don't like their meat bloody rare. I'd make him throw my steak back on the grill every single time. But men can be stubborn, especially with barbecue." She ended her words with a shrill little laugh that rang a bell in Andi's brain. But she didn't know why.

  As Monica, Kim, and Cooper walked out of the dining room, she lingered behind to give Joanne a hug. "Thanks for lunch and for not hating me."

  "Oh, Andi, I couldn't hate you." Compassion filled Joanne's eyes. "And as much as Cooper wants to hate you, I don't believe he does."

  "He seems to go back and forth. He forgets he hates me and then he suddenly remembers. I'm so sorry about Kyle and whatever part I played in what happened to him."

  Joanne took her hands and gave them a squeeze. "You were a young teenager who was just trying to help. The police and the FBI went in on Kyle because he was an easy target. They gave him up to the press, and public sentiment was damning. It hurt Kyle a lot. It hurt all of us. But we got through it, and I know you were going through your own hard times then, too. You were looking for a distraction."

  "Yes. I wanted to fix something, but I couldn't fix anything that was broken."

  "Cooper wanted to fix it all, too, but some things are beyond our control." She paused. "I'm glad you finally came home, Andi."

  "I'm not sure I would call LA home, but I'm back."

  Joanne nodded in understanding. "Your father can be a tough person to like. I knew some of what your mother went through, and since then I've seen a few other crying women going in and out of your father's house."

  "Do you ever talk to him?"

  "I don't go out of my way not to, but even though he's lived across the street from me for thirty-five years, I can't say I know him at all. I was your mother's friend, and I think he realized quickly that I knew too much about him."

  "I know too much about him, too. That's why I really don't want to spend any more time with him. Anyway, if I missed anything about the place where I grew up, it's this house, not the one I lived in. You always made me feel happy and safe here."

  "I'm so glad. Now, don't be a stranger. You can always come by to visit, with or without Cooper."

  "I appreciate that." She gave Joanne another hug and then walked out to the car.

  Cooper and Monica were on the sidewalk talking to Kim, but their conversation ended as soon as she drew near.

  "Ready to go?" Cooper asked.

  "Yes." She turned to Monica. "I'll definitely stop by your bakery as soon as I can."

  "That would be great," Monica said.

  Andi couldn’t tell exactly how Monica felt about her. She wasn't as hateful as Cooper, but she was not as welcoming as her mother.

  "I hope you find that little girl, Andi," Kim said.

  "I will," she said confidently. "There's no other option."

  She walked around the car to get in on the driver's side. Cooper opened the passenger-side door, and she heard Kim's shrill laugh once more as she and Monica found humor in something. As she fastened her seatbelt, an old memory niggled at the back of her mind. And then it came to her.

  "Oh, my God!" she said. "That laugh. It's the same one."

  "What?" Cooper asked as he shut the door, cutting off the sound of Kim's laughter.

  "It was her," she added, shocked by the realization.

  "What are you talking about?"

  She watched as Kim and Monica hugged, then Kim moved down the street while Monica got into her car.

  "Andi?" Cooper pressed. "Where are you?"

  "In the past." She turned back to him. "I was about twelve, I think. My mom called my dad one night, looking for him, which she did a lot. He always ran errands or took walks or went on runs at night, but that night he'd been gone for hours, and she was getting worried. When he answered his phone, we heard a woman laughing in the background. It was a shrill, high-pierced laugh. My mother asked him where he was, and he said he'd walked to the store and was coming home soon. When she hung up, her eyes were burning with anger, and she said, 'I can't believe it's her. And he thinks I'm that stupid.'"

  Cooper gave her a thoughtful look. "Are you suggesting your father and Kim were having an affair?"

  "Yes. That laugh is the same one I heard on the phone that night, and my mother was convinced my father was not at the store."

  "Kim has an irritating and distinctive laugh, but you're making a leap, Andi. I'm sure there are other women who laugh like that. And even if your dad was with Kim at that moment, they both could have been at the store."

  "My father admitted to cheating on my mom, Cooper. I never got names, but I know there were at least three, because my mom told me one would have been forgivable, but three women was just humiliating." Her gut churned at the thought of Kim and her dad hooking up. "And if it was true, how disgusting was that? They were both married. Their kids went to the same school and were all friends. Kim was on the PTA with my mom at one point."

  "My mom, too," Cooper said. "Everyone knew each other around here."

  "Maybe Kim and my father knew each other a little too well. It makes sense. Kim's husband, Steve, travelled a lot. And TJ and Will were probably oblivious to anything their mom was doing."

  "Probably," he agreed. "They got high a lot."

  "I should have tried that. I wanted to be oblivious to what was going on in my house. I wanted my mom and dad to be normal and boring, like everyone else's parents. I didn't want the fighting, the accusations, the car leaving in the middle of the night, my mom crying, my dad apologizing, and then more yelling. It was either tensely silent, politely fake, or just weird. I wanted a family dinner that was warm and filled with conversation and laughter, like yours always were. Even today, even with all the animosity and history between us, your parents welcomed me in." She cleared her throat, feeling a little choked up. "I'm still surprised they did that."

  "My parents have always been generous people."

  "You're lucky, Cooper."

  "I know," he said, meeting her gaze. "I should probably try to be more generous, too."

  His words and the look in his eyes twisted her stomach again in a different way as she remembered the tension between them in his bedroom before his mother had interrupted them.

  And then her personal phone dinged with a text. Her father—again! "We seem to be on our parents' radar," she muttered.

  She read his text, which was long and more detailed. Her father had some of her old things that she'd left behind when she was a kid and now that she had her own apartment, she should come and get them. He was going to put the house up for sale, and he wanted her boxes out. If she didn't come and get them, he'd throw them away, but he didn't want her to get angry if he threw away something she might want, like her favorite books, and her old journals. He added that he was going out of town and would be back on Sunday and to call him then.

  "What does he want?" Cooper asked.

  "He wants to get rid of some stuff I left behind when my mom and I moved. I'm surprised he hasn't done it before now." She looked from the phone to him. "Do you remember the journals I used to write in when I was working on a case?"

  "Of course. You were always officially taking notes."

  "I stopped all that when I moved. I left them behind and never really thought about them since then."

  "Do you want to get them now? We won't be any closer."

  His words almost made her look at her old house, but she stopped herself from turning. "No. He said he's going out of town until Sunday. I'll deal with this next week." She picked up her phone and sent a brief text that she wanted her things, but she was working an investigation so she'd set up a time next week when he was back, and her case would hopefully be over. She hit send and then started the car. "It's time to refocus on the case. Break is over."

  Chapter Fifteen

  They arrived at Solange's house, a one-story home in a modest neighborhood in south LA a little before three. The yard was neatly kept, and there was a large vase of flowers by the front door.

  When Solange opened the door, she gave them a wary look. She wore faded jeans and a sweatshirt, and her brown eyes were stressed, her face pale. "Have you found Elisa?" she asked.

  "Not yet. May we come in?"

  "I don't know what else I can tell you." Solange waved them into the living room. It was a comfortable room with two large, pillowy couches and a big TV taking up most of the room. There were toys in one corner that Andi's eyes immediately strayed to.

  "My granddaughter comes over sometimes," Solange said quickly. "She's two. My oldest daughter's child." Her gaze moved to Cooper. "Why are you here, Dr. Bradford?"

  "Agent Hart has a few more questions for you, and I wanted to tag along," he said.

  "I wish I could help, but I wasn't at the house yesterday morning. I didn't see anything."

  "Where's Daniel?" Andi asked. "I know my office spoke to you earlier, and you said you haven't seen him since last night. Is that true?"

  "Yes. He went out with friends. He does that sometimes. He's twenty years old. He's an adult. Why are you looking for Daniel? He was at the gym yesterday. He didn't take Elisa. He wouldn't do that. He loves her."

  "Then there's no reason for him not to talk to us," she said. "But he hasn't returned our calls. Why don't you call him now? Ask him to come home. Tell him you need to see him, that you're upset, whatever will get him to come back here."

  Solange stared at her, clearly weighing the possibility of her son being in trouble with her need to find Elisa. "Daniel is a good boy. He just drinks a little too much. Ever since his father died, he's been struggling, but he wouldn't hurt a soul."

  "You need to call him, Solange," Cooper said, drawing the older woman's gaze to his. "Neil would really appreciate your help. And Claire is desperate to get her daughter back. The sooner Agent Hart talks to Daniel, the sooner we can move on to someone else."

  Andi saw Solange waver. It bothered her that Cooper's words were more compelling than hers, but he had a history with the woman, and whatever got her cooperation was all that mattered.

  Solange walked over to the table and picked up her phone.

  "Don't tell him we're here," Andi said. "And put the phone on speaker."

  Solange drew in a breath, then called her son. They heard a phone ring somewhere else in the house.

  Andi's stomach turned over. "His phone is here."

  Solange headed down the hall, and she and Cooper followed. The ringing phone sat next to an unmade bed. The room was a mess, clothes everywhere along with some dirty dishes and empty beer bottles.

  "He must have forgotten to take his phone," Solange said. "I'm sure he'll be back soon."

  She wasn't sure at all, and she didn't think Daniel had forgotten his phone. "When's the last time you saw him?"

  "It was around six last night. He was going to meet friends. I don't know who. He doesn't tell me. But he's not a kidnapper. He wouldn't hurt a child, especially not Elisa. He knows her. He has played with her."

  Solange's words only made her more suspicious of Daniel. Elisa hadn't cried when someone had picked her up out of her crib, at least, not according to Kristine. That could mean Elisa felt comfortable with the person picking her up.

  "Does Daniel have another phone?" she asked Solange.

  "I've never seen one."

  She walked over and picked up Daniel's phone. It was password protected. "Do you know his code?"

  Solange shook her head. "I don't invade his privacy." She hesitated. "I can't let you take it, unless you tell me you have the legal right to do so?"

  Without Solange's help, getting probable cause and access to the phone would take more time than she had, and she suspected it would lead nowhere. Daniel hadn't left the house without any way to communicate with his friends. He had to have another phone, probably one that couldn't be traced.

  She set down the phone, then turned to Solange. "Does he have a car?"

  "No."

  "How did he leave last night?"

  "Someone picked him up. I'm not sure if it was a friend or a ride share."

  Everywhere she turned, she ran into a brick wall. She changed directions. "What can you tell me about Kristine Rozic? Do you know anything about her private life? Her friends? Where she goes on her days off?"