After another trip to plug in the outdoors lights, I noted Teo conferring with Holly at the head of the stairs. “Coffee or something stronger?” I asked.

“How about both?”

“Done.” At the well-stocked liquor shelf, I pulled out Irish whiskey. Then I selected dark roast pods and started the coffee maker.

Since the afternoon we’d confronted Jonah Greer, Teo and I hadn’t seen much of each other, although he’d made it clear that when I needed him, he’d be available. He’d been letting me know that this was my life, and he wasn’t going to interfere. And he was letting me come to terms with Wendy’s life in my own way.

Between the girls and the holidays, I’d spent whatever hours were left researching Out in the Cold’s next podcast. Sophie and I had taken several trips north to interview principals involved in the new case. We’d also done on-site records searches, and snapped hundreds of photos of buildings and settings relevant to the story. We were on our way, but, of course, not fast enough.

And every evening after the girls were in bed, I’d delved deeper and deeper into the dark web. Sophie was searching for Milton Kearns, too, but so far, both of us had come up empty-handed.

Disappearing was an art form practiced by criminals, the battered and stalked, and those poor souls who wore aluminum-foil hats and stuffed cotton under their doorways. I Spy made a killing selling how-to manuals. The lighter reads advised staying off social media and investing in a shredder. The more serious explained how to misdirect investigators, how to find a job that paid under the table, and how to buy everything under the guise of a legal but otherwise spineless corporation.

Wendy and Milton Kearns seemed well informed. But from prior investigations I knew there was hope. The longer anybody tried to stay under the radar, the better the chance they would slip up.

Unfortunately, the flash drive I’d found in the safe was still with Glenn, who was trying to decrypt files that had been encrypted by a master. So far he hadn’t been successful, but in his eyes, that just made the challenge more fun.

I had discovered new information about Wendy from my mother, although more was still an arm’s length away. Without explaining about the passports, I’d told Mom I had an old appointment book of Wendy’s and wondered about certain dates. She had answers. During the first stretch when my sister had been in Brazil, she had told my parents she was in Texas at a seminar. In fact Mom remembered flying to Connecticut to take care of the girls, and Wendy had come home looking puffy and exhausted.

Bryce was home on leave during the longer trip. He’d flown the girls to California to meet distant relatives, and supposedly Wendy had gone off to visit college friends and do a little traveling on her own. Mom remembered because she had sounded so much happier, so rejuvenated, by the time she returned.