Ryan’s face was darker than usual, tanned from his days at Kings Mountain and the farm. The early light lay golden on his skin.

“What?” Ryan caught me gazing at him.

I stared into his eyes. No matter how often I experienced it, the intensity of the blue always surprised me.

I shook my head.

Ryan raised up on an elbow.

“You look tense.”

I wanted to say what was on my mind, to form forbidden words, ask prohibited questions. I held back.

“It’s scary stuff.”

“Yes,” I agreed.

What’s scary, Andrew Ryan? You? Me? A baby in a woodstove? A HydroShok to the head?

“I’m real y sorry about the beach.” Safer ground.

Ryan broke into a grin. “I’ve got two weeks. We’l get there.”

I nodded.

Ryan threw back the covers.

“I think today it’s the Queen City.”

Ryan and I swung by Starbucks, then he dropped me at the MCME office. Immediately upon arriving, I phoned Geneva Banks. Again, I got no answer.

A prick of apprehension. Neither Geneva nor her father worked outside the home. Where were they? Why wasn’t someone picking up?

I was dialing Rinaldi when he and his partner walked into my office.

“How’s it going?” I asked, replacing the receiver.

“Good.”

“Good.”

We gave each other prefab smiles.

“Have you spoken to Geneva or Gideon Banks recently?”

Slidel and Rinaldi exchanged glances.

“Geneva phoned Monday,” I said. “I returned her cal , but got no answer. I just tried again. Stil no answer.” Rinaldi glanced down at his loafers. Slidel looked at me flatly.

Cold fingers wrapped around my heart.

“This is the part where you tel me they’re dead, right?”

Slidel answered with one word.

“Gone.”

“What do you mean, gone?”

“Splitsvil e. Vamoosed. In the wind. We’re here to see if you might know something, you and Geneva being girlfriends and al .” I looked from Slidel to his partner.

“The shades are drawn, and the place is secured tighter than a nuclear reactor. A neighbor saw the Bankses’ car pul out early Monday. No sign of them since.”

“Were they alone?”

“The neighbor wasn’t sure, but thought she saw someone in the backseat.”

“What are you doing about it?”

Rinaldi adjusted his tie, careful y centering the top flap over the bottom.

“We’re looking for them.”

“Have you spoken to the other Banks kids?”

“Yes.”

I turned back to Slidel .

“If this Tyree’s the scumbag you say he is, Geneva and her father could be in danger.”

“Uh-huh.”

I swal owed.

“Tamela and her family could already be dead.”

“You’re preaching to the choir, Doc. Far as I’m concerned, the faster we haul their asses to the bag, the better.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

“Ever heard of aiding and abetting?”

“Gideon Banks is in his seventies, for God’s sake. Geneva probably has the IQ of parsley.”