“He’s a teacher; maybe it’s all he can afford. This is stupid. I thought you had something to show me.”

“I do,” Mike said. “I just haven’t seen it yet.”

He turned and faced Greenwood. “Branford was the last person to see Caitlin.”

“Except for the prison staff and Woods.”

“Who hasn’t seen her in twenty years. Besides, Caitlin doesn’t wear lipstick.”

The road ended at a high fence topped with razor wire. Greenwood stopped the car at the gate, shifted into reverse. “Not sure that will hold up against GPS, cell phone records, and security footage.”

“She sure as shit isn’t five feet ten.”

“Maybe she wore heels.”

“Bullshit,” Mike said. “She wears black pumps or running shoes every day of the week, because she’s the kind of person who chases after a story. I thought you got to know her while she was in town.”

Greenwood looked away. “Yeah, we worked together.”

“Yeah, I heard what you did together.” Mike noticed three “No Trespassing” signs and two cameras. “What’s with all the security?”

“A lot of the old quarries fill up with water. Kids go swimming. Once a year, someone breaks a neck or a leg, has to be medivaced out. Hole back there is deep, but dangerous. No easy way to climb out once you get in the water.”

Mike smiled. “So you’ve totally gone swimming in that thing?”

Greenwood drove back toward the house. “Just one of the reasons I’m lucky to be alive.”

Mike bumped his armrest with the back of his hand. “I owe the woman, Greenwood. I know this shit doesn’t make sense, but I’m not ready to see what everybody wants me to see, not when it feels so wrong.”

He groaned. “I guess all I have to show you right now is that I’m serious about this.”

Both men stared at Branford’s house as they passed.

Greenwood finally nodded his head. “Okay, Roman. You find anything besides uneven makeup, I’ll come running, Chief Renton be damned. One more thing—”

“Don’t do anything illegal?”

“Didn’t think I had to say that, but yeah, don’t. I was going to say that this rental might not be the best tail car.”

“Two-door, salmon-colored Korean jobs aren’t the shit in rural Indiana?”

Greenwood laughed. “Locals are partial to old American pickups. My father-in-law’s Chevy is parked in the lot of his nursing home. He keeps it there just to look at, but he won’t miss it—and he owes Caitlin Bergman in a big way.”

Chapter 76

CHAPTER

76

EMBOWER LOOKED AT the forecast: showers off and on all day. Not a great morning to bike to campus. He checked the video feeds. Outside, rain fell in steady sheets. Inside, Caitlin looked content at her bedroom table, breakfast nearly finished. He opened his spreadsheet, made a note under favorite meals.