“Alone. I trust no one, not even my own suppositions. Let’s face it: you’ve just shown me a wall covered in suspects. It’s going to be hard for me to ignore those faces and not assume they’re guilty.”

“They are guilty.”

“And that’s my point. You telling me they’re guilty doesn’t make them guilty. I’ve got to concentrate on what can be proven with facts.”

“But I know things no one else knows, Caitlin.”

Caitlin checked the car’s clock. Thirty-nine minutes left. Better let the girl talk.

“Fine. What are you dying to say?”

“Really?”

“Go for it.”

Lakshmi took a deep breath. “Kieran Michelson was not Angela’s boyfriend.”

Of all the possible threads involved in Angela’s disappearance, Lakshmi’s chosen topic reminded Caitlin that the girl had only recently hit twenty-one. Time for a patient lead, casual and caring. “No?”

“Everyone calls him Angela’s boyfriend—her mom, the cops, the press. They weren’t boyfriend and girlfriend. They just got drunk or high together, hooked up every once in a while.”

Caitlin paced her. “Why is that important to you?”

“Because it shows how little they knew her and how little they’ve tried to get to know her since.”

“Her mom calls her Angie.”

“Angela hated that. I love Doris, but she still sees her daughter as a thirteen-year-old. Kieran wasn’t her boyfriend, just a—” She stopped.

Caitlin wanted more and knew the words to get there. “A fuck buddy?”

Lakshmi blushed, looked away. “Yes, that.”

“Did Angela have a lot of fuck buddies?”

Lakshmi hesitated again.

Caitlin tried a guess. “It’s college. Nothing too serious?”

Lakshmi nodded. “She wasn’t a slut or anything. She was just trying out some things.”

“What about you, Lakshmi? Do you have a boyfriend?”

Lakshmi matched a serious headshake to her words. “No, not me.”

“What about a fuck buddy?”

Again, the emphatic head shake. “Nothing since Angela disappeared. No time.”

“When will it be the right time?”

“For a fuck buddy?”

Caitlin really enjoyed Lakshmi’s accent. She felt tempted to see how many times she could make the girl say fuck buddy, but moved on. “For you to think more about your relationships than Angela’s.”

Anger darkened the girl’s face. “I’ll move on when someone catches the monsters that took my best friend.”

Chapter 11

CHAPTER

11

NEAR CAMPUS, LAKSHMI stopped in front of the bars on Kirkwood Avenue. “Are you going to start working?”

“It’s Monday afternoon. Don’t you have any classes?”

“What do classes matter?”

“Lakshmi, I will definitely need your help in the future, but please go to class.”

Caitlin got out and walked to a Tibetan restaurant crammed into an old two-story house. She settled at an outdoor table, then noticed a familiar face.