She couldn’t hold back.

“Did you know Chief Watkins drives a dark gray truck?”

Reyes burst out laughing. “Wait . . .” He covered his mouth with his hand, stifled the laughter. “You think the chief’s truck is the truck Edith Moore saw?”

“So you do know?”

“Everyone knows. He’s had it for years.”

“And you didn’t say anything?”

Reyes grew defensive. “No, I didn’t. Do you know who else has a truck? Mr. Klinger down on Mullberry Street. Henry Drumming on Maple. Let me think . . . oh—I know! Mrs. Urbansky! Sweet Orla Urbansky—now, hers is silver, but we already established that Edith Moore couldn’t see a fucking thing because of the storm and is just hoping to cash in when your mother finally decides to come home!”

Nic stared at him now, stunned by the abrupt change. He was just as quick to anger as he was to soften.

“Maybe Mrs. Urbansky helped your mother disappear. Hell, maybe she and the chief are in it together.”

“Okay—I get it,” Nic said. “I didn’t know. That’s all. I saw him here earlier and it just surprised me.”

“Was he with a woman?” Reyes asked.

“How did you know?”

“Jesus, were you watching? I didn’t peg you for that sort of thing.”

Nic felt her cheeks burn. “I wasn’t watching.”

Reyes stared at her, raised an eyebrow.

“Not like that. I saw him walk to the truck and I didn’t know what to do.”

Reyes was now contrite. “I’m sorry. I don’t meant to give you a hard time. Two things—first, the chief has his vices. It’s common knowledge. His wife’s death did a number on him. But second—the chief is also the man who took me in when I needed a change. Saved my life, really. And the things he does for the community—the kids in this town. You have no idea. Since he lost his wife before they could have children, he’s been a man of service. And a man of vice. Every coin has two sides, right?”

Nic ran this information through the other facts she now held back. How he’d helped Daisy Hollander leave town. The contempt Kurt Kent seemed to have for him and Reyes, contempt that Nic had yet to understand but knew was very real. And the tone of his voice when he was done with that prostitute in the parking lot. He’d been cruel and degrading, practically shoving her out the door.

“I didn’t know,” Nic said.

“It’s all right.”

She thought then about two sides to every coin. About the two sides of her father.

“I need to tell you something.”

Reyes leaned in and listened intently as she told him about her suspicions, the late nights, the car parked downtown and not at the train station.