“This,” he said, handing the papers to Nic. “It’s the handwriting analysis.”

Nic stared at the report, scanning each page quickly, reading things about slants of letters and spacing of words, turning them until she got to the end—and the word “inconclusive.”

“I thought it was confirmed—the note? That it was my mother’s handwriting?”

Watkins was at a loss.

“And my father knew about this?” she asked.

“Jeez, listen. I had no idea,” Watkins said now. “I assumed he told you. It came in a few days after you left.”

Nic sat back down, stunned by these new facts, but also her father’s lie. She knew why he’d done it—he wanted her to move on the way he had. The way he’d forced Evan to do by sending him back to school. He’d said as much on the phone when he’d gotten her text earlier that morning, saying she was coming back to Hastings to follow a lead. This is absurd . . . I’m having my PI look into this woman, what’s her name? Why would you do this? Do you need me to come? He was in Chicago for a sales conference. I’ll be on the next flight. And then, after he’d relented, When you get back we are going to have a long talk about your life.

They’d been having this part of the conversation for days. With her mother gone, he’d suddenly taken up parenting as a new hobby, insisting she get on with her life. Stop her bad behavior. His favorite new expression—you’re not your mother.

She tried to explain this to Watkins. “My father thinks what you think—that this new lead is a scam. And that even if it’s not, my mother doesn’t want to be found. He wants me to come home.”

“I see,” Watkins said. “Well, I can’t argue with him. Everything supports that conclusion”

“Is that why the case wasn’t reopened—after this report came in?”

Watkins shrugged. “The facts haven’t changed, that’s why. Look—the report is inconclusive. It’s not negative. The note was found in the hotel room she paid for. It was on paper from the notepad in the room. She was upset, nervous. Maybe her hands were shaky.” Then he said it again—“It wasn’t negative.”

Nic felt irritated now, and skeptical of everything she’d been told, or had assumed.

“What else should I know?” Nic asked. “Any more charges to her credit cards? Any communications on her cell phone account? And what about the casino? Are you still looking at the security cameras? It can’t be that hard to find someone there.”