“Wichita may be small, but it’s a lot bigger than East Hampton.”

“Figured it was a shot in the dark.”

“Not that dark, as it turns out. There’s another reason I was calling you. Janice Beale’s house backed up to one of the city parks, with a big family rec center. The police helped run a summer camp program there, and Beale used to come outside to play with the kids, give them lemonade, that kind of thing. After she was killed, the kids made it sound like her house was almost like an extension of the camp.”

Carter gave a quick pump of his free fist.

“I was going to pass that on as a possible explanation for the blood, but now that you’ve got a name and an age—”

“It feels right,” Carter said. “Don’t suppose this camp is the kind of place that keeps records from twenty-three years ago?”

“No clue, but it’s at the Edgemoor Park Rec Center, and at least at that time, it was called the COP Youth Camp.”

“Sounds like a euphemism for a juvenile detention center.”

She chuckled on the other end of the line. “The COP part of the name is an acronym—Community Oriented Police. But, yes, it doesn’t exactly scream carefree summer fun.”

“What about LockeHome? Lopez made a call to their main corporate number a couple of months ago.”

“That could be anything. I assume you’ve heard of the company. It’s huge.”

“But this wasn’t a call to a customer-service eight-hundred number. He used the three-one-six area code, a direct call to the headquarters in Wichita.”

“Unless the switchboard system has a way to track the transfer to a specific extension, it’s going to be a needle in a haystack. Locke is probably one of the top five employers in Wichita—more jobs than the city, state, feds, or university. I probably know at least fifteen people who work there now. Actually, let me give one of them a call and see what I can find for you.”

Carter accepted the offer, remembering when he used to be the kind of cop who would have volunteered to help out if the tables were turned.

22
Tuesday, June 22, 1:19 p.m.

Steve picked up after two rings. “Two calls in two days. Lucky me.”

“Except you might not like the reason I’m calling,” Ellie said.

“Unless something’s wrong with you, Jess, or your mom, whatever reason you have for calling always makes me happy.”

“It’s about that case we talked about.”

“No . . . really?” he asked, making no attempt to conceal the sarcasm. “I might keel over from shock.”

“I know you told me to leave it alone, but—”

“And I also knew that you wouldn’t. No apologies necessary as long as you’re okay. What’d you find out?”