“Then probably Lily wasn’t on that night. All that hospital time blurs for me, Daddy.”

“But even if Lily wasn’t on official duty, she could have been hanging around Nursery J and you wouldn’t have thought a thing about it.”

“No, not at all. But I don’t know why she’d hang around the nurseries if she wasn’t on duty…unless you think she was involved.”

Decker didn’t answer.

Quietly, Cindy asked, “Daddy, why’d you specifically ask about a big black woman?”

Decker ran his hand down his face. “The bones in the Honda don’t belong to Marie, honey. They belong to a big and heavy woman who’s probably black. Was Lily big and heavy?”

Cindy nodded gravely, then her eyes began to water. Decker felt like a jerk. He should have been more subtle in his questioning, remembering Cindy was his daughter, not just another witness. But once he got into the swing of questioning, it was hard to turn off the cop mode.

“She seemed like a nice person,” Cindy said. “Lily, I mean. She was young…not much older than I am.”

“Princess, we haven’t even identified the body yet. This Lily could be safe and sound, at home watching TV and munching Cheetos as we speak. I shouldn’t be exposing you to this kind of garbage.”

“No, it’s really…” Cindy forced herself to smile at Hannah. “Do you actually think Marie Bellson killed Lily?”

“I won’t even begin to speculate before we have an I.D. on the bones. Right now I’m thinking about Darlene. I don’t know if she was holding out on me or if she just made an honest mistake.”

“Or like I said, maybe Lily wasn’t on duty, Daddy.”

“Maybe.” Decker put down his briefcase and went back into the kitchen. He stared at the grapefruit resting on the counter. His stomach was a knot, but he had to eat if he was going to be productive. He put up a pot of coffee, poured himself a bowl of cereal, scrambled some eggs, and forced breakfast down his gullet. Going through his notes one more time, he couldn’t understand how this Lily person was overlooked. About ten minutes later, Cindy came in with Hannah and sat beside him. Decker took his daughter’s hand.

“Are you okay, Cindy?”

“Fine.”

“Honey, I want you to forget about the case, all right?”

“No, it’s not all right. If you need my help, you have to ask me. You owe it to Caitlin Rodriguez.”

Decker stood. “I’d better get to work.”

“You’re brushing me off.”

“No, honestly, I want to get to the hospital and talk to Darlene…if she’s even there. I’ve got to check out Lily. I’ve got a load of details to work out if I’m ever going to make headway on this case.”