“Maybe he slept in the park…Jeez, that man is hard to locate.” Decker raked his hair with his hands. “Gabe spoke to his mother at four in the afternoon. He said that Terry sounded fine. He returned to the hotel suite at around six-thirty, seven, and she was gone. If Donatti did something to Terry, he only had a two-or three-hourmax window; meaning he would have had to return immediately after he left. Was there any record of any livery service dropping him back off at the hotel?”

“No cab, but I haven’t tried the car services yet.”

“Maybe he had a second vehicle and was planning all along to sneak another visit in with his wife after I had left.”

“Would she be stupid enough to let him in?”

“They parted on relatively good terms. He seemed okay. Maybe she was caught off guard.”

“Or maybe he never returned,” Eliza said, “We’re focused on him, but we ought to consider that Terry was a friendly woman. Maybe the wrong type of guy misinterpreted her friendliness for something more.”

“Then there would have been some sort of struggle in the hotel room. Besides, her car is gone and so are her purse and keys.” Decker thought a moment. “Cars don’t disappear as easily as people. You think we might have found the car by now, and the fact that we haven’t makes me wonder.”

“I’ll check out some local garages and storage areas,” Eliza said.

“Good idea. I’m just wondering if she’s long gone. I think her son found his passport and birth certificate in the hotel safe, but not her passport or her birth certificate. Maybe she took them and took off.”

“Sounds plausible.” A pause. “What do you mean by you think that he has his ID?”

“I asked to look through the papers left behind in the safe and Gabe was reluctant to show them to me. When I asked about his mother’s passport and birth certificate, he was quiet. He’s hiding something. Sooner or later, I’ll get it out of him.”

Eliza paused. “So you haven’t taken a look at his birth certificate?”

“No. Why?”

“Just wondering if she listed Chris as the father. Maybe Terry was hiding a deep secret and Chris found out about it. I mean, we always know who the mother is. But we don’t always know who the father is.”

“I don’t know about that. She was sixteen and a virgin when she met him.”

“So he took her virginity. It doesn’t mean he knocked her up. Didn’t you say he spent some time in jail? Maybe she got bored of waiting.”

“Maybe.” Decker paused. “He would have killed her if he found out the kid wasn’t his.”