She was distracted with her phone, and he took a second to stare. She wore a loose pink sweater and black yoga pants, and her hair was down around her shoulders today. She looked better than he’d expected—a hell of a lot better than she’d looked yesterday afternoon when he’d gone to her house and informed her that a video had turned up, indicating that her sister was alive. Kate had dissolved into tears right there on her patio.

She’d pulled herself together since then, but she still looked like she could use about ten days of uninterrupted sleep.

Kate glanced up from her phone as he walked over.

“Hi,” she said, jumping to her feet. “Thanks for meeting me.”

“No problem. Sit down.” He joined her on the bench. As noisy as the lobby was, he preferred talking to her here instead of taking her upstairs and parading her through the bullpen.

She took a deep breath and looked at her hands.

“What’s up?” he asked casually, trying to get her to relax.

“First . . . I’m sorry about yesterday.” She looked embarrassed. “It seems like I cry every time I see you. I’m not like that at all, usually. It’s just been . . . a stressful week.”

“No worries. I get it.”

She cleared her throat. “Well, you asked me to let you know if I heard from Vanessa.”

He eased closer.

“I talked to her last night. Unexpectedly.”

“Did she show up at your house?”

“I’d prefer not to get into that.” She gave him a pained smile. “Sorry. But she told me about everything that happened, and I have a better understanding now of why she did what she did.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yes. And I encouraged her to come here to the police station and explain everything herself. She’s still hesitant, though.”

“Why?” Antonio tried to keep the annoyance out of his voice, but he couldn’t really do it. He was too pissed off. He’d spent a full week basically wasting his time.

“She’s not ready.”

Antonio tamped down his temper. Kate looked at her lap and he waited for her to glance up. Finally, she did.

“Is Vanessa at your house, Kate?”

“What? No.” She looked confused.

“Where is she?”

“Still with Cooper. Why?”

“So . . . that means you got a babysitter for Sylvie so you could come all the way here to talk to me. It must be important.”

“Sylvie’s at my neighbor’s.”

“Okay.” Even with the other girls in school, he knew it was a hassle for her to come here. “What’s really on your mind?”

She took a deep breath. “I wanted to ask you to please not drop Vanessa’s case.”

He just looked at her.

“I know you think she misled you. And she did. I know you and the other detectives put a lot of time and effort into searching for her and—”

“Eight days.”