“I don’t know. Movies, mostly. Sometimes we’d meet for beers.”

“You ever go out of town together?”

“We went camping once.”

“Oh yeah? Where?”

“A state park off Highway 71.”

“Rustling Pines?”

“Yeah, that one. We did an overnight there back in February, I think.”

Brandon glanced at the straw wrapper. He unwound it and dropped it on the table.

Cooper cleared his throat. “Look, my break is over now, so . . . I should get back.”

Brandon didn’t move, and the kid just stared at him.

“Is there anything else or . . . ?”

“That about does it.” Brandon checked his watch, and Cooper scooted his chair back, eager to escape.

“Oh, one more thing,” Brandon said. “Vanessa’s sister says she got a new phone recently. You happen to have that number?”

“Uh . . . no.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah.”

“All right. That’s it for now.” He handed the kid a business card. “If anything comes up, or you think of anything that might help us, please give me a call.”

He stood and nodded as he tucked the card into his pocket.

Brandon exited the bookstore and put on his sunglasses. He spotted the unmarked police unit in front of a meter down the street.

“How was he?” Antonio asked as Brandon slid into the passenger seat.

“Jumpy.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Jumpy, like he just offed his girlfriend?”

“No. Just jumpy. He copped to being in her apartment.”

“Damn.”

If he’d denied ever being there and then they lifted his fingerprints, that would have been useful.

Some of the things Cooper had told him tracked with evidence. For example, the Decker’s matchbook in Vanessa’s apartment with Cooper’s address scrawled on the inside. Other things he’d said seemed evasive.

Brandon was used to being lied to. It happened every day. Witnesses, suspects, even colleagues. People lied all the time, and usually it was to avoid awkwardness or to make themselves look better.

Suspects were no different. The key was figuring out which lies, if any, were relevant to his case.

“He also said they went camping together once,” Brandon said, “over at Rustling Pines State Park.”

“No shit? The one by the lake?”

“Yep.”

Coincidence or not? Brandon didn’t know. It might be significant. At the very least, it told them one of Vanessa’s ex-boyfriends had spent time with her not far from the place where she disappeared.

Antonio put the car in gear. “That’s weird.”

“Yep.”

“I think this guy just moved to the top of my list.”

*   *   *

Leigh’s car bumped over the pitted road. Rounding the bend, she followed the cloud of red dust kicked up by the white pickup truck ahead of her.