That was a fair question. “For now, all I can say is that Tanya Kenworth and her two children, Caitlin and Troy, are missing. We’d like anyone who has seen or had contact with them in the last forty-eight hours to call our toll-free tip line.”
“Do you believe they have been seriously injured?”
Eve ignored the question, got into her car, and drove off. Not that evading the question made any difference. Eve was certain that Darrow already knew the answers to all the questions that she’d asked . . . and so would everybody who would be watching.
And Darrow knew that, too.
CHAPTER NINE
Eve went back to the empty squad room and laid out what she knew about the crime across several dry-erase boards. She started by creating a timeline, adding the information they had to it and illustrating the facts with printouts of her crime scene photos, a headshot of Tanya’s that Eve downloaded from the extra’s casting agency, and pictures of Caitlin and Troy that Duncan got from their school.
Her phone vibrated in her pocket. She took it out and saw MOM on the caller ID. Eve surprised herself by answering the call. “Hey, Mom, I’m kind of busy right now.”
“I just saw you on the news,” Jen said. She had a scratchy voice that men found sexy but that Eve knew came from cigarettes and alcohol. Eve could swear that she smelled the cigarettes through the phone. “Kate Darrow is a knockout. She looks like an actress playing a reporter.”
“It’s the boobs,” Eve said, feeling her shoulder muscles becoming rebar.
“At least she knows how to use hers.”
“I’m a cop, Mom. It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to dress like that unless I was going undercover as an escort.”
“You looked like a hobo next to her. You don’t appreciate how lucky you are to be getting so much screen time.”
“I don’t want it.” Eve knew it infuriated her mother to hear her throwing away something that Jen always wanted and considered priceless.
“The camera loves her and it could love you, too, if you made an effort. It takes two seconds to put on lip gloss and you can do wonders with concealer.”
“I don’t carry makeup with me on the job.”
“Would it have killed you to take off the hat?”
“I really don’t have time for this, Mom. You saw the news. I’m in the middle of a homicide investigation.”
“I’m well aware of what you’re doing. I was on the FBI’s Criminal Behavior Task Force.”
“You wore an FBI windbreaker and stood in the background on a Criminal Minds episode. It’s not the same thing.”
“It still haunts me,” she said.
Eve saw Deputy Ross walk in with a stack of papers. “I have to go, Mom. Love you. Bye.”
Ross dropped the papers on the table beside her. “Here are the reports from the canvas of the neighborhood and a list of license plates from the cars parked at the Topanga Park trailheads.”