The first thing he did was call his old partner on the ATL PD to give him Lexie Pine’s name and approximate age. He asked him for any and all information, as fast as possible. Then he called Gabrielle to update her so she wouldn’t waste more time on Trey and Spencer’s old case files. She moved to tracking down the family that had owned Funtime, back when it was open. The Dentons. She agreed with Marshall that the mother had picked Funtime for a reason. The Dentons might know her, even have good guesses about where she’d go to ground.

“If you find them, tell them you’re a lawyer and you’re looking for her with news about an inheritance,” he said.

“But I am a lawyer. Which means I probably don’t need help coming up with a good story,” she shot back, tart.

“Of course not,” he said. “Sorry.”

She blew all her breath out, slow. “No, I am. It’s a good idea. I’m just . . .”

Tired, probably, and stressed out and horrified.

“Me, too,” he assured her, and they got off the phone.

By then his partner had sent back an email with several files attached. Lexie Pine’s prison and arrest records. She’d gone off parole seven months ago. That was a disappointment. He did have her last known address, though, plus a list of known associates and family.

Father, Preston Early Pine, deceased. And then her mother. Now he had the enemy’s real name. Coral Lee Pine, age seventy-two, address unknown.

Marshall’s investigator’s license gave him access to some powerful search engines, but they couldn’t provide everything he needed. Not legally. He had a contact number for a pair of computer “researchers” who were willing to operate outside those constraints. James and Tiana Weaver. He’d never used them. Marshall was a straight shooter, and the Weavers’ brand of back-channel info was seldom admissible in court. But he’d heard that they could find out almost anything.

With a faint shock of irony, he remembered that Spence had given him the number. The connection was a sour taste in his mouth.

Favors weren’t their currency, but Bree had Venmo. Marshall called James, offering twice their normal rate for answers on a timer. James seemed hesitant until Marshall mentioned that he had worked for Spencer Shaw. He said that even though Spence, as they might have heard, had passed away quite suddenly, his cases went on.

James did a brief confab with his wife. Marshall could hear the low buzz of his voice and then her keys clacking in answer. Spence had told him that Tiana was an autist, nonverbal, who could play a QWERTY keyboard “like Bootsy Collins played the bass.”