“Don’t worry. I’ll find you.”

He’d already had one cup of coffee before Devin Raine walked in. He waved at the man. Got a nod in return. Devin didn’t head for the table. Instead he stepped into line. It was another seven minutes before he made his way over, with some sort of iced coffee. He extended his free hand. “Detective McKittridge?” he said.

“Yes.” A.L. passed him over a business card. “Thanks for seeing me. How was the search today?”

“Warm,” Devin said. “And pretty depressing if you want the truth,” he added. “We’re miles away from the day care at this point.”

A.L. had been reading the daily updates. The numbers of volunteers were dwindling. Today they’d had forty-two. Still a respectable number but by next week, they’d likely be in the twenties. People had to go back to their lives.

Every day that Emma remained missing it became less and less likely that she’d be found alive. Those were the hard facts. Maybe nobody was saying it but every cop knew it. He suspected by now that Leah and Troy Whitman had also stumbled across the statistics online.

In a few days, they’d even change out the canine unit. Would definitely add more dogs that were specifically trained to find human remains. “I stopped by your office yesterday, spent a little time with Ms. Pistolle. She told me you’d be the best person to talk to if I had questions specific to Leah Whitman.”

Devin said nothing.

“What can you tell me about her work?” A.L. asked.

“It’s good. She’s very talented. Asks the right questions. Works hard. Stays late when we need her to.”

“Speaking of work hours, can you tell me what time she got in this past Wednesday?”

“The day Emma went missing?”

“Yes.”

“I can’t say exactly but I know that she was there by 10:00. We were both in the conference room on a call. I remember that night, when I heard the news, I couldn’t get it out of my head that she’d been sitting there, helping me negotiate communal property, in a contentious divorce, when her own child was at risk. It just felt surreal in retrospect.”

By ten. That pretty much matched what Leah had said and what the video at the casino had confirmed. “She get along with her coworkers?”

“Leah is a nice person. She’s easy to get along with.”

“So there’s nobody at work that she’s had any issues with?” A.L. asked.

“There were words, recently, between her and my other paralegal. Martha has been there longer and was upset that Leah got promoted to a senior paralegal. She seemed to believe the promotion should have gone to her.”

“But you didn’t think so.”

“I don’t think you award tenure. You award performance and attitude.”