“I was sure I’d be in better shape, but it was a bad summer. I don’t have the money to pay these people back.”

“People?” A.L. clarified.

“Yeah, people,” Troy said, his tone now belligerent. “If you don’t want to go to a bank, there are people who do this.”

“Have the people,” A.L. emphasized the word, “that you borrowed from made any threats toward you or your family? I’m just guessing, of course, but I assume they’re not licensed lenders.”

Troy ignored the last part. “No, there’s been no reason to. The loan was set up so that I make regular installments with a big payment at the end. I’ve been able to make the regular installments. That’s where I was on Wednesday morning, before I went to the shop. I met them at a restaurant over on Lawrence Street. Most times I meet them late at night but a couple times it was early morning, like that Wednesday.”

“When is the balance, the big payment, due?” Rena asked.

“Two weeks.”

“Or?”

Troy said nothing. Then finally, “My brother said these are not the people to disappoint. This house is almost paid for. I inherited some money from my grandparents. But I put it up as equity against the loan.”

Rena and A.L. exchanged glances. “How are you going to meet the loan demand if you don’t have the money?” Rena asked.

“I’m probably going to have to ask my parents.”

That surprised him. “Do they have the money to give you?” A.L. asked.

“I don’t know. They own their house, too. Maybe they’ll be willing to take a mortgage. I’ll pay them back.”

A.L. felt sick. Troy’s dad was going to fucking dialysis three mornings a week.

Cops didn’t make big money but he’d been a good saver. Even had gone to a guy who’d run the numbers and told him that he’d be okay at retirement. What the hell would he do in twenty years when he was ready to live the good life and Traci came crawling home asking him to take out a fucking mortgage?

Ask for his damn job back.

“I need your lenders’ names,” he said.

“No,” Troy said.

“I think you want us to do everything we can to get your daughter back. What are their names?”

“They had nothing to do with this. Don’t you think that I already thought of that? First of all, I saw one of the people just that morning. He gave me no indication that anything was wrong. But just in case, I called my brother right away. Let’s just say that he’s got several clients who work with these people. He knows them well enough to call them. They swore that they weren’t involved.”