When A.L. and Rena got back to their desks, A.L. emailed the loan sharks’ names to the FBI and requested some assistance. He didn’t want to call the number Troy had given him without having a little more information about the pair.

“Do you believe him?” Rena asked.

“He’s a pretty good actor if he knows where Emma is,” A.L. said. “It was stupid to borrow money from Marco and Silva Savayanah. But he was desperate. And if you think about it, it’s sort of consistent with what we’ve seen all along. Troy doesn’t seem to see things as they really are. His relationship with his employees. His relationship with his parents. Hell, even his relationship with his wife. He’s overly optimistic. I can see him thinking that if he could just get some quick cash, surely in six months he’d be in a better financial position.”

“Insanity,” Leah said. “Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

Their old boss Toby used to have a sign with that saying on his desk.

“Do you think the Savayanah brothers have anything to do with Emma’s disappearance?” Rena asked.

“I really don’t. Like he said, he’s not late.”

“He’s not too smart, either. I’m no business major and I never took an accounting class, but common sense tells me they set the loan up that way anticipating that he’d fail. They get to keep all the installment payments he’s made along the way and then at the end, when he can’t make the final payment, they now own a modest house that can be flipped quickly for a nice tidy profit. They probably are scary enough that most people this happens to don’t take the chance of turning them in to the police.”

“Do you think it’s possible that Leah might know more than she’s letting on? Maybe that’s the basis of her anger?” A.L. asked.

“Maybe. That reminds me that we never followed up on whether Elaine knows that Leah changed her work.”

A.L. looked at his watch. “Elaine said she was an early riser.”

They arrived at Elaine’s house shortly after six o’clock. A.L. knocked on the door. Elaine opened it, looking as if she was dressed for work.

“What? What’s happened?” she asked immediately.

“No news,” Rena said quickly. “May we talk with you for just a minute?”

“Of course,” she said, stepping aside. “Would you like coffee? It’ll just take a minute?”

“That would be great,” A.L. said. It had now been more than twenty-four hours since he’d slept.