Rena flipped a page of her notebook, proving that she’d put the time with Alice to good use. “Divorced for more than fifteen years. Ex-husband died six years ago. Has one adult daughter who lives in Baywood with her husband and two children. That’s why she came to Baywood five years ago. To be close to her daughter, who was having a difficult pregnancy. Needed a job. Has a degree in early education and had taught preschool when she was raising her daughter. This business was for sale and she jumped at the chance to buy it. She’d come into some unexpected money when it was discovered that her ex never took her off as a beneficiary on his insurance policy.”

“Lucky break for her. So what do you think so far?” A.L. asked.

“I have no idea. A loving grandmother, by all appearances, drops off her five-year-old granddaughter at day care, in the custody of a trusted teacher. Ten hours later, it’s discovered that the child is missing and nobody from the day care has seen her and said teacher claims she was never in the lobby and didn’t see either the child or grandmother.”

“Is the grandmother lying? Is she confused? Is Kara Wiese lying? But why? She’s worked here for more than three years. Her boss has never had any reason to be concerned,” A.L. said.

“Agree. If we believe one, we can’t believe the other. If we believe both of them, then the only logical explanation is that Elaine thought she handed Emma off to her teacher but it was somebody else. And maybe that person didn’t even realize what was happening. She’s standing there, minding her own business, and somebody says good morning. She responds with good morning like most people do. Then she leaves. Goes to work. To the gym. Wherever. Doesn’t matter. What matters is that Emma is alone in the hallway for a few minutes, then maybe she’s outside. And then something happens. What, we just don’t know.”

“What’s this feel like to you?” A.L. asked.

“You’re not the touchy-feely type,” Rena said, her tone full of suspicion.

“Missing five-year-old,” A.L. said. “I’m willing to pull out all the stops. If I thought it would help, I’d be knocking on the psychic’s door right now.”

“Well, I’m not psychic but I think there is definitely something not quite right between Troy and Leah Whitman. They’re each staying pretty strong, given the circumstances, but they don’t seem to be drawing strength from one another.”

He’d noticed that. No hugs. No arms around a shoulder. No clasped hands. Didn’t mean they were bad people, bad parents, or in any way responsible for Emma’s disappearance. “When Troy mentioned Garage on Division, you had a reaction.”

She shrugged. “It’s probably nothing.”

“Missing five-year-old,” he said.