“Okay. Thanks,” A.L. said. “If you happen to see these two men again, give me a call right away.”

“I will. Did they take that little girl?” the kid asked.

“We have no reason to believe that,” A.L. said. “But we’re talking to everybody who might have some information.”

Both the mom and the kid nodded, but A.L. didn’t think that either of them believed what he was saying. They lived in a world where if the cops were looking for you, it wasn’t good.

In the ten remaining apartments in the first building, eight doors were answered. They heard nothing of interest from anybody and nobody had seen the two men. The most recent move-in date was a nineteen-year-old girl who’d left her parents’ house nine months earlier. They passed out cards and instructions to call if the two guys happened to show up.

They walked outside and stood for a minute, breathing in the fresh air. A.L. took out his phone. “I’m going to have the video pulled from the city bus that runs this route. Everything from Monday through Wednesday.”

“We should get the descriptions to the guys looking at the Perv List.”

Otherwise known as the sexual offender registry. “Yeah,” A.L. said. “Good idea. I’ll take care of that.” He put his phone back into his pocket. “Let’s do this other building.”

Ten of twelve doors were answered. One couple had moved in less than a month ago, but both had jobs that they’d been at on Wednesday. Nobody had seen the two men.

“You think the kid was right?” Rena asked as they walked to their vehicle.

“Good kid. Good student.”

“That was according to his mom. What else is she going to say?”

“Right now, I don’t have any reason not to believe him,” A.L. said. “What’s to be gained from him telling us that he’d seen the guys?”

“Wanted to feel important?” Rena said, sliding in to the passenger side.

“My money is on the kid, that he saw them. And we got Mr. Gibacki putting them near the day care the night before Emma disappears. That’s enough that they stay on the radar screen.”

“We didn’t talk to everybody. There were a total of five doors that didn’t get answered,” Rena said.

“I made a note. I’ll follow up with the landlord tomorrow to see if the apartments are rented. We can come back.”

“It’s getting late,” Rena said. “Too late to be questioning more people.”

“You’re right.” A.L. stifled a yawn. Fucking weird day. He’d had breakfast this morning with Tess in an open-air restaurant overlooking the Pacific Ocean. It had been a real nice way to start the day. Now he was ending it on a low note. A missing five-year-old.