“It was the only thing that saved us,” he said, blinking his eyes fast. “We had to keep going because we had two other children who needed us. We did the best we could but I suspect our sons would tell you that there were some rough years. The grief just...consumes a person. It’s hard to imagine ever finding joy again.”

“You do,” his wife said, her hand on his arm. “Eventually. But...” Her voice trailed off. She stood up and started walking for the door. She evidently didn’t intend to finish her sentence.

She didn’t need to. A.L. knew. Eventually. But not really.

Rena let out a loud breath once they were in their vehicle. “That was excruciating. Even now, ten years later, their pain is palpable.”

“It was pretty goddamn bad,” A.L. agreed. His throat felt closed up and he had a monster of a headache behind one eye. Corrine Antler would be fifteen, just a few years shy of Traci. If that had been him and Jacqui instead? Hell. He might have just put a bullet through his brain. “We keep asking questions,” he said. “Until we figure out what happened.”

The hundred-mile drive back to Baywood took ninety-eight minutes. A.L. and Rena took the elevator to their office. It was after six but all four of the other detectives on the Baywood Police Department were still working, most of them tapping on computer keyboards. Documentation was a part of the job.

A.L. pulled out a chair. Rena had detoured for a cup of coffee. By the time she got to the desk with a cup for both of them, he was flipping through his notebook. Looking for something. Anything that could lead them in the right direction. “Leah said that she left the house before 7:00. That Emma wasn’t yet up.”

“Yeah,” Rena said, looking at her own notes. “She had a meeting in Madison.”

“What meeting?” A.L. asked, thinking that he’d missed something in his own notes.

“I don’t have it,” Rena said.

“We didn’t ask,” A.L. said.

“Didn’t seem like the most important question at the time. Is it now?”

A.L. picked up his keys. Tossed them from one hand to the other. “Gives us a reason to talk to her again.”

“You think that’s important?”

“I don’t know,” A.L. said.

Rena put down her coffee cup. “Everything and one more thing. Let’s go.”

But before they got to the door, Ferguson waved at them to hold up. “FYI, you two. Faster got some heat from James Adeva at the press conference this morning. I don’t think he’s happy.”