Adeva was a crime reporter for the Baywood Bulletin. Pushy, detail-oriented, with the memory of an elephant, he was pretty good at his job. He caught inconsistencies and turned them into headlines. Chief Faster, who could sometimes play fast, no pun intended, and loose with the facts probably had nightmares about him. “Anything specific in his craw?”

“Nope. Just general astonishment that a child could be missing for more than a day and the police don’t appear to have anything.”

“Fine. What do we know from the remaining teacher and the cook?” A.L. asked.

“I spoke first to the teacher, Tanya Knight. She’s thirty-four and has been at the day care for three years. Loves her job. The kids, her coworkers, her boss. Loves them all.”

“I’ll bet you’re glad you didn’t have to do that interview,” Rena said, looking at A.L.

“I’m not philosophically opposed to happy people,” he said.

“Yeah. But they make you nervous,” Ferguson said, smiling at Rena.

“Did you ask her specifically about Kara Wiese?” A.L. asked.

“Yeah. Kara is a team player, always willing to help. Good with the kids.”

“Okay. What else?”

“She knows Emma Whitman because Emma was in her room last year. She’s sick about the situation because she just—”

“Loves Emma Whitman,” A.L. said, finishing the sentence.

“Yeah. Anyway, she was at work on Wednesday. She co-teaches with Olivia Blow but since she was ill, Alice Quest was in the room. Tanya said she starts at 7:30 but generally gets there by 7:00 because her husband drops her off on his way to work. On Wednesday, when she got there, that’s when she found out that Olivia was absent because Alice was already in the room.”

Rena flipped through her notebook. “That meshes with Alice’s recollection. Alice said that she was in a classroom beginning at 6:30 that morning and only took a few short breaks out of the classroom the entire day.”

“You search her house?”

“Yeah. I asked, she gave permission. She’s a terrible housekeeper. Has cats. There was almost enough cat hair in the small bedroom to hide a five-year-old.”

“I like her better now,” A.L. said. His own cat could shed about three pounds of hair a week.

“Don’t be sexist,” Rena said, to both of the men. “Maybe her husband is the terrible housekeeper,” Rena said. “Perhaps her job is to mow the yard.”

“Yeah, well, that needed doing also. I did see a big motorcycle in the garage so maybe they spend their time riding that instead of taking care of the house.”

“What did you walk away thinking?” Rena asked.