“It took almost two days before Shep’s husband was worried?”

Chuck shook her head. “Mike told me they were supposed to meet for dinner at seven on Thursday, but Shep never showed up. Like I said, that first night, Mike probably didn’t even think twice about it. Or maybe he did. I think—” She cut off, her eyes darting to Pari.

“You might as well tell them,” Pari said. “They’re not stupid.”

“A ringing endorsement,” North said.

Nels, for some reason, found this hilarious.

“I think Mike and Shep were having some problems. Shep never said anything, but I heard them arguing on the phone sometimes. They’d been saving money when they could because they wanted to adopt, and I know that was a lot of financial pressure. Mike’s a sous chef at Boeuf et Vin, and he makes ok money, but Shep doesn’t take home hardly anything from Iris.” A tired smile softened her face. “None of us does.”

“Do you think Shep was having an affair?”

Color flooded Chuck’s face, shockingly red against her peroxide hair. “I don’t think so. But I can’t say for sure. I guess I thought that maybe some nights Shep stayed at a friend’s place. I never really thought . . . I mean he didn’t seem like the kind. But I got the feeling that lately, between a few crises at Iris and fights with Mike, Shep might not have spent more than a night or two at home in any given week.”

“Maybe this is the same,” North said. “Maybe he finally called it splits and just hasn’t bothered to let his husband know.”

“But he wouldn’t leave Iris. That’s the thing. I could see him and Mike separating; I hate it, but I could. Abandoning Iris, though? No way. Absolutely no way. Never.”

Shaw cocked his head. He had managed to wiggle his chair back to his desk, and now he had a pad of paper in front of him, sketching rainbows: big, small. And then he switched to triangles. And then he switched to what North thought was supposed to be the pride flag. Judging by his face, North thought he was far off in shawland.

But when Shaw spoke, his voice was clear and precise. “But I bet if you had asked someone in Arkansas, they would have said the same thing. Nobody would have guessed that Pastor Shep would abandon the conversion center. Do you think he could have gone back to something like that? A church? Some sort of religious community?”

“No,” Chuck said, sounding dazed. “No. He wouldn’t. He wouldn’t do that.”

“What about the police?” North said.

“Mike went to the station. He filed a missing person report. I guess they’re looking for him, but I don’t think they’re looking very hard. I mean, I don’t even know where they could look. They came by Iris for a grand total of fifteen minutes, and I could tell they were itching to get out of there.”