Juan studied the sample. “Unfortunately, no. The stuff I need is only going to be in the root of the hair. You know when a hair accidentally pulls out, and you can see a whitish root on the end? Maybe if you have an old hairbrush of Kathy’s?”

“Well I wouldn’t have kept an old hairbrush. Would anything else work? What about her baby teeth?”

Juan’s eyes widened. “Yes! That would be perfect!”

She dug into the box and pulled out another Ziploc, this one filled with teeth. “Will I get these back? I know it’s silly, but I remember the moment each and every one of these teeth came out.”

“Yes, I think so. But I might need to keep one or two. What I need to get is buried inside the teeth.”

“Well, if it’ll help Kathy and Frank.”

“It will.”

“And you could use something from Frank too?”

“If you have it.”

“Well, I don’t have any of his old hair or teeth, obviously. But I was just thinking, I have some blood. He caught himself on a nail around this time last year, ripping a big hole in his flannel shirt and getting blood on it. It was pointless to stitch it up, so I was going to cut it up and use it for rags, but I never got around to it. Would that work?”

“As long it hasn’t been washed.”

“I can guarantee that if I didn’t wash it, it didn’t get washed. Come on then.”

In minutes, Juan had the two DNA samples he needed, bagged up separately.

“Thank you for everything, Mrs. O’Reilly. I promise I’m working night and day to help your family.”

“It’s Megan, and I know you are.” Megan tilted her head, and her green eyes, the same green as Kathy’s, blazed brightly. “And before you go… well, Kathy would be furious at me for saying this, but I think you should know. I told you she mentioned you once or twice? The truth is, it was a bit more than that.”

Juan felt a blush rising to his cheeks.

“And you know,” Megan continued, “she never talked about boys. Even when she was in high school and I knew she was going out with Johnny Pilmachek, she never talked about him. And she sure as heck didn’t talk about them after she moved away. But she did talk about you. That’s really something.” She smiled. “Anyway. I’m glad to make your acquaintance, Juan.”

###

Using high-powered night-vision binoculars, Nate peered out the window of the second-story walk-up. It was nearly eleven p.m., and they’d been here for two hours with no sign of movement at the warehouse across the way.

“Are you sure they’re in there?”