He put his hand over the mouthpiece. Any of you know a girl named Aimee Biel?No one said anything . Hey, I asked a question here. She'd be Katie's year . The boys shook their heads. Joan didn't move. His eyes met hers. She shook her head slowly . There's more, his contact said . Like what?They found a link to your daughter . What kind of link?I don't know. I've just been eavesdropping. But I think it has something to do with where they both went missing. Do you know a guy named Myron Bolitar?The old basketball star?Yeah . Rochester had seen him a few times. He also knew that Bolitar had had run-ins with some of Rochester's nastier colleagues . What about him?He's involved . How?He picked up the missing girl in midtown Manhattan. That's the last time she was seen. She used the same ATM as your Katie . He felt a jolt. He what?Dominick's contact explained a bit more, about how this Bolitar guy had driven Aimee Biel back over to Jersey, how a gas station attendant saw them arguing, and how she just disappeared . The police talk to him?Yeah . What did he say?I don't think very much. He lawyered up . He . . . Dominick felt a red swirl build in his head. Son of a bitch. Did they arrest him?No . Why not?Not enough yet . So, what, they just let him walk?Yeah . Dominick Rochester didn't say anything. He got very quiet. His family noticed. They all went very still, afraid to move. When he finally spoke again, his voice was so calm, his family held their breaths . A nything else?That's it for now . Keep digging . Dominick hung up the phone. He turned toward the table. His whole family was watching him . Joan said, Dom?It was nothing . He felt no need to explain. This didn't involve them. It was his job to handle stuff like this. The father was the soldier, the one who kept vigil so that his family could sleep untroubled . He headed to the garage. Once inside, he closed his eyes and tried to smother the rage. It wouldn't happen . Katie . .. He eyed the metal baseball bat. He remembered reading about Bolitar's injured knee. If he thought that hurt, if he thought a mere knee injury was pain . . . He made some calls, did a little background. In the past, Bolitar had gotten in trouble with the Ache brothers, who ran New York. Bolitar was supposedly a tough guy, good with his fists, who hung out with a psycho named Windsor Something . Taking on Bolitar would not be easy . But it wouldn't be all that difficult either. Not if Dominick got the best . His cell phone was a throwaway, the kind you can buy in cash with a false name and toss away after you use up your minutes. No way to trace it back to him.