“Walter won’t be there,” Gabriel said. “We were with him less than an hour ago, and he was taking Seanna to a safer place. Do you know where that would be?”

“Walter?” she said.

“Yes, Walter,” I said. “He insisted on moving Seanna. We don’t know why, but I was too distracted at the time to argue. I’m calling to see where he took her.”

Silence.

“Ida?”

“Yes, I’m sorry, Olivia. I was just checking the spare room, and you’re quite correct that Walter is not there. Evidently, he’s handling this situation by himself, which I am pleased to see.”

“Do you know where—?”

“There’s no need for you to worry, Olivia. We have this under control. You should all get some rest. If Gabriel wishes to see his mother in the morning, I’m sure that can be arranged. Until then, I’ll ask that you stay in your house. You’re all there, I presume?”

“Yes, but—”

“Excellent. Stay there until further notice, please. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to get a little more sleep myself, and leave this in Walter’s hands. Good night, Olivia. And you as well, Gabriel.”

She hung up. I stood there, holding the phone.

“She’s been drugged, hasn’t she?” Pepper said. “She wasn’t understanding what you’re saying.”

“Oh, she got it,” Ricky said. “She’s not going back to bed. She’s going to find out what the hell Walter is up to.”

“And if she finds out,” I said, “we can’t trust her to ever tell us the truth. We need to get to him first.”

—

It didn’t matter that Helia still wasn’t picking up. We could find her using the phone. When we’d bought it for Pepper, I’d suggested adding the same tracking app Ricky put in ours. With Pepper’s condition, that had seemed wise.

We took Pepper back to Veronica’s and asked her to tell Veronica everything. Then we set off tracking Pepper’s phone.

That wasn’t as easy as it should have been. The coordinates kept jumping around, as if bouncing off cell towers. But we had the basic direction, so we headed that way, with Gabriel driving, Ricky in the passenger seat, me in the back, cursing at my phone. Lloergan had her head on my knee, her jowls quivering in a deep sigh at every curse.

“Do we think Grace is in on it, whatever it is?” Ricky asked. “She didn’t want Ida involved, either.”

“I can see her agreeing just to keep Ida out of her hair,” I said. “But that doesn’t mean I’d confide in her right now, either.”