“Barely,” Vince said. “It sounds to me like psychologically she’s practically divorced. She’s wounded and frightened and needy. You gave her a shoulder to cry on. Tell me you didn’t come this close to kissing her last night.”

The glance down.

“It’s a slippery slope, kid. Stay off it until there’s an all-clear. Then—when she leaves that asshole—go for it. Fall in love. Get married. Anne and my kids are going to need playmates.”

“Very funny,” Mendez said. “What’s going on with Anne and the little girl?”

“I’m taking them home this morning before the reporters crawl out of their rat holes,” he said.

He didn’t have a good feeling about it. He was still worried not only about Haley—and therefore Anne—being a target, but for Anne’s level of attachment to the child. What happened when they found a relative and Haley had to be handed over? Nothing good in terms of Anne’s emotional health. As good as it might be for her to help the little girl through this ordeal, there would be an end to it, and that was going to be hard.

“You had to let her do it, Vince,” Mendez said.

Vince frowned. “Now who’s reading whose mind?”

“You’ve taught me well, Old Man. Has the girl said anything?”

“No, but it’s in there. Last night she drew a picture for Anne with a scary-looking figure in it. ‘Bad Monster,’ she called it.”

“That’s not much to go on,” Mendez said. “We can’t put out an APB for Bad Monster.”

“Your witness is four.”

“This case stinks, so far. My witness is four, I’ve got to deal with an autistic hoarder who murdered his mother. It looks like the victim’s best friend took it on the lam—”

“What?” Vince said, coming to attention.

“Gina Kemmer is missing. In the couple of hours we weren’t watching her, she took off.”

“I don’t like that. There’s no sign of her?”

Mendez shook his head. “We’ve got a BOLO out on her and her car.”

“Get in her house.”

“I wanted to do that last night, but it was too soon. I wasn’t going to get a warrant based on nothing but the fact that she wasn’t home.”

“That was last night when maybe she was just out to dinner,” Vince said. “She’s still gone this morning. Now it’s a possible kidnapping. Go to ADA Worth and fight for it. We know you’re good in a fight.”

“She scares me more than Steve Morgan does,” Mendez joked, getting up.

“Page me when you get the warrant. I want to be there.”

Mendez gave him a mock salute and headed out the door.

Vince dumped the last of his coffee in the trash and headed back to Haley’s room. It was time to take his temporary family home.

Chapter 40

40