She scanned the buildings and noticed little paths leading back behind the buildings, vans that were parked on the street, an overweight woman in a burka walking down the street with a baby in her arms.

But no Anna Kiel. She was gone.

Heloise put her hands on the top of her head for a moment before she allowed them to drop limply to her sides again, frustrated, despairing.

Then she remembered the folder.

She ran back to the restaurant, past the man at the bar, through the beaded curtain, and exhaled in relief.

It was still there. So were the pictures, spread out over the table, and Anna’s backpack hanging over the back of the chair, three seats away from Heloise.

She went over and picked it up. She looked in all the compartments and pockets, shook it, and turned it inside out. There was nothing in it. Not a crumpled receipt from a store, not a key to an apartment or a safe-deposit box. No cryptic note that the police might be able to work on further. The backpack was just empty.

She tossed it aside just as the waiter cleared his throat at the other end of the room. Heloise turned toward him.

“You … okay?” He pointed to her, seemingly concerned.

Heloise nodded.

She pulled a twenty-euro note out of her back pocket and gestured to him that she would like to pay. He left the room again, and Heloise pulled her chair out and sat down.

She looked at the pictures on the table again and shook her head. Then she pressed her palms to her eyes until she could see nothing but colored dots.

CHAPTER

44

“WE COULD HAVE had her now. Do you understand that? Has that sunken into your head at all?”

Schäfer paced back and forth in front of Heloise, snorting. The color of his face matched the burgundy lounge sofa she was sitting on.

She said nothing, just let him rage. She waited until he was done.

“Damn it, Heloise. Why the hell didn’t you tell me you were coming here? We could have picked up Anna Kiel in front of the prison. Don’t you see that? It would have been so easy. Man, she could have been sitting there right now, in handcuffs!” He pointed animatedly to the empty sofa cushion beside Heloise.

She nodded.

“What did she say? Where did she go?”

“I don’t know,” Heloise said with a shrug. “She just disappeared.”

“Disappeared? Into thin air? One second you were with her and the next, poof? Gone?”

“Yes.” Heloise shrugged her shoulders again.

“You father wouldn’t say a word to me when I was out there. So, we’re going back to Fresnes now, together. And you’re going to get him to talk!”

“He doesn’t know where she is.”