Donatti said, “I don’t know if she took off on her own or if she was kidnapped by the motherfuckers I just dealt with. I thought I had a handle on that. I thought we had an understanding. But with people like that, I could have been conned.”

“Are any of Terry’s things missing?” Decker asked.

“All her clothes are in the closet, but her purse and phone are gone. If she left, it was with the clothes on her back.” He wiped sweat from his face with his shirt. “I’ve got a vault filled with cash in my bedroom. Before she left, I told her all the codes in case something happened to me.”

“Is money missing?” Rina asked.

“I did a brief check. It all appears to be there, but I haven’t counted each and every stack. She could have easily grabbed a handful of bills at the bottom and left.”

“Chris, is there a reason why she’d take off?” Decker asked.

“No! We were getting along fine.” Donatti was still pacing. “Yeah, we fought. We always fight. But she wasn’t pissed at me when I left. In fact, she was crying. She kept telling me to be careful.” Back and forth and back and forth. “I used to be able to read her perfectly, but I can’t anymore. Yes, it could have been an act. Yes, she might have been planning this from the start. But she married me. She swore she was committed.”

No one spoke.

“Yes, I know what that is worth, idiot that I am.” He stopped pacing for a moment. “If she took off on me, I’ll find her. Believe me, I will find her.”

Rina said, “Any idea how she slipped past everyone at your place and no one noticed?”

“No!” Donatti looked up at the ceiling. “Before I left, I put twenty-four-hour guards on her just to avoid anything happening to her. Apparently, she kept ditching them. It drove them crazy because she was always disappearing on them. They called me about it. I told them not to sweat it. As long as she came back, it was okay. And she always came back. They got used to the patterns. I’d be furious at them except they called me, and I was the one who pulled them off. I’m such a moron when it comes to her. Maybe she was trying out a couple of dry runs and had wanted to leave me all along. Okay. I could understand that. But even if she wanted to leave me, she’d never leave without Julee—” He flashed to an earlier memory: her packing up after they had a knock-down, drag-out fight. He had beaned her with a pack of money. Her words sparking in his brain after he had accused her of abandoning her child—again.

I’m not abandoning her! I just want to be settled before I come get her.