One day at school, two girls had been following Jeff. “You smell like pee,” one of them said before they ran off. Their giggles rang in his ears.

His phone vibrated with a text from Lisa.

We’re invited for dinner tonight at the Dillards’. We should go. Be good to take our minds off things for a few hours. OK?

Jeff sighed then texted back.

Agreed. Sounds good.

By the time he left the office at the end of the day, he’d received responses from all of the people he’d contacted. All but Shelley’s and Reed’s answers were negative.

Far more troubling, he still hadn’t heard anything from Vida Warren.

“How’d it go today?” Lisa asked him when he got home.

Jeff got a cold beer from the fridge, sat at the table, took a long pull, then ran a hand through his hair and shrugged. “I’m beat. It was busy, and I was up all night.”

“Where do things stand with Vida?”

“I got her two interviews for possible jobs, one in Miami and one in Fort Lauderdale.”

Lisa had leaned on the kitchen counter, her arms folded. “That’s something.”

“It’s something.” He took another drink. “How about you? You see or hear anything?”

“Do you mean did she send me the pictures?” Lisa’s stare drilled into him.

“Yeah, did she send you the pictures?”

Her face reddened, and her jaw was firm. “Not yet.”

Jeff nodded wearily. “In other news, my bonus was deposited. Maybe we could chip away at our debts, set up a college fund and set some aside for retirement?”

“Whatever. You earned it.”

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean? I did earn it.”

“Fine.”

“Also, Foster wants me to go to England, Ireland and Scotland for a couple weeks next month to help our London office. You can come, too.”

“Sounds like things are going gangbusters for you.”

Jeff shook his head. “Tell me about your day,” he said.

“It was rather crappy—had a lot on my mind—so I went for a run. When I went through that park, I thought someone was following or watching me.”

Jeff sat a little straighter, careful to mask his alarm. “Did you see who it was?”

“No.”

“What happened?”

“Nothing. I’m not even certain that I saw or heard anything, or whether I’m just a little on edge because of all this garbage going on with you, Vida and Loften. Did you ask the detectives about extra patrols?”

“Yes, I did. They’ve put in the request.”

“I know you think that we’ll end up destitute if the worst happened and you lost your job, but that’s not rational, Jeff. I’m working. We could scale down.”

“Scale down?”

“You know what I mean. It doesn’t mean going to a shelter. We could ask my parents for help. We could be smart about spending.”