Letty ran her fingers through her hair in a gesture of frustration. “I know you’ll do your best to keep Maya physically safe. But I just can’t stop worrying about what kind of long-term effect this will have on her emotionally. Maya’s just now getting to the point where she doesn’t have night terrors. This is going to dredge up all the horrible stuff she witnessed when Evan and Tanya were fighting over custody. And we still don’t know what or how much she saw when Tanya was killed. Will she freak out when she sees Evan?”

“I don’t honestly know,” Vikki admitted. “I can spot a psychopath at fifty paces, but I never wanted a kid, so I don’t know how their evil little minds work.”

“Look,” Joe said. “I was twenty when Isabelle was born, and her shitbird dad took off when she was only three. God knows, I can’t take any credit for how great she turned out, but I think me being around maybe helped a little. Mostly, it was my mom. You’ve met Ava, but you don’t know all she’s gone through over the years. She’s a fighter, and she’s a survivor. And so are you, Letty. Give yourself credit for that. Maya will be okay. Because she’s got you.”

His eyes searched hers. He was waiting for her to say something. She opened her mouth, then clamped her lips together, fighting for composure.

“Okay,” she said, when she could finally trust herself to speak. “Okay.”

“Glad that’s settled,” Vikki said briskly. “Joe, did you turn up any Rooney sightings while you were out?”

“A bagger at that Publix said he thinks he saw Rooney in there this morning,” Joe said. “He thinks Rooney was using the bathroom there to clean up, which tells me he’s probably either sleeping in his car or on the beach somewhere. I asked the duty sergeant, Fina Suarez, to put out a BOLO for him, and she promised to keep me posted, but if Rooney is sleeping out in the rough, he’s keeping a low profile. All the cops in the local beach towns have marching orders to run off vagrants, because it’s bad for tourism.”

“Speaking of tourism, I posted that photo of Rooney on the hotel-motel LISTSERV, but I haven’t seen any responses,” Letty said.

“Look, for now, let’s concentrate on the big picture—which is Evan Wingfield’s imminent arrival,” Vikki said impatiently. “We need to lock down a location for the handoff, and since you’re the local, DeCurtis, I’m thinking you need to come up with that.”

“What’d you have in mind?”

“Obviously we want it to be someplace where our people can be nearby, but unobtrusive. Is there, like, a mall anywhere around here?” the FBI agent asked.