Cole finished the call feeling even worse than before. The picture he now had of Dru Rayne was very different from the woman Joe described. This left him with even more questions, but Cole forced himself to focus on the fact she was missing. He had to mine Wilson Smith’s neighbors before the police sealed the mine.

Cole reached the canals a few minutes later and once more walked in. Mendoza and his partner had passed these same houses going to and coming from the Smith house, which was when Jared saw them, and now Cole wanted to see if anyone else had seen them, but he targeted the houses with security cameras first.

Almost out of habit, he checked Jared’s window as he moved down the alley, but Jared was missing. Amazing.

The day before, Cole noted three homes with cameras. No one answered at the first house, so he slipped a business card under the door with a note asking them to call. A middle-aged woman answered at the second home, and asked if he was with the police she spoke to the day before. This told Cole that Button and his partner had made the rounds after speaking with Jared. Cole told her he was, and dropped Button’s name to fortify the lie. Cole asked if Button checked her surveillance recordings, but Button had not asked, and it would not have mattered if he had—her cameras displayed real-time images but were not hooked to a recorder. The first house had potential, but the second house was a bust.

Cole had better luck at the third house. A housekeeper told him she didn’t know much about the security system, but believed the cameras made a recording. She explained her employer was at work, but thought he would be happy to speak with Cole as he was very interested when she told him the police questioned her yesterday. Cole left another card, then reconsidered his plan.

Knowing that Button made the rounds after speaking with Jared, Cole decided there was no point in covering the same ground again. The available witness list was currently limited to Jared.

Cole returned to Smith’s house, and found Jared back in his window, straggly black hair, shirtless, wires dripping from his ears. Jared was watching him.

Cole made a little wave. Jared waved back. Cole motioned for Jared to come down, and Jared turned from the window.

Cole was waiting outside his house when the door opened and Jared came out.

“Hey, dude, whassup? You with the police or the big dude?”

“The big dude.”

“Dude’s all right. I like that cat. I already told him about those banger dudes I saw. Him, and the police. They were here yesterday.”

Jared had seen a lot of action in the past two days. He was comfortable with it.