"You assume they were sleeping together because she stole the money. And you assume she stole the money because they were sleeping together. And at the same time, you assume she stole the money because she was mad her fiancé was killed, all while she was sleeping with his boss, the guy who had him killed. That doesn't make sense."

"Why, because you can't screw one person and love another?" He looked at Nate like he felt sorry for him.

"You don't have any other evidence for this supposed affair between Charles and Marisa? Because Charles told me the name of his mistress."

"Jessica English. Yeah, everybody knew about her. She shot her mouth off all over town about her relationship with Charles. But you have to understand Charles... I don't want to say anything bad about the guy. I mean, I hate that we got caught, but I was right there with him. I don't blame him for what happened. Not anymore. But the guy was like a horny rabbit. He cheated on his wife, cheated on his mistresses, cheated on the girls he cheated with. Any willing woman, Charles was there. Call it an addiction if you want. I think he just liked sex."

Nate tried to put together the image of the man he'd met in prison with Anderson's information. Of course, when Charles was in his heyday, making boatloads of money and throwing it around like confetti, there'd probably been plenty of willing women.

But had Marisa been one of them?

"You don't believe it," Anderson said.

"I spent a lot of time with her. I never got that impression."

"Like she'd have told you. She was grieving her dead fiancé."

"The thing is, Marisa Vega didn't steal the money. So your theory is flawed."

"Not just my theory. Everybody assumed she was screwing him."

Nate's temper was rising like the tide. He needed it to roll back. "Let's just assume everybody was wrong. Because Marisa didn't steal the money. But somebody thinks she did. That somebody kidnapped her four-year-old daughter. Now she has to figure out who took it, or the kidnappers are going to kill her child."

Anderson's jaw dropped. He sat back in his chair and closed his eyes. “It's never going to be over, is it?"

"Any other bright ideas?"

He opened his eyes and shook his head. "I'm sorry. I have no idea. Is Marisa around, then?"

"She's hiding."

"You're sure she didn't take the money."

"Positive. And Garrison Kopp agrees. The feds stopped looking at her a long time ago."

Anderson swallowed. "Man, I had no idea. I wish I could help, I really do. My daughter's a lot older than that, but... Sheesh, four years old. Who would do that?"

Nate wondered the same thing. He stood, and Anderson did, too. "If I have any more questions, do you mind if I come back?"