Seated at the round table within, Rebecca Travers was already waiting. Her back was ramrod stiff, and she was dressed in a black sweater and jeans, having changed since Rivers had last seen her. A thick jacket was folded over the back of the empty chair next to her, a purse placed on the seat. In front of her, an untouched cup of coffee gave off steam, compliments no doubt of Dorrie, the receptionist. The walls of the room were cinder block and painted a pale institutional green; despite two small windows cut high near the ceiling, the room always smelled lightly of Lysol. Today was no exception.

Rivers introduced Mendoza, and as they took seats across from Rebecca, she said, “I already gave my statements to Deputy Mercado.” She glanced at Rivers. “Anyway, I don’t know what else I can tell you that I haven’t said before.”

Rivers said, “Bear with us. We might ask a question that will trigger something you haven’t thought of before.”

She stared at him. Disbelieving.

Mendoza, iPad at the ready, suggested, “Just tell us what you can about the night your sister went missing.”

“Okay,” she said, exhaling a long breath before launching into her tale. Her story was the same as it had been: On the night she’d gone missing, Megan had called Rebecca. She’d been upset. “Really freaking out, even for her.” Megan told her that she’d broken up with James in a nasty fight and had taken off, heading to Rebecca’s condo in Seattle. “This wasn’t exactly out of nowhere,” Rebecca added, nervously twisting a ring on her right hand, further explaining that, during the course of Megan’s twenty-two years, there had been plenty of other emotional outbursts, often involving someone she’d been dating. Rebecca had bailed her out time and time again.

“She comes to you rather than your parents?” Rivers asked.

“Always. Our folks are divorced. And Dad is really my stepdad, but he’s Megan’s ‘real’ or biological father. My dad left before I was two, and Mom moved to San Francisco, where she met and married Donald Travers a year later and had Megan soon after. That lasted for about eight years. Then they split up. Dad remarried, lives in Chicago, and has two sons who are like . . . maybe just in their teens. Mom stayed in California, found a condo in Sonoma. She’s still single, but we don’t see her all that much. She’s got her own life down there . . .” Rebecca let that trail off, and Rivers thought he saw a hint of sadness in her eyes.

“Your name is Travers,” Mendoza said as the furnace rumbled, forcing hot air through the vents.