I watched her walk up the stairs and disappear down the hall. I couldn’t stop smiling. Joking around with her during our conversation was something new. Something I’d missed. And something I wanted to be able to do without thinking about it.
It was a start.
SEVEN
Mike Lorenzo was walking toward us.
Elizabeth and I had walked to downtown Coronado, enjoying the early afternoon sunshine and quiet streets on a weekday. There were a few people strolling the sidewalks, mostly women pushing strollers or loaded down with shopping bags. If we were an odd sight, a middle-aged man and a teenage girl walking silently, a few feet apart, no one seemed to notice. We’d settled ourselves at an outside table at a small bar and grill just down the street from Bay Books. We were under the awning, Elizabeth chomping away on a hamburger and me picking at a salad when I saw him walking toward us.
“Hey, Elizabeth,” I said, keeping my eye on him as he came down the street.
“Hmm?”
“Guy coming up the street,” I said. “He’s a friend of mine. Just didn’t want him to startle you.”
She turned and looked over her shoulder. He realized we saw him and he held up a hand in greeting.
She turned back to me. “Okay.”
“Yeah?”
She picked up the hamburger. “Sure, whatever.”
Interesting.
Mike wore a navy blue polo and tan slacks. His badge was clipped to his belt, but it didn’t look like he was carrying. I hadn’t spoken to him since we’d found Elizabeth. He was there that day and I was sure he’d spoken to Blundell at the Bureau, given that he was the detective who’d handled the case in San Diego. He’d left me several messages, but I hadn’t returned them. I was reluctant for several reasons, not the least of which was that I’d gone from thinking he was the only person I could trust on the force to no longer being sure that I could tell him anything. He’d been my mentor and friend, but I was viewing everyone and everything through a different lens.
He was smiling as he reached our table. “I was driving by and thought I saw you guys.” He offered his hand and we shook. He glanced at Elizabeth. “And you probably have no idea who I am.”
She looked at him, then at me. “No. I don’t.”
“Elizabeth, this is Mike Lorenzo,” I said. “We worked together when I was a police officer here in Coronado. And he helped me find you.”
He offered his hand to her and she hesitated, then shook it.
“It is very nice to see you, Elizabeth,” he said, still smiling.
“Thank you,” she said before turning her attention back to her plate.
Mike looked at me. “Been trying to catch up with you.”
“I know,” I said. “Sorry. We’ve had kind of a long week.”
“I’m sure,” he said, nodding. “How’s Lauren?”
“She’s alright,” I said. “We’re all just trying to get back in the swing of things.”
Elizabeth pushed her chair back and grabbed her cup. “I’m gonna get some more to drink, okay?”
“Yep,” I said.
She turned and went inside the restaurant and I tried to stem the stirrings of panic igniting in my gut. There was only one entrance and exit to the deli and she’d just gone through it. I’d see her come out. I wouldn’t lose her again.
“Why do I feel like you’re avoiding me?” Mike asked, lowering his voice.
“Just been busy,” I said, keeping my eyes trained on the door. “It’s a lot to get used to again.”
“You still looking? To find out what happened?”
I nodded.
“Anything or anybody yet?”
I glanced at him. “No.”
He chewed on his bottom lip for a moment. “Joe, I busted my ass nearly as hard as you did trying to find that girl. Then all of a sudden when you get on her heels, you cut me out. I wanna know why.”
“Now’s not the time, Mike,” I said, cutting my eyes back to the restaurant door. “Not with Elizabeth here.”
“When’s the time then?” he asked.
“We’ll get to it,” I said.
I caught his gaze and his eyes were unkind, filled with the kind of contempt he usually reserved for suspects. “Years, Joe. I gave it years. I passed on other cases. I worked overtime. Because I wanted to get her back. For you.” A muscle in his jaw tightened. “I’m not sure exactly what it is you think I’ve done, but I deserve an explanation.”
I started to say something, but his eyes shifted and his expression cleared and he smiled. I swiveled my head back toward the door of the restaurant and saw Elizabeth headed back to the table, fiddling with the lid and straw on her drink. She slid back into her chair.
“I’ll let you two finish your lunch,” Mike said. “I just wanted to say hello. And to tell you how nice it is to see you on Coronado again, Elizabeth.”
“Thank you,” she said again. She kept her eyes locked on the plate in front of her.
He looked at me. “We’ll talk soon.”
It wasn’t a question and he wasn’t leaving the door open. He was letting me know that we’d be talking, whether I liked it or not. I knew he was right. He did deserve an explanation. But if he had somehow been involved with Elizabeth’s disappearance and his looking for her had all been some sort of ruse to throw me off, I wasn’t going to just start offering answers to his questions. I needed to do some more digging before I decided which direction I wanted to take with him. Was that unfair if he’d always been on my side? Yeah, it was. But I wasn’t willing to give him the benefit of the doubt anymore.
I extended my hand. “Absolutely.”
He hesitated for just a fraction of a second, then we shook hands.
“Look forward to it,” he said. “I’ll see you later.”
He turned and walked back in the direction he’d come from and I watched him until he turned a corner and I couldn’t see him anymore.
EIGHT
“You used to work with him?” Elizabeth asked as we walked back toward the house.
I nodded. “Yeah. He’s the only detective in the Coronado police department. We were friends before you were taken, but then he helped me a bunch after that. He was actually the one that found the picture of you in Minnesota.”
“The black and white one?”
I nodded. I’d shown her the picture earlier in the week when she’d asked a few tentative questions about how I’d found her. She remembered it and asked if she could have it. I’d handed it to her, no questions asked, but I wondered what she’d done with it. Had she tucked it away some place safe or had she ripped it to shreds? Or was it sitting in a drawer somewhere, stuck in the same sort of limbo she was in?
“Why did you quit being a police officer?” she asked.
We paused at the crosswalk, watching the traffic go by. The light turned green and the Walk sign blinked and we crossed.
“I quit because they were going to fire me,” I told her.
She seemed a little taken aback. “Fire you? Why?”
“When you were taken, there were all sorts of theories about what happened,” I explained. “One that got thrown out there was that I was somehow involved.”
She made a snorting sound. “That’s stupid.”
“It was stupid, but it was out there. And then when my boss got wind of it, he put me on leave. He didn’t like all the attention. I got mad and eventually quit.”
A biker whizzed around us.
“I’m sorry,” she said.
I shrugged. “Not your fault.”
“Kinda was.”
I shook my head. “No. It was not, Elizabeth. Nothing was your fault.”
She didn’t say anything and we kept walking, passing the high school and the library. I thought about the case that had brought me back to San Diego, the case at that high school, and I thought about Elizabeth starting school there. The thought made my stomach crawl when I remembered what I’d uncovered there, a teenage prostitution ring being run by students.
“I don’t remember this.”
I raised my eyebrows. “You don’t remember what?”
She motioned with her hands but not to anything specific. “This. Constant sun. Warm winters. It’s so different from ho—I mean, from Minnesota.”