“Why the rapprochement?” I asked.

“I don’t have to answer your questions,” he told me again but didn’t make any move to kick me out. “You’re a very aggressive person. And I’m not sure I like it.” He was slipping back into the kid from the Valley.

“How much do you know about what’s going on with your daughter?”

“How much do you know?” he shot back.

“Plenty,” I calmly replied, “She placed the article in the gossip blog.”

I invited myself to one of the chairs and made him listen to all that I learned over the last couple of days, including the connection of the nurse from the convalescent home to the clinic where Jeanette had her baby. He reluctantly sat opposite me and silently listened, though he did check his watch several times to remind me that he was a busy man and had places to go. Jeff didn’t let on whether any or all of what I was telling him was new information.

“Are you finished?” he asked.

“Almost. Have you spoken to Mr. Li lately?”

“No, but I plan to,” he answered.

“I’d like to be there when you do. I have some questions of my own that I want to ask him.” He didn’t acknowledge the request and overall wasn’t as responsive to reasoning as in the past. The reconciliation between him and Valenti was more pronounced than I had originally guessed. “Jeff, it’s time to go to the police. This is no longer an affair of the family. Murder is involved.”

“Trust me, I understand the gravity of the current situation,” he replied non-committedly.

“The number-one goal is to bring your daughter home, right?”

“Of course.”

“Well, the best way to do that is to let the authorities help. They have the resources at their disposal. They can cast a net a lot farther and deeper than what you or I can do.”

“Plastering her face all over the news sites?” he asked with a trace of contempt.

“Now is not the time to worry about decorum. That stuff is extremely painful in the short term but it fades a lot faster than you think. If she’s made it this far I think she can handle a little ugliness in the media,” I pressed.

He sort of nodded but something made me wonder if his original misgivings about the publicity were in fear for his daughter’s humiliation or in fear for his own.

“I spoke to the detective assigned to the McIlroy girl’s murder—” I said, but before I could finish, Jeff leaped to his feet, his face a contorted m�lange of orange and red.

“You already went to the police!” he shouted.

“I didn’t have to, they came to me.”

“Well you better not have been telling them anything.”

“Or what?”

“That was not smart,” he lectured.

“You aren’t exactly the epitome of Mensa Society, Jeff. And if you are getting your advice from somewhere, you might want to think twice about the source.” It was a transparent warning that he was being manipulated. Valenti had his hooks back in him but the question was, how deep? “I left out one other detail. Please sit down for two minutes and listen to what I have to say.”

I conveyed my suspicions and growing concerns that Valenti could be the father of Jeanette’s baby. I was careful not to libel myself as I had no real proof but the circumstantial references were starting to point in that direction. And that I was worried that this could quickly escalate.

“That’s outlandish,” he commented without much indignation. If anything, he was trying to convince himself that it wasn’t true. He stared absently at the pile carpet, his right eye blinking methodically as he thought things over. I let him stew in all of the ugly permutations and patiently waited for him to come to their unsatisfactory conclusion.

“Listen, Mr. Restic,” emerged magnanimous Jeff, that condescending creature prone to lecturing. “We can’t let stressful situations lead us to make poor decisions…” It was a drawn out speech of well-meaning but empty words. I smiled politely and thanked him for his time. He graciously walked me to the lobby door, but I refused his extended hand.

The man was a lost cause.

***

I caught Meredith at home. She, too, had effectively been brought back into the family fold but at least she was honest about it. Unlike with her ex-husband there were no high-minded speeches to camouflage her real intentions.

“I’m going with which way the wind is blowing,” she said but it didn’t sound like she was actually happy about it.

“Who’s calling the shots?” I asked. She gave me a look that effectively reprimanded me for a dumb question. “What is he asking you to do?”

“To go along with everything.”

“Which is?”

She smiled. “That wouldn’t be going along with everything.”

“When did you know that Jeanette was pregnant?”

Meredith thought it through and it seemed like she was debating on whether to tell me the truth or not.

“About a month before she ran off,” she finally answered.

“That’s pretty late in her term.”

“She hid it well,” she replied but didn’t feel like that was enough. “We don’t have the best relationship,” she added.

She didn’t like the direction this conversation was going and decided to shift it away from her.

“Did they find the Portillo boy yet?”

“Not yet.”

“I never thought he was the violent type but I guess you never really know what people are capable of doing, do you?”

I let that go unanswered until she looked up at me.

“You want me to play along to help you feel better?”

“Excuse me?” she shot back.

“You know that kid had nothing to do with Morgan’s murder. But if you want me to talk you through it to ease some of your guilt I am happy to oblige. Is railroading Nelson part of whatever plan the family is cooking up?”

“It is not,” she conceded. One thing I admired about Meredith was when I called her on something, she was always big enough to acknowledge it. “And no, I don’t actually think that boy had anything to do with Morgan’s murder.”

“Hire me,” I said.

“What?”

“You don’t believe any of this nonsense being flung around about Nelson Portillo being a murderer. And I don’t get the sense you approve of whatever plan is being cooked up.”

“I already hired you, didn’t I?” She was trying to make a joke out of it to make it go away. I didn’t let her.

“I can find your daughter. I’m close to finding her now. I need your help, Meredith.” She nodded. I couldn’t tell if I was actually getting through to her or if she was just buying time before shooting down my offer. “It’s never too late to turn that relationship around,” I added.

“You and me disobeying Dad?” she dreamed. “He would have a conniption.”

“Let him.”

She tilted her head back and stared out the large slider like she was watching a movie of some fictional world on the other side of the glass.

“Look at him,” she said, pointing at Sami who sat on the edge of a chaise lounge just outside the sliding door. I hadn’t noticed him. He periodically glanced in like someone pretending not to be very interested in what was being said on the other side of the reflection.

“Does he sleep at the foot of the bed, too?”

“No,” she laughed, “but I might ask him to. You’re mean,” she said after some reflection but meant it as a compliment.

“Why are you shutting him out?”

“This is a family matter.”

“So why am I here?”

“You won’t be for long,” she stated.

***

I showed myself out. Meredith was my last hope, but even she couldn’t resist the pull Valenti had on anyone connected to him. I took a moment to take in the cool air trapped under the thick marine layer before heading out on the long drive back to Eagle Rock. It roughly worked out that every three miles equaled one degree warmer on the thermometer. By that calculation it would be ninety-five in my neighborhood.

“There is something happening,” a voice said behind me. Sami scraped through two dwarf palms. He remained close to the wall of the house and safely out of the sightline of the front windows. “Jeanette contacted them,” he said.