Three weeks later…

Jane Burke recognized an opportunity when she saw one. Ever since she’d started working at The Last Stand, she’d been waiting for her chance, hoping a case would come along that would allow her to prove herself.

She was pretty sure it had just walked through the door.

“The man who let me in said you might be able to help me.” A short cannonball of a woman stood uncertainly in the entryway of Jane’s office, swiping at tear-filled eyes.

Motioning for her to come farther into the room, Jane brought over a box of tissues. “I’ll do my best,” she promised. “But first I need to learn more about why you’re here.”

The young woman’s obesity made it difficult to guess her age, but Jane pegged her at twenty-four or twenty-five. Gerald, the volunteer who’d admitted her, had told Jane she had two siblings who’d recently gone missing. So far, that was all Jane knew. If it’d been on the news, she hadn’t seen it or heard about it. But that wasn’t too surprising. She’d been so busy she hadn’t even turned on the TV. “What’s your name?”

In an attempt to control her emotions, the woman took two tissues and blew her nose. “Gloria. Gloria Rickman.”

“Gloria, I’m Jane Burke. Please sit down so we can talk.” Jane returned the tissue box to its generally ignored corner, then pulled a chair away from the wall, placing it in front of the desk, where it would’ve been if she’d been in the habit of taking her own cases. She was still in training, had been since she’d started six months ago, which meant she did all the tedious record searches, time-consuming court runs and boring clerical work for the three partners who were the backbone of the victims’ charity. But she had a feeling the criminal justice courses she’d been taking, and everything she’d learned on the job, was about to pay off. With Skye Willis and Ava Trussell in South America on a rare job-for-hire, tracking a father who’d stolen his child from his ex-wife, and Sheridan Granger out on maternity leave, Jane had been left in charge of the office. This was the perfect time to tackle her first case. Other than the three volunteers who came in to stuff envelopes or solicit donations, she was the only person here.

“Let me get a notebook. Then I want you to tell me what’s upset you so much.”

The chair creaked as the woman settled into it. Rolls of flesh spilled over the wooden frame, but Jane didn’t care about her excess weight. She’d once been heavy herself. Maybe not quite to this degree, but definitely frumpy. If not for the counseling, daily workout sessions and self-defense classes that’d become her routine-all a product in one way or another of her friendship with Skye-she’d probably still be the disillusioned, overweight, hard-edged smoker she’d been four years ago.

Now she ran an hour a day, weighed a trim one hundred and ten pounds, and had stopped trying to kill herself with cigarettes. Only her smoker’s voice remained. And the scars from that period of her life, of course. They’d never go away entirely-especially the ones on the inside.

“I’m here ’bout my two sisters,” Gloria said. “They went missin’ three weeks ago.”

“Three weeks ago?” Jane echoed, unable to hide her shock.

Tears welled up again. “Three weeks ago las’ Saturday.”

It was Monday morning. That added another day, almost two.

“Why haven’t I heard about this?”

“I don’t know. There were articles in the paper. I reported it to the police the same afternoon it happened,” she said, “but the detective who called me ain’t found nothin’ yet. He’s been tryin’, but…no one’s got any idea where my sisters are an’…I’m so scared. That’s why I’m here. I have to do somethin’ more. I can’t jus’ sit around an’ wait. I’m all they have. I’m all they ever had.”

“Where’re your parents?”

“We have different fathers, but none of ’em are any good,” she said. “Our mother didn’t hang with the best crowd, you hear what I’m sayin’? She died of a drug overdose when I was twenty-three. I was the oldest and had my own place, so I moved my sisters in with me. Latisha, the youngest, wasn’t even in high school yet.”

Jane could easily identify with being raised by another member of the family. Her parents had been killed in a car accident when she was six, leaving her to be raised by an aging aunt who’d stayed single her entire life and had since died, as well. “Where do you live?”

“In a one-bedroom apartment on Marconi. We been there since they came to live with me. It’s a small place, but we make it work. I won’t uproot ’em again and again and again, like what my mama did to me.”

“It’s wonderful that you’ve been able to provide some stability,” Jane said. “How long ago did you assume responsibility for them?”

“It’s been ’bout three years now. They eighteen and seventeen. They both graduated this last June,” she stated proudly. “Marcie got her GED, but Latisha, she was put up a grade on account of she’s so smart. She graduated with honors and won a scholarship to Sac State.”

So the missing sisters were, for the most part, adults. That was probably why this case hadn’t become a major focus for the media. That and the fact that there’d been nothing more to report. “Did you have an argument with them? Try to punish them? Anything that might’ve made them angry enough to leave?”

“We argue all the time, but that ain’t what’s wrong, Ms.-”

“Jane. You can call me Jane.”

“They ain’t never left before. They know I yell ’cause I want ’em to be more and have more than our mother. They gotta go to college. They keep tryin’ to drop out so they can help me keep a roof over our heads. It’s tough to earn a livin’ workin’ at a convenience store. I put in a good sixty, seventy hours a week. But I got Marcie’s tuition at ARC to pay for, in addition to all the other bills. They’re what make it worth doin’-knowin’ they’ll have a better life if I keep goin’. I can’t lose ’em.” More tears streaked her bronze cheeks. “We been through too much. It can’t end like this.”

Already Jane feared she might be in over her head. Be careful what you wish for, she silently chided herself. She’d been bugging Skye to let her start taking on her own cases, and Skye kept saying she wasn’t ready. But if she didn’t get involved now, Gloria would have to wait for Skye and Ava to return. Depending on what happened in South America, that could take a week to ten days, maybe longer. With the economy the way it was, donations were down by a significant margin. Skye and Ava needed to finish this job in order to keep the charity’s doors open. That was the only reason Skye’s husband had agreed to her going so far away. He was the one who’d insisted Ava go with her, since he couldn’t take the time off work. They wouldn’t be back until the woman who’d contracted them had her child back. And Sheridan, their other partner, was planning to spend the next three or four months at home with her new baby.

“Have you been in touch with all their friends?” Jane asked. “Do you have any other family in the area?”

“I talked to everybody. I been on the phone night an’ day. Ain’t nobody seen ’em.”

“When’s the last time you had contact?”

“That same Saturday. Latisha was sleepin’ when I had Marcie take me to work. Latisha had to wait tables at noon and Marcie had to be at the Rancho Cordova Marriott at three. She’s a maid.” She leaned forward, as if taking Jane into her confidence. “I let ’em work part-time if they’re keepin’ up with their schoolwork and all.” She rocked back. “Anyway, Latisha never showed up at the restaurant. I didn’t know ’cause nobody called me. But when Marcie didn’t go to work like she always does, the hotel wanted to know what was what. I tried her cell, but it kept goin’ to voice mail.”

“So you’re thinking they disappeared from your apartment?”

“No. As soon as I could get someone to cover the store, I took the bus home and foun’ the house jus’ fine, locked up an’ everythin’. But the car was gone. We have a little Honda Civic.”