Blundell shrugged. “I don’t know. Just hearing things.”

I wondered if Lasko had rung some bells or if she was just keeping an eye on me. Either way, I wasn’t surprised.

“I’m poking around,” I said. “As I told you I would. So if you’re here to tell me to stop, why don’t you do that so we can stop wasting each other’s time?”

She finally leaned back in the sofa and crossed her left leg over her right. “I’m not sure that would do any good.”

“It wouldn’t,” I said. “I’ll just be upfront about that.”

She nodded, like she’d expected that answer. “Okay. So maybe we share information.”

“Sure. What do you wanna share?” I asked.

She smiled and it finally seemed genuine. “I was thinking you first.”

“I was not thinking that.”

“Mr. Tyler, I can’t just…”

“Fine,” I said. “Tell me what you know about Phoenix.”

She cocked her head to the side. “Phoenix?”

I could’ve shared with her the things that Lasko had pulled together, but I didn’t trust her. Not because I thought she was doing anything wrong, but because I wasn’t entirely convinced she was really going to share anything with me. So I decided to throw out the one thing I still knew very little about.

“What do you know about a woman in Phoenix who might be trafficking kids?” I asked.

She thought for a moment, then shook her head. “Nothing.”

“Nothing?”

She shook her head.

“That isn’t sharing information, Agent Blundell,” I said. “Thanks for coming by.”

The fact that she didn’t stand told me she was either very interested in what I had to say or that she knew something about Phoenix. Maybe a little of both.

“You’re talking about what the Corzines have said?” she finally said.

I nodded. When I’d first found the Corzines, they claimed they didn’t know anything about the woman they’d “adopted” Elizabeth from, further weakening their argument that the adoption was above board. But they did disclose that they had picked Elizabeth up in Phoenix.

“We’re looking,” she said.

“Hard?”

“We’re looking at everything right now,” she said. “Everything.”

“Anything there?”

She hesitated. “Not that we’ve seen yet, no.”

“So not a thing?”

She shook her head.

I didn’t believe her. Either she was holding out on me, they hadn’t looked or they weren’t having any luck. She wouldn’t admit if they hadn’t looked yet, but if they weren’t having any luck, there was no reason for her not to tell me that. So she either had something or they hadn’t gotten that far yet. Either one irritated me.

“So,” she said.

“So,” I repeated.

“I answered your question,” she said. “Now it’s your turn.”

I laughed. “Okay. Ask me a question.”

“Was hoping you’d just be forthcoming.”

“With?”

“With whatever.”

I waited a moment. “I’m looking at everything.”

She frowned.

I shrugged. “What else do you want? Corzines told me about the lady in Phoenix. I haven’t gotten much further. And apparently I don’t need to worry about her. According to you, at least.”

She uncrossed her legs, then recrossed them. “Why the hostility, Mr. Tyler?”

“There’s no hostility, Agent Blundell.”

Her face hardened and any semblance of congeniality was gone. “I understand you had some trouble before you left the force here in Coronado.”

In the past, those were words that tended to inflame my anger. But I’d gotten so used to hearing them, to knowing they were presented just to provoke a reaction, it was like I’d become inoculated to the poison being thrown my way.

“The only trouble I had was when my daughter was taken from my front yard,” I said.

“That’s not exactly the way I read it.”

“Well maybe Bazer added some fiction to entertain you,” I said, smiling.

She made a slight roll with her shoulders that I took as a shrug. “You want to give me your version?”

“Not particularly,” I said, shaking my head.

“Might give me a clearer picture.”

“Of what, exactly?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at her. “Of whether you think I might’ve had something to do with my own daughter’s disappearance?” I shook my head. “If you really think I give a shit about that, you go right ahead and dig. I feel zero need to defend myself against that absurd idea.” I laughed and squinted at her. “I honestly thought you were better than that. But if you’re getting sidetracked with that bullshit, you might as well close my daughter’s case now and mark it as unsolved because your head is so far up your ass you won’t be able to see a thing.”

She smiled at me like she might a young kid who was telling her a joke she’d heard a bunch of times before. “I didn’t say I believed it.”

“I didn’t either, but if that’s what you’re gonna use to try and pull info out of me, you might want to sign up for interrogation school again,” I said. “I’m over that.”

She nodded slowly. “So nothing you want to share right now?”

I stood. “Even if I had anything, I wouldn’t share it right now after that pathetic attempt to get a rise out of me.”

“I think it might’ve done that,” she said, pushing off the couch. “You’re protesting a bit too hard.”

“Shakespeare won’t get you anywhere, either,” I said.

She smiled and put her hands on her hips. “Okay. But you still owe me, Mr. Tyler.”

“I don’t owe you a thing,” I said.

“Quid pro quo.”

“Yeah, well you gotta give something to get something.”

She tilted her head. “I answered your question. Not sure what else you want.”

I walked past her to the front door and opened it. I let her pass before I said anything else.

“What I want is a phone call,” I said.

She stopped on the front porch. “A phone call?”

“Yeah, a phone call,” I said. “Before you show up at my home again.”

FIFTEEN

“She said she’d go,” Lauren said. “With me.”

The girls returned home later in the afternoon and we’d barbecued chicken for dinner. I didn’t mention Blundell’s visit because I didn’t think there was any point. They seemed to have had a good time shopping and for the first time since she’d been home, Elizabeth was smiling and talking easily with Lauren. Lauren was trying not to make a big deal over it, but I knew she was pleased.

Now we were in the bedroom, Elizabeth having gone upstairs to hers and I was starting to understand why they were getting along better.

“Yeah?” I asked, stretching out on the bed on my side, my head resting on my hand, my elbow on the pillow.

Lauren nodded and slid onto the bed on her back. “Yeah. I asked her about it. She said if that was only way she could go, she’d go. But she didn’t say it all crappy like that.”

“That’s good.”

“I suppose.”

“So then it’s up to you,” I said.

She frowned at me. “No pressure.”

“Is what it is.”

She folded her hands together and rested them on her stomach. “So you told me how you felt about the baby. Now I’m curious how you feel about us.”

I rolled over on my back. “What the hell is it about this room that brings on these questions?”

“It is what it is.”

“Touché.”

“Thank you.”

I stared at the ceiling. “I don’t know, Lauren. Do we have to solve everything in one week?”

“No, that’s impossible,” she answered. “But we have to figure these things out.”

“We have time.”

She shrugged. “Maybe.”

I folded my hands behind my head. “I don’t know. I know that being back in the house has felt pretty normal. Having Elizabeth here feels normal. Talking to you like this feels normal.”

“Agreed.”

“But I don’t want to force anything,” I said. “We got divorced for a reason.”

“We got divorced because Elizabeth was taken from us,” she said.

“That was part of it,” I said. “But we both know there were other things.”

“So you think we would’ve gotten divorced even if she hadn’t been taken?”

“No. But a lot of things happened. Things that we can’t take back. We’re different people because of what happened.” I paused. “We got divorced because we became those different people. Just because we have her back doesn’t mean we go back to being those people. We can’t.”