My fingers ached from gripping the steering wheel so tight as I drove away. I felt like I’d made some headway, but at the same time, I felt like I was stuck in no man’s land. I knew what Bandencoop was going to do. She probably didn’t have any of the information I demanded. There was no reason for her to keep it. It would’ve been an incredibly stupid thing to do and made her much more vulnerable. She was going to pack up and disappear. She probably realized that there was no way in hell I was going to let her walk. Maybe I was wrong and maybe she was stupid enough to keep records and maybe she’d be calling me. I doubted it. But at the very least, I’d scared the hell out of her and if she did try to disappear she’d never stop looking over her shoulder. Eventually, I’d get her name to Blundell and they could work on finding her and doing whatever the hell the law would let them do to her.

I drove aimlessly for awhile, just cruising the highway. I had nowhere to go, nowhere to be and I was going stick around for a bit on the small chance that I’d from Bandencoop. My anger level was too high to actually interact with anyone. I needed to let the anger seep out of me, at least temporarily. It was a skill I’d learned during the time Elizabeth had been gone. I’d get so worked up that I was incapable of dealing normally and rationally with people. So I stayed away from them until everything had leveled off.

By the time the sun began to set over the mountains, I felt more collected. I pulled off the highway and grabbed a hamburger at a fast food joint and pulled into the lot of the first hotel I spotted. Ten minutes later, I was stretched out on a firm king bed, the TV on for background noise and eating the burger. The air conditioner buzzed quietly in the corner and cooled the room so efficiently that I realized I was cold. I was kicking off my shoes to get under the blankets on the bed when my phone buzzed and I saw Lauren’s number on the screen.

I touched the screen. “Hey.”

“Hey,” she said. “How are you?”

I hesitated. “I’m okay. How are you guys?”

“Been better.”

“Why’s that?”

She let out a long, frustrated sigh. “I think this was a mistake.”

I pushed myself up so I was sitting straight up on the bed, my back against the headboard. “Why?”

“Flight was fine,” she said. “We actually talked most of the flight. Nothing serious, just talked. We were still talking when we got off. That’s why I forgot to text you the second we landed.”

“That’s alright.”

“So it was fine,” she said, then stopped. “Hang on.” The line buzzed for a moment. “Sorry. She’s in the shower and wanted to make sure she was still in there.”

“Okay.”

“I called the Corzines after we got the rental,” she explained. “Spoke to the woman. She was surprised, but very nice.”

I smiled. “She must’ve been if you’re actually saying she was nice.”

“I was trying to be open-minded,” Lauren said. “And she was very nice. Said they were dying to see Elizabeth and they’d do whatever was necessary.”

“That doesn’t sound bad.”

“I suggested a coffee shop near their house,” she continued. “I found it online. We found it and they showed up about ten minutes later.”

The line buzzed and it sounded like she was clearing her throat.

“She immediately went to them and hugged them,” she said and I could tell she was on the verge of tears. “And it hurt, Joe. It hurt to watch.”

“I’m sure,” I said. “But again. Have to try and put ourselves in her shoes.”

“We’ve told her what happened, Joe,” Lauren said. “She knows they essentially bought her from us.”

“It’s not quite that clear cut, Lauren.”

“You know what I mean,” she answered. “It’s like she doesn’t even care.”

I could understand Lauren’s frustration and hurt and I wasn’t sure that I wouldn’t have reacted the exact same way if I’d been there. But I also thought it was unrealistic to expect Elizabeth to just cut the cord with people that had apparently treated her well.

“What happened then?” I asked.

She sighed again. “We went through some awkward pleasantries. The guy didn’t really say anything. He seemed really nervous. I think he’s still waiting for the other shoe to fall and the cops to swarm his home.”

I nodded to myself. I was sure that he was. We hadn’t decided what to do with them from a legal standpoint and I wasn’t sure we could do anything. It was probably going to be up to Blundell to decide what their role had been in Elizabeth’s abduction.

“After a few minutes, I offered to move to another table so the three of them could talk. They seemed unsure at first, like I was trying to trap them or something. But then I convinced them I wasn’t and they said that would be nice. So I got up and got coffee and sat on other side of the shop.”

“How did they interact?”

“Fine, I guess,” she said. “There was no physical contact or anything like that. Elizabeth actually seemed kind of…I don’t know. Apathetic. She was talking but her body language was kind of indifferent.”

“She’s a teenager.”

“I guess,” she answered. “After maybe twenty minutes, Elizabeth got up and came over to me.”

I didn’t say anything.

“And she wanted to know if she could spend the night at their house,” Lauren said.

It was my turn to sigh.

“I, of course, because I am a black-hearted shrew, said absofuckinglutely not.”

I chuckled. “Of course.”

“At least, according to Elizabeth, that’s what I am. She was pissed. At me. Really pissed. Didn’t understand why it was such a big deal. We went round and round and covered the same ground about why I was there with her in the first place. But she wasn’t interested.”

I leaned my head back against the headboard. “What were the Corzines doing?”

“Watching,” she said. “After we’d stopped arguing and just sat there, staring at one another, the woman came over.”

“To intervene?”

“No. To apologize.”

“What?”

“She heard us arguing,” Lauren explained. “And she wanted to make it clear that it wasn’t their idea for her to spend the night. It was Elizabeth’s.”

I shifted on the bed. “Oh.”

“It got really awkward and they ended up leaving because it was like we were at a stalemate or something,” Lauren said. “I tried to talk to Elizabeth but she basically stopped talking to me because she was so pissed. So we sat there for awhile and then I just threw my hands up and we went and found our hotel and we’ve been sitting here, not talking to one another, until she got up to take a shower a few minutes ago.”

“I’m sorry,” I said. “That sucks.”

“Yeah, it really does,” she said. “I feel helpless.”

“Remember what I said. We are her parents. Not them or anyone else. We get to make the decisions.”

“I guess.”

I knew she was down, but I didn’t think I had anything to offer her. This was just going to be part of the process and there were going to be ups and downs. It was cliché, but it was the truth. And no matter how much we wanted it, Elizabeth wasn’t going to like us all of the time. Even if she’d never been taken from us, we would’ve been fighting a similar battle through the teenage years.

“Any plans for tomorrow yet, then?” I asked.

“She’d have to be speaking to me in order for us to make plans.”

“Right.”

“Hang on,” she said and I heard some muffled voices before she came back. “You want to talk to her?”

“Yes.”

There was a moment of silence, then Elizabeth said “Hello?”

“Hey. How was the shower?”

“Okay. Not much water pressure.” Her tone was bored, uninterested. “Kind of cold.”

“Bummer,” I said. “How was today?”

“Fine.”

“Not what I heard.”

I heard a door close in the background. “It was fine.”

“Your mom said you wanted to stay with the Corzines.”

“Yeah. But she said no. So, oh well.”

“Do you understand why she said no?”