“Made my life nothing but shit, dude,” he said, his eyes narrowed. “Fuck ‘em.”

I felt Lasko just behind me, but I figured he wouldn’t react. It wasn’t anything either of us hadn’t heard before.

“A girl in San Diego,” I said. “Taken from a front yard in Coronado.”

He examined his fingers again. “And why exactly are you knocking on my fucking door?”

“Because your name was the only one that kept popping up when I asked about missing kids,” Lasko said from behind me. “And I’m betting if I make a few more calls, I can find out you’re on probation and probably violating it in at least three different ways. So knock off the bullshit.”

Farver stared at him for a moment, then grinned, shaking his head. He swept his hand dramatically into the house. “Right this way, gentlemen.”

I stepped past him into a small living room that smelled like body odor and French fries. The wide screen TV on the wall was on mute, talking heads moving their mouths next to a football field. There were two large paper cups from McDonald’s on the glass coffee table, one ringed with water, as if it had been sitting there awhile. CDs were scattered on the floor beneath the TV, along with video games to plug into the player beneath the TV. The remotes were strewn across the worn gray carpeting.

Farver walked over and sat down on the black leather sofa. He didn’t offer us a seat.

“So talk,” he said. “Ask what you wanna ask.” He smiled at Lasko. “So I don’t get in trouble and shit.”

“Little less than a decade ago, a girl was taken from her home in Coronado,” I said. “You know where that is?”

He shrugged and I took that as a yes.

“From there, I’m not exactly sure what happened,” I continued. “Think she went to Arizona, where a woman then moved her to Minnesota.”

He stared at me, a blank expression in his weird eyes, then shrugged again. “Sucks for her, I guess.”

I looked at Lasko, standing across from me.

He nodded.

I took two steps forward, lifted my leg and jammed the bottom of my foot into Farver’s chest. He flew back into the sofa, his mouth wide open, the air quickly exiting his lungs in a loud gasp.

“It did suck for her,” I said, watching him. “So answer the fucking questions without your comments.”

His hands clutched at his chest and his eyes were shut tight with pain.

“She’s been found,” I said. “She’s back. But we’re trying to figure out exactly what happened to her. And I wanna know what you know.”

He opened one eye and rocked back and forth, waiting for his breath to return. He glanced at Lasko.

Lasko smiled at him.

Farver finally dropped his hands from his chest and took a deep breath. “I don’t talk for free.”

“We forgot our wallets,” Lasko said.

Farver looked at him, then me. “Kick me again, then. I don’t care, man. You want shit from me, it’s gonna cost you.”

“Do you know the girl we’re talking about?” I asked.

He studied me for a long moment. “Probably.”

I looked at Lasko.

He nodded again, his mouth set in a thin, tight line.

I pulled my gun from my waistband, kicked the table out of the way and jammed the barrel against Farver’s forehead. “Be more specific.”

“You think that’s really gonna scare me?” Farver asked. “Gimme a fucking break, bitch. You want information, you’re gonna pay.”

I pressed the barrel harder into his head.

“You ain’t gonna do shit,” Farver said. “One, your butt buddy over there is a cop and you’re probably lying about not being one. So you ain’t gonna shoot nobody. And, two. If you think I really know something about this kid and you drove out here to find me, then you must be smart enough to know that I can’t talk with a fucking hole in my head.”

He was exactly right. I wasn’t prepared to shoot him. I’d brought the gun out just to apply pressure, which he was either used to or unafraid of. Either way, he’d nailed the situation perfectly. But I also wasn’t going to pay him. For anything. There was a difference between paying someone you thought you could trust for information and paying someone you had no idea about. I had no idea about Farver, but I didn’t think I’d trust him for a second.

“Why are you so interested in this kid anyway?” Farver asked, still unaffected by the gun attached to his skull. “She yours? A friend’s?” He pulled his hand up and examined his fingers again, like he was looking for more barbecue sauce. “Kids are a pain in the ass, you ask me.”

“No one asked you,” Lasko said. His voice had an edge I hadn’t heard before and I knew he was ready to kick Farver’s teeth in.

“What kind of name is Mosaic?” I asked. “Or is that just some bullshit name you gave yourself to sound important?”

“My mama laid it on me,” he said, grinning. “Said it was because I was made of whole bunch of different good things. Or some shit like that.”

“Your mama must’ve been blind,” I said.

“Go fuck yourself, ex-cop,” Farver said. “And either shoot me or get the fuck out of here.”

I pulled the gun away and dropped it to my side.

“That’s what I thought,” he said, nodding. “Couple of fucking pussies.”

Lasko’s shoulders twitched.

“Next time I come back, it’s gonna be different,” I said.

“You ain’t coming back,” Farver said, shaking his head. “You too busy looking for ghosts.”

“I’ll be back,” I said.

Farver cackled. “Now you sound like the Terminator. That’s fucking funny.”

I nodded at Lasko and we headed for the door.

“Most kids, they don’t come back, you know,” Farver said.

I stopped and turned around. “I know.”

Farver stood. “So you’re pretty fucking lucky if this is someone you know. That girl came back. ‘Cause most of the time?” He shrugged, a small, ugly smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “They don’t come back.”

THIRTY TWO

“Sorry, I didn’t call,” Elizabeth said. “I was tired.”

I was back home in Coronado. Lasko and I had driven back, mostly in silence, because there really wasn’t much to say. Going to see Farvar had been a bust. I could’ve paid him, but I doubted he would’ve told me the truth. My gut told me he was involved somehow, but I didn’t think he was going to admit anything. So Lasko dropped me off and I told him I’d call him the next day. I’d showered, more to wash the stench of Farvar’s home off of me than for any other reason, and my phone was buzzing as I pulled my clothes on.

“That’s okay,” I said, stretching out on the bed, happy to hear her voice. “I know it’s been pretty tiring.”

“Yeah,” she said. “It has.”

“How was your day?” I asked. “What did you guys do?”

“Was okay,” she answered. “Just kinda more of the same, I guess.”

“What’s more of the same?”

“I packed up some more of my stuff. I think Mom made our plane reservations to come back, but I’m not sure when.”

It was the first time she’d referred to Lauren as Mom and it stopped me for a second. I wondered what caused it to happen, but I didn’t want to make a big deal out of it.

“Okay,” I said. “I’ll get the info from her.”

“What did you do today?” Elizabeth asked. “Did you run?”

Her question again stopped me. Because she was asking about me, what I did, like she had an interest in how I was spending my time.

“Yep, I went early,” I said. “Didn’t sleep great, so I took off as soon as I got up. It was colder than usual. And I didn’t have you to pace me.”

She laughed. “I just usually try to keep up.”

“Baloney. I just don’t let you see how hard I’m breathing.”

“Whatever.”

I smiled. It felt like a normal father-daughter conversation, one that I hadn’t had in maybe forever.

“What else did you do?” she asked.

“Just running around,” I lied. “Stuff I had to get done.”

“Are you gonna get a job?”

For the third time in the conversation, she stopped me cold. I felt like I was talking to someone I’d never met.