Morgan didn’t answer right away. “Uh, well. It went kinda bad.”

I took a deep breath, trying to prepare myself. “Bad how?”

“When she got off the plane in L.A., she went to use the bathroom,” Morgan said, her voice low. “And her purse was stolen.”

Lauren’s shoulders sagged.

“She hung it on the stall door. Someone reached over and grabbed it. By the time she got out of the stall, the bathroom was empty and when she went outside, she didn’t see anyone with it. No one running or anything.”

“Everything was in there?” I asked.

“She has a backpack with clothes,” Morgan said. “But her wallet, her money and her phone were in the purse.”

My foot was pressing hard again on the accelerator and I forced myself to lift my foot. “How is she?”

“Scared to death,” Morgan answered. “She spent the night in the airport. She never left the gate area, so that was at least good. She knew she was screwed, but she knew she could at least spend the night in the airport.”

“Is she still there?” I asked.

The line buzzed. “No.”

“Why not? Where the hell did she go?”

“I just wired her money,” Morgan said. “So she can eat, get another phone and find a place to stay.”

“Call her back and tell her to stay put,” I said. “We can get someone to her.”

The line buzzed again. “I tried that. But it freaked her out.”

“What freaked her out?” Lauren asked, her head in her hands.

“You guys,” she said.

Lauren and I exchanged looks. She knew. Elizabeth knew about us.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I told her that you were here,” she said. “That you were looking for her. And that you were probably right now on your way to L.A. to try and find her.”

“Why did that freak her out?”

The line buzzed, crackling and popping from the poor connection. “I don’t know that it should be me that tells you guys this stuff, okay?”

“Hey, Morgan,” I said, trying to keep my voice calm. “You’re the only connection we have to her right now. We need you. And in order to help her, we need to know exactly what’s going on with her.”

“I get that. But I just feel like it’s all between you guys and it’s not my place to tell you everything.”

“But we can’t talk to her right now,” I pointed out. “You’re all we’ve got and if she’s in trouble or whatever, we need to know. Why is she freaked out about us?”

The line was quiet for a long time.

“Morgan. You still there?”

“It’s just like I told you,” she finally said. “She only remembers bits and pieces from before. And she was mad about finding out she was adopted. She feels like everyone lied to her.”

“I think that’s normal,” I said. I glanced at Lauren for confirmation but her head was still in her hands and I couldn’t see her expression.

“And she doesn’t know you,” Morgan continued. “And right now she’s totally freaked about meeting you.”

I think it was the word meet that stung me the most. As if I’d never known her. It wasn’t her fault that she felt that way. But it hurt nearly as bad as anything else I’d ever experienced.

I shoved the feeling aside. “But she needs help,” I said. “She’s in a bad spot and it was a bad idea to go out there.”

“I know that,” Morgan said. “But she’s there. And she didn’t even want me to call you. But I’m worried about her.”

“Thank you,” I said. “It was the right decision. I promise you we just want to help her.”

“She’s just scared. I would be, too.”

And that made sense. Elizabeth felt alone. On all fronts. Yes, she’d made a rash decision to run away from her home. It wasn’t the smartest thing to do. But she was a teenager. And she was hurting. She felt like she had nowhere to turn.

And that made everything worse.

“So what’s the plan with her?” I said. “You said you wired her money.”

“Yeah,” Morgan said. “And I just saw the email on my screen. She picked it up at the airport.”

“She didn’t say where she was going?”

“No. I think she was worried that I’d tell you.”

Lauren sat back in her seat, her eyes red, shaking her head.

I swallowed a sigh. “Okay. What about calling you?”

“That’s the one thing I got from her,” she said. “I made her promise to call me as soon as she got another phone. I’m not sure if she’ll tell me where she is, but I do think she’ll call me.”

“Good,” I said. “Make sure you get the number. If she calls from a blocked line or whatever, make sure you get the number from her.”

“I’ll try.”

“You can do it,” I said. “Just be her friend. More than anything, that’s what she needs right now.”

“What do I tell her about you?” Morgan asked.

I looked at Lauren. She was turned away from me, staring out the window.

“Don’t tell her you talked to us,” I said. “That’s what she wanted, right?”

“Right.”

“So just leave it alone. Don’t tell her we spoke.”

“Are you still going?” Morgan asked. “To California?”

I hesitated. “I don’t know.”

Lauren’s head whipped around, her eyes wide.

I put a finger to my lips.

“Okay,” Morgan said. “I’m not sure what she’d do if you showed up out there. You know? I think she just needs to think about it for awhile.”

“Right,” I said. “We don’t want to scare her. So just tell her you haven’t spoken to us and when you hear from her, call us and let us know. And make sure to get the number.”

“I will.”

“And Morgan?”

“Yeah?”

“Thank you,” I said. “Very much.”

“I just want her to be okay,” she said and hung up.

SEVENTEEN

“We’re going to California, Joe,” Lauren said as soon as the line was dead. “We’re going.”

“I know we are.”

“Then why’d you tell her you weren’t sure?”

The sun was high in the sky behind us, a bright orb in my rearview mirror, and the desert sand and rock had changed over from pink to red.

“Because she might crack and tell Elizabeth she talked to us,” I said. “If Elizabeth is really freaked about us, the last thing we want is her running further away. This way if she does crack, Morgan will tell her that she doesn’t think we’re coming. It’ll take the edge off for Elizabeth.”

“But we are going?” Lauren pressed. “Right?”

“I’m headed west, aren’t I?”

“Please don’t mess with me.”

I re-gripped the wheel. “Yes. We’re going to California.”

“Even though she apparently doesn’t want to see us?” She sounded defeated.

“What she wants is sort of irrelevant right now,” I said.

She waved a hand in the air, a dismissive gesture. “You say so.”

Lauren was tired, worried and anxious. She was looking for a fight to burn off the nervous energy, but I wasn’t going to give it to her. I wasn’t going to fight just to fight. I hadn’t done it when we were married and I wasn’t going to do it right then.

And I believed what I said. What Elizabeth wanted was irrelevant at that moment. She may not have wanted to meet her biological parents and hear the story of her history, but she was alone. She needed help. So I may have had ulterior motives in trying to find her, but the bottom line was that she was wading into dangerous territory and she wasn’t equipped to handle it on her own. She wasn’t equipped to be alone.

She needed us.

My phone vibrated in my jacket pocket and I pulled it out. I glanced at the screen. “Shit.”

“What?” Lauren asked, turning in the seat.

I held up the phone. “It’s Mike.”

She stared at the phone as it continued to buzz. “Answer it.”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’m not ready to talk to him yet.”

“You think he saw the news story?”

The phone stopped buzzing. “I think it’s sure as hell possible.” I set it down on the console between our seats. “I need to think about what I want to say to him.”

“Maybe he’s just calling to follow up with you,” she said. “You said you talked to him in Minnesota, that he knew you thought you’d found her. Maybe he’s just following up.”