I fingered the charms for a moment, wondering what they meant to Elizabeth. Wondering how it had looked on her wrist. Wondering if she’d meant to leave it behind or if it had been a mistake. Wondering what other kinds of jewelry she liked to wear.

I folded it up carefully and put it in my pocket. “I’ll get it to her.”

“Thanks,” Bryce said.

“You can find your way back to the airport?”

He nodded. “Yeah. And when you find her?”

I waited.

“Ask her to call me,” Bryce said. “Just whenever she can. Ask her to call me.”

He slid into the driver’s seat of his car and I watched him pull away from the curb.

I still wasn’t sure why he’d followed us to Los Angeles, but I didn’t think he’d meant any harm. I thought he was a kid who missed his girlfriend and couldn’t figure out why she’d cut him out of this part of her life. He was confused, sad, frustrated.

And I hoped I’d have the opportunity to ask her to call him at some point.

TWENTY-NINE

I got back into the car and Lauren was on her phone for a moment before punching it off.

She looked at me. “That was Morgan. Her calls are going to be forwarded to your phone.” She nodded at the front seat. “They got what they needed from her, she said okay and they set it up.” She paused. “So if she calls Morgan…”

“My phone will ring,” I said. “John, is that every call that goes to Morgan’s phone or just from my daughter’s?”

“Every call,” Anchor said, turning around. “We did an entire forward from her system. So any number that calls the girl in Colorado will ring through to you. We should be able to recognize the number, though. Should have a Southern California area code. But I’d say we answer everything, just to be safe.”

I nodded, staring at my phone for a moment. I wasn’t exactly sure how I’d handle hearing my daughter’s voice. I didn’t think there was any way to prepare for the moment.

“Nothing on triangulating her number?” I asked.

Anchor shook his head. “The phone hasn’t been used. We’re still watching. If she makes a call, we’ll see it.”

I nodded again.

“Can anyone tell me what exactly we’re doing?” Will Thorton asked in the seat next to me.

“No,” Lauren said. “Shut up.”

Thorton shrunk in his seat.

Kitting navigated the neighborhood streets in Redondo, passing through narrow streets of upright homes with multiple stories, each trying to get a glimpse of the Pacific out to the west. He pulled to the curb, the big car idling in front of a two-story stucco with a brown garage door and a gate barely hanging on one hinge. An old VW bug was in the driveway, the shiny chrome exhaust pipes at odds with the faded orange paint on the rest of the vehicle. A small, portable fire pit was near the garage door, along with several empty beer cans.

Kitting twisted his head towards us. “This it, kid?”

Thorton nodded, still sulking. “Yeah. He has a roommate, too. But that’s his car.”

Kitting nodded and looked at Anchor.

“You want me to go get him?” Anchor asked.

I opened my door. “No. I’ve got it. She might still be here.”

“I’m coming, too,” Lauren said, her door already open.

“We’ll be here,” Anchor said.

My stomach knotted as Lauren and I walked to the door. We weren’t too far behind Elizabeth. There was a good chance that she was there, behind the door, and that we’d come face to face with her for the first time in nearly a decade. I didn’t know if she’d recognize me or even if she did, how she’d react. I wasn’t sure how I’d react. For so long, I’d committed myself to a search without an ending, a search that only ran into dead-ends. These last couple of days were the first time I’d ever let myself get caught up in thinking that I was close to finding her. That I was going to find her.

And I told myself I was. Even if she wasn’t at this house, we knew she was nearby. Close enough to catch.

Close enough to finally see.

I knocked on the door and heard the knock echo behind it.

We waited.

Footsteps shuffled behind the door and it opened.

A guy in his twenties wearing board shorts, no shirt and sporting a barbwire tattoo around his fairly sizable right bicep stood there, looking at us. “Yeah?”

“You Aaron Simmons?” I asked.

He looked me up and down, then did the same to Lauren. “Maybe. Who are you?”

“We’re looking for the girl you picked up from the Crowne Plaza earlier,” I said. “She here?”

He looked bored. “Not sure what you’re talking about, man, and it’s late to be knocking on my door.”

“Yeah, you do,” I said, then motioned at the car. “Your buddy Will is in there and he brought us here.”

If that fazed him, he didn’t show it. “No idea what you’re talking about, dude,” he repeated. “And I was just about to go to bed so thanks for stopping by.”

He went to close the door but I wedged my shoulder against it. “We’re not done.”

His arms arched at his sides and he thrust his chest out. “Get off my door, dude.”

“We’re not done,” I repeated.

He stared at me, giving me a stare that I’m sure he thought was hard, intimidating, a stare he thought might scare me off. Then he turned to Lauren.

“You’re welcome to come in, though, sweetheart,” he said, casting a leering grin in her direction. “I’ll stay up for you. In a couple of ways.”

I put my hand on his throat and pinned him to the doorframe. He grabbed at my wrist, then tried to swing at me. I pulled my head back and pressed my fingers tighter around his neck.

Lauren stepped off the small step, but didn’t intervene.

He gave up trying to hit me and focused on my hand that was cutting off his air supply. Both of his hands clawed at my forearm as his eyes tried to stay calm. He was strong and I was having trouble maintaining my grip.

I stepped forward and drove my knee upward between his legs. His hands fell to his sides and his entire body sagged. I let go of his throat and let him fall to the ground.

He writhed on the concrete, one hand on his neck, the other folded in between his legs.

I bent down. “There are two guys in that car over there who are far scarier than me. If I go ask them, they’ll come over here and start taking off your fingers, one at a time. We’ll just drop them in a trash can. You’ll beg them to stop. And all because you didn’t want to answer my questions about the girl you picked up earlier. Seems kind of stupid, doesn’t it?”

Beads of sweat popped on his forehead. Red circles sprouted on his neck where my fingers had been.

I waited.

“Fuck you, dude,” he rasped, his eyes darting at me.

Before I could move, Lauren’s foot smashed into his mouth. She pulled it away, exposing a mess of scarlet teeth. Aaron’s eyes were closed tight in pain.

We waited.

He rolled onto his back and eventually opened his eyes. He swallowed several times, probably more blood than saliva, then pushed himself into a sitting position.

He wiped at his mouth with his forearm. “What about her?” he spat.

“You picked her up at the hotel?” I asked.

“Yeah. Will called. It’s our thing. At least, since that bitch fired me.”

“Right. You picked her up. Tell me exactly what happened.”

He leaned back on his hands. “Will told her I could give her a place to stay, a ride, whatever she needed. I went to the hotel. Met her outside. She didn’t really wanna get in the car, but I guess she decided I didn’t bite.” He shrugged. “I told her she could crash at my place.”

I glanced at the front door. “So she’s here?”

He shook his head. “No. We drove for like five minutes and she changed her mind.”

The tiny tendril of hope in my gut disintegrated. I knew better, but I couldn’t help hoping she was somewhere in this dirtbag’s house.

“She just changed her mind?” Lauren asked, frowning. “Just like that?”

He wouldn’t look at her and he rubbed at his jaw. “Yeah. I guess so.”