Ava couldn't feel her hands or feet. "Yes."

"Did you ever look for records of them or your mother?" Glen asked. "I know you have access to a lot of databanks."

"I never felt the need," she whispered. How many times had she started to look and stopped?

"Let's sit down," Glen suggested. Ava blindly followed him and David to an outdoor table under the eaves.

What is happening?

Glen handed her a business card, and she stared at it without comprehension. "David hired me last summer. He'd been in Portland and seen your face in the local newspaper after you were . . . injured. You look a lot like your mother, you know."

Ava nodded silently. She'd known there'd been media coverage of her near-deadly encounter with the mastermind of the ma.s.s shootings in the Portland area last summer. But she'd been too ill to care.

"He hired me to find out if you were his daughter. All he had for me to start with was your mother's original name, your name from the paper, and a guess of when she'd given birth."

Ava looked at David. "She told us you didn't want anything to do with us." Glen's part of the story sounded plausible, but she didn't believe David.

"I was married. I'm not proud of it." His eye contact was strong, his face solemn. "Your mother called it quits and let me know two weeks later that she was pregnant. She said she didn't need anything from me but wanted to let me know. I think it was her way of twisting the knife a little bit. I hadn't told her I was married when we started seeing each other."

"You were a cheating a.s.shole," Ava snapped.

"I was." He took a deep breath. "Then she vanished. She left town within days and never contacted me again. I always wondered if she'd lied about the pregnancy. I searched for her a time or two but never found anything."

"Where do you live?" Ava asked.

"San Diego. Glen managed to track her to Northern California once I gave him your name."

"You initiated a search based on seeing me in the paper?"

He gave a half smile. "A one in a million chance, wasn't it? It was easy to find out more information about you. But then Glen stumbled over the fact that Colleen gave birth to twin girls. Your sister has been harder to track down."

"Her records on the Internet and in various databanks are much different than yours," Glen said delicately.

"That's because she's a drug addict," Ava said shortly.

"I gathered that," answered Glen. "But I couldn't find a current residence. I just found out about the treatment center yesterday. Before that, the most current mention I'd found was an announcement about an art show. I pa.s.sed that on to David, a.s.suming she'd show up."

"Instead I met you." David smiled, a pleased look in his eyes.

"Wait a minute." Ava placed her hands on the table and stood. She wanted to slap the smile off David's face. "This isn't a happy family reunion. I don't know you and I don't plan to get to know you. My mother left you behind and it sounds like she had a good reason. I don't need to know my roots," she lied. "You creeped me the f.u.c.k out by showing up everywhere I went, and why the h.e.l.l were you at a murder scene?" She'd planted her hands on the table to hide their shaking, but every muscle quivered under her skin.

"That was on me," said Glen. "I keep my finger on what's going on with my old department. When I found out the FBI had an interest in the case and you were one of the a.s.signed agents, I let David know. I didn't know he'd actually go to the scene." He glared at David. "I just thought he'd like to know what sort of work you did."

"I'm done here," Ava said, adjusting the strap of her purse on her shoulder. "Stay away from me and my sister. Even if you are our father, we don't need this sort of f.u.c.ked-up-ness in our lives right now."

She pushed in her chair and turned away, her feet shaking in her boots. She spotted the brown puddle from her latte and debated buying another.

What I really want is wine.

"Ava," called David's voice from behind her. "Glen tracked where Jayne went when she left the treatment center."

"Callahan."

Mason knew by the tone of Nora's voice that some s.h.i.t had hit the fan. He halted in the hallway outside the detectives' corral and waited for her to catch up. Her face was grim.

"What happened?" he asked. Who ratted me out?

"I just spent a few pleasant moments with the a.s.sistant chief."

Aw c.r.a.p. "No moments with him are pleasant."

"No they're not. He got a call from a reporter who wanted to know why a witness was working on the task force to solve these murders. They'd seen you at the Fujioka scene. I just lied through my teeth, saying that you'd simply accompanied the FBI agents because they'd been interviewing you when the call came in."

"s.h.i.t. I don't think he knows anything about my personal life, right?"

"If you mean does he know you're engaged to the investigating FBI agent, no." She put her hands on her hips, staring him down. "This might come back to bite me in the a.s.s. My career is over if he finds out that I let you prance all around this investigation."

She's not kidding.

"I know. I appreciate it and I owe you a big one."

"I'm calling in that favor right now. You're to stay away from all aspects of this case from now on. I've got no one to blame but myself for letting you poke your nose around, but I just stared into my commander's eyes and lied. So I'm done. I'm not doing that again."

Mason stared at her, feeling his access to Denny's killer slip out of his hands. "Wait-"

"No wait! There's nothing else to be discussed. I shouldn't have let you in and you know it. Your only role in this case is as a witness. Nothing else." She gave him a penetrating stare. "And if you think you're going to use Ava to get close to this case I'll get her replaced."

He started to reply and closed his mouth. He'd pushed too far. He'd taken advantage of Nora Hawes and he didn't have any right to continue. "I'm fully aware what you did for me, Nora. I won't forget it."

"If I need a couch to sleep on because I've lost my job, you'll be the first person I call."

"I'll loan you my own pillow. It's a Tempur-Pedic."

She wrinkled her nose. "What am I? An old woman? I don't need one of those concrete pillows."

"Yet."

"Go back to your desk and stay away from my cases," ordered Nora. "If I find out anything new, you'll hear."

"Have you heard back from Scott Heuser yet? He was supposed to tell us who mentored Micah Zuch."

"Did we not just have a conversation about how you're off this case?" She looked ready to knock his head against the wall.

"You just said you'd let me know if you found out anything new. Did the director of Cops 4 Kidz get us the new information?"

"No. We haven't heard from him."

Mason considered his next words very carefully. "I missed the last Cops 4 Kidz board meeting. I should go pick up my copy of the minutes."

"They don't email those?" Nora asked with heavy sarcasm.

"I heard their email was malfunctioning."

"Uh-huh." She chewed on her lower lip, studying him.

He wanted to squirm. "Don't look at me like that," he muttered.

"Then stay out of my sight."

"I'm going." He turned and headed for the exit.

"Scott called in sick yesterday and left a message that he's still sick today," said the receptionist, looking rather harried as she spoke to Mason. "He's the type of person that doesn't stay home unless he's very ill. If he hasn't returned your messages, it's because he can't."

A stubborn look swept across her face. "He's an excellent director. I've worked with three of them over the last decade, you know. I wouldn't hold this against him. I'm sure he'll call when he's feeling better."

"I wasn't thinking badly of him," Mason a.s.sured her. "Did he tell you he'd been contacted by the FBI? They wanted some information about the cops who'd partic.i.p.ated in the mentoring program."

"No, he didn't say anything. I met the female FBI agent the other day when she came to talk to him. She needs more information?"

"Yes. I believe she's reached out to him twice about it."

"This is in relation to the deaths of those cops?" She whispered even though no one else was in the office.

Mason folded his arms on the high reception counter and leaned in. "Yes. It's been very upsetting that they've all volunteered with our organization at one point or another."

"Well, eighty percent of the local police departments have worked with us," she said. "We're very proud of the number of people that give of their time." She paused. "But I'm not saying anything that you don't already know, Detective Callahan. What was the information she needed?"

Mason kept his excitement under wraps. "They needed to know who mentored Micah Zuch a few years back."

Her face fell. "Only Scott has access to those records. That isn't something I can look up for you."

A brick wall rose in front of him and he deflated.

"Ah, c.r.a.p."

"I'm sorry, Detective Callahan, because the kids are minors, we keep a tight lid on the information, but if I hear from Scott before you, I'll remind him that your task force is waiting on this information."

Mason nodded and thanked her for her time.

Outside the building he pulled his collar snug around his neck against the chill of the October air. The temperature had dropped a good ten degrees since the cloud cover had blown away.

Now what?

Ava had been worried that something had happened to Zander when he didn't return calls. All the cops in the city were watching out for one another, wondering if there'd be another death. A visit to Hauser's home to see if he was okay and to ask him to open those records would be worth his time.

Finding Scott Hauser's home address shouldn't be a problem.

Nora didn't need to know he was poking around.

28.

"I'm listening," said Ava.

She'd stopped in her tracks at David's claim that his private investigator knew where to find Jayne. She turned back to the two men, who'd stood up from the outdoor table as she'd stalked away. Looking for deception in their faces, she stared from one man to the other.

She didn't see it.

"They got on a plane at three A.M. this morning," David said as Glen nodded in agreement. "I'll tell you where they were headed as soon as you hear me out. I have more I need to say."

Ava's heart raced, and she gripped the strap of her bag, taking a hesitant step toward the men. "What do you need to say?"

"You need to hear my side of the story."

Anger ripped through her. "No, I don't. You've already admitted you were a deceptive a.s.shole to my mother."

"I was, and I understood it as soon as she left. I'm not looking for pity or an instant daughter. I'm looking for a little bit of grace for the wrongs I did to you girls and your mother. That's all I want." His eyes pleaded with her.

Curiosity got the better of her. "Make it fast. I want to know where Jayne went." She sat back down in her chair, her spine stiff. The men exchanged a glance and took their seats. David looked relieved.

"I met your mother when she was waitressing in a bar in San Diego."

Ava nodded. That much her mother had told her and Jayne. She'd said it'd been a brief relationship, and they'd gone their separate ways.

"When did you tell her you were married?" Ava asked.

He looked down at the table. "Not soon enough. My wife and I were separated at the time, and I was living in my own apartment. I didn't know if we were going to be able to work it out. Not that it makes any difference now."

You were on a break.

She kept her lips closed, glaring at him, remnants of a previous nasty breakup jolting through her mind. Her ex had also believed taking a pause to reevaluate a relationship was permission to sleep around.

"My kids were three and five."

She blinked. I have siblings? Half siblings?

He gave a small smile. "I have a son and a daughter. You remind me of Kacey. She has the same low voice that makes me think of a singer in a smoky blues lounge."

Her mother had always encouraged her to embrace her voice. It was one of the few distinctions between her and Jayne. When they were kids, Jayne would imitate it to pa.s.s herself off as Ava.

Ava had been in her midtwenties before she'd accepted her unique sound.