OCEANS.
I kept replaying the meeting with Gerald in my head on the drive back, turning it over, looking for any loose threads I might have missed or inconsistencies in some of his hesitations that I initially didn't add up.
There was none.
The man was telling his truth. Every word of it. Which meant the most promising lead we had managed to surface in six years had delivered exactly one useful thing — the confirmation that she had survived, walked away on her own two feet, and disappeared so completely that even the man who had held her while she bled didn't know her name.
I poured two fingers of scotch when I got back and sat with it without drinking it for a while.
My phone was on the desk in front of me.
11:16 PM.
I picked up the glass and drank.
She was already past the ten o'c
