“No, he didn’t. Is there any way to have this call traced?”

“I don’t know,” Brian said. “And there’s something else you haven’t thought of.”

“What’s that?” Jade clutched the stem of her wineglass.

“It wasn’t necessarily Colin calling. All we know is that it was Colin’s phone.”

Their waitress interrupted us. They were both nearly done with their meals, so I ordered some chicken Marsala and a glass of Chianti.

“You definitely need to call the cops,” I said after the waitress left.

“I will,” Jade replied, “but all I have is Steve Dugan’s card with his office number on it.”

“No problem,” I said. “Steve’s a poker buddy of mine. I have his cell number. I’ll call him now.”

Jade bit her lip. “It’s nine o’clock on a Saturday night, Talon.”

“So what? He’s been investigating this guy’s disappearance, and we just got a lead. Let’s let him know.” I quickly pulled up Steve’s number.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Steve. Talon Steel.”

“Hey, Tal, what’s going on?”

“Jade just got a call from Colin Morse’s phone.”

“What?” Steve nearly took my ear off.

“Yeah. We’re in Grand Junction, where her mom is in the hospital. About an hour ago, she got a call from Colin’s phone, but no one said anything, and then the phone eventually went dead. Any way you can trace where it came from?”

“Hell, yeah. I just need Jade’s number and the time of the call. We should be able to find something.”

I quickly gave him the information he needed.

“I’ll let you know if this leads to anything.”

“Okay, thanks. At least we know it was his number. Of course, it could have been anyone using his phone.”

“True enough,” Steve said. “I’ll get on it and let you know if it leads to anything.”

“Great. Thanks, Steve.”

By the time I was done with my phone call, my chicken Marsala had arrived. Not as good as Felicia’s or my sister’s, but not bad. Besides, I was starving. I hadn’t eaten anything all day.

I thought about whether to tell Jade about what I’d been investigating this evening but decided against it. No need to worry her or her father right now.

I felt a little awkward sitting next to Jade’s father, but the two of them talked a lot, so I was content to eat my food and say very little. When I was finally done, I insisted on picking up the check, although Jade fought me on it. Finally I won out.

Jade’s dad had driven her over here from the hospital.

“Do you want to get a room for the night?” I asked her. “Or do you want me to drive you back to the ranch?”

“Since my mom is doing okay, I think I want to go back to my apartment tonight. Not the ranch. I don’t have anything there.”

A lump clogged my throat. “Okay.” I turned to her dad and shook his hand. “It was nice meeting you, Brian.”

“You too, Talon.”

Jade and I didn’t talk much on the ride home. She was clearly exhausted, and so was I. I hadn’t slept at all last night because I had been on the computer researching those bastards.

I ended up dropping Jade off at her apartment and kissing her goodbye. As much as I wanted to make love to her, I was just too tired, so I gave her a deep kiss and then left to drive home.

 

On Monday morning, I was back at Dr. Carmichael’s office.

“I tell you, Doc, I really want to find out something about that third man. The one with the low voice. I think I may have identified the one with the tattoo and the one missing his toe. Of course, both of them have now disappeared. One way or another, I’m going to find all of them.”

“You’re very determined, which is a good thing. Remember, though, that only a few weeks ago, you weren’t sure you wanted to try to catch these guys. Don’t your drive for vengeance keep you from your goal, which is healing.”

“Don’t you think seeing the perpetrators behind bars will be healing for me?”

“It may not hurt your progress, but it won’t help your healing as much as you think it will. And if you become distracted and neglect your healing, yes, it could hinder you.”

“How can you say that?”

“Let’s put it this way. Say you’re a mother whose child was murdered. Or a father, for that matter. And the perpetrator is caught and convicted and will now spend the rest of his life in prison. Does that make you feel any better?”

“I would think it would.”

“Will it bring the child back?”

“Well, no, of course not.”

“Remember why you’re here. Seeking justice and putting your abductors behind bars won’t change what they did to you, Talon. Yes, I want them behind bars. I want them to pay for what they did to you and to all those other children. And I also want to know that they’re behind bars so they can’t hurt any other children as well. But that won’t change what you went through.”

“Jesus, Doc.”

“Please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not in any way belittling your need to see justice served. I want to see justice served as much as you do. But whether or not those men are caught won’t change what happened to you and won’t really have any effect on your healing.”

“That doesn’t seem possible.”

“You can’t see it now because they’re still at large. But believe me. I’ve had so many patients who think that once they put someone who did them wrong behind bars, they’ll feel so much better. They don’t. It doesn’t work that way. Believe me, I wish it did. Of course, then I’d be out of a job.” She smiled.

I thought for a minute. What if someone had killed someone I loved? One of my brothers or my sister? Or—God—Jade? Would I feel any better seeing the killer behind bars? It wouldn’t bring Jade back.

“Okay, Doc, I see what you’re getting at.”

“I’m not telling you to stop trying to catch them and bring them to justice. Just don’t confuse that with your own healing.”

“Gotcha.”

“So you want to try to remember something about the third man, the one you referred to as Low Voice?”