Lucas slumped in his chair, his cinnamon roll ignored. “I’d hoped to wake up to good news.” He rubbed his eyes. “Robin was in and out of bed all night. At one point I heard her bawling in the bathroom. She’s out cold now. I don’t know if she slept at all last night.”

His sad brown eyes reminded Ava of a lost puppy.

“I don’t know if I have any tears left,” he muttered. He picked a chunk of frosting off his cinnamon roll, looked at it, and then set it back on the plate. “Henley loves cinnamon rolls. I’m surprised Robin made them. Usually, that’s something they do together.”

“Maybe it made her feel better,” Ava offered. “An indicator that she knows Henley could come walking in at any minute to eat one.”

Lucas met her gaze, all his emotions suddenly packed away and out of sight. “Yeah, maybe. What’s the FBI going to do today to find my daughter?” His voice was flat.

Ava swallowed. It’s normal for him to be angry. It’s not personally directed at you. “More interviews, pavement pounding, door knocking, video review, computer forensics—”

“They took all the computers out of my business yesterday. Even my partner’s computers. How the fuck am I supposed to run a business without our hardware?” Lucas ran a hand through his perfect hair.

“Don’t you guys close down for the holidays?” Callahan asked. “Who expects their accountant to work Christmas week?”

Lucas gave him a sour look. “Clients don’t give a rip that it’s nearly Christmas. They care that they’ve exercised every possible tax break before December thirty-first.”

“You have everything backed up to a remote location, right? So you just need to rent or buy some new hardware,” Callahan said.

“We’re trying to find out. Our IT guy is on vacation in Italy.”

“Smart guy. Takes the holidays off,” Callahan said with an even face. Lucas glared at him.

Footsteps distracted the men, and Jake shuffled into the kitchen. He stopped and stared blankly at the group. “Henley?” His voice cracked.

“Nothing yet, son,” Callahan answered. “Get something to eat.”

Jake moved to the counter full of baked sugar, his gaze widening. “Mom was up all night?”

“Yep. Hey, you sleep in your clothes?” Callahan asked.

He was right, Ava noticed. Jake was still wearing the jeans and shirt from yesterday. The shirt had picked up a few more dozen wrinkles.

“Don’t have anything to wear,” Jake said around a mouthful of coffee cake. “Airport lost my suitcase and still hasn’t found it. Mom was going to take me shopping . . . and she hasn’t done laundry. I already wore the only clothes I still have here.”

“You know how to shove clothes in a washing machine, right?” Callahan asked at the same time Lucas stated, “You know how to drive to the mall.”

Jake blinked at both men. “Mom said she’d go with me. And I was hoping someone would have found my suitcase by now.”

Ava spoke up. “The airline lost your luggage? Where do you go to school?”

“Duke. North Carolina. I changed planes in Denver, but the airline’s computer system says my suitcase made it to Portland with my flight.”

“That’s the worst.” Ava had lost luggage three times. Once it’d never been recovered. The airline had said the same thing—that her suitcase had made it to its location. Something shifted on her computer screen, and she scanned the new email. “They want to talk with Jake in an hour.” She looked at both dads. “One of you want to go with him? I’d like to be there if I’m not needed for anything for a while.

The two men looked at each other. “You go,” Lucas stated. “I’ll wait for Robin and Lilian to wake up.”

Callahan nodded. “Go shower,” he ordered Jake. “Steal a shirt out of my bag.”

“But Dad, your clothes—”

“Do it. You only have to wear it for an hour.”

The teen shuffled out of the kitchen, his cake in hand.

“I’ve got a Duke sweatshirt he can borrow,” Lucas offered. “He can’t complain about that.”

Callahan nodded but didn’t look at the stepdad. Ava studied the two men. What was it like trying to raise a teen and not step on the other parent’s toes? She knew Jake spent most of his time with his mother and Lucas. What did that do to Callahan’s sense of fatherhood? Had he felt that Lucas should accompany Jake to the interview? Had Lucas’s offer to stay home felt like pity?

The four adults in the home had created one hell of a sociology experiment.

9

25 HOURS MISSING

Mason noticed that the number of cars outside the church command center had tripled. Fewer police vehicles, but more plain-looking American-made sedans and SUVs. More federal help. Mason turned his vehicle into the parking lot. The media had set up another camp in the far corner of the church lot, a mass of tents, RVs, and cameras. He drove in the opposite direction, looking for a parking spot that wasn’t too far from the doors.

The FBI had picked a good location for their command center. The lot and church building were huge. There was room for everyone. But what about church services tomorrow?

“The church announced it was cancelling all services tomorrow,” Ava announced beside him, as if reading Mason’s thoughts. “That’s a bit of a hard thing, considering Christmas is next week. It asked its members to stay home and pray for Henley or attend the candlelight vigil downtown at the water tomorrow night.”