Scarlett whistled softly. ‘Wow.’ Those homes were like something out of a dream. Of course, the fact that Marcus’s apartment was in the same neighborhood had not escaped her notice. But then she’d always known he was wealthy. His mother’s house was a fricking estate, for God’s sake. My whole house would fit into her foyer, she thought, then shoved it aside. She loved her house on top of one of the highest hills in the city. And she’d paid for it herself.

None of which was important right now. Finding Tala’s baby was critical. She crossed her fingers that the Anderses were the people they were looking for. ‘I didn’t know the contract manufacturing business was so lucrative.’

‘Depends on what they were manufacturing, and for whom. Now this is the interesting part. His business is listed as going from five hundred employees to under a hundred about seven years ago. Seems like it took a downward turn.’

‘Lots of businesses did. That’s when everything crashed. And poor Chip and Marlene with that new mortgage. Hard times.’

‘Exactly. And then,’ he said, ‘a year later, Chip opened three new facilities, in different parts of the state. None of the locations have more than a hundred employees.’

‘But he’s churning out enough of whatever it is he’s making with a few hundred employees to expand even bigger than he was when he had five hundred. You’re thinking he had a little labor help?’

‘Yeah.’

Scarlett nodded, considering the picture. ‘Me too. But now I’ve got a few holes to fill.’

Marcus put his phone down, giving her his undivided attention. ‘Hit me.’

Her lips curved briefly, but then she was frowning again as the thoughts swirled in her brain. ‘Deacon and I wondered how Tala got to the alley. If she lived near the park, which now seems more than likely, it’s four and a half miles to the alley. She didn’t look hot and sweaty enough in the video to have walked that far in the heat.’

‘I wondered the same thing.’ His voice hardened. ‘I didn’t have a chance to ask her.’

‘I know,’ she said gently, not taking his tone personally. ‘At first I thought maybe she lived closer to the alley. That she was transported to the park by a handler. That maybe he or she was watching as she walked the dog. I was thinking that was why her owners felt comfortable enough to allow her the freedom to walk the dog all by herself, because even at night she might meet someone. And then we found out about the tracker. And the baby.’

‘The baby was reason enough for her to obey them,’ Marcus said. ‘Knowing that they could hear her through the tracker was just another layer of intimidation. They didn’t need to be watching her so closely. Yeah, I’ve been thinking the same thing. Now that it’s more likely that she lived right near the park, we have to ask the question again – how did she get to the alley? And why did she choose that alley?’

Because she was there to buy drugs, Scarlett thought, considering the wisdom of sharing that opinion with him. But she’d told him nearly everything else. ‘CSU found a bag of cocaine in her pocket.’

She felt his shock. ‘Tala was an addict?’ he asked. ‘She didn’t have any of the signs.’

She wondered how he knew what the signs were, but kept the question to herself. ‘The ME found no cocaine in her system and no signs of drug use. No thinning nasal membranes and no track marks.’

‘Then maybe she was buying it for someone else. Maybe she was on an errand. Wait a second.’ He did another search on his phone. ‘Stephanie Anders has an arrest record. One misdemeanor possession of pot, one for coke. No convictions.’

‘Money talks.’ She glanced at him. ‘No offense.’

‘None taken. So Miss Stephanie wants some snow, and she sends Tala into the neighborhood with cash. Tala scores, and then ducks into an alley to wait for me.’

‘Maybe she used Stephanie Anders’s cell phone to text you.’ She put her own phone on speaker again and called Deacon. ‘Hey, it’s me.’

‘Hey, you. Lynda doesn’t have a warrant yet and nobody’s answering the door. The house is fucking huge, so saying we don’t hear anything inside is virtually meaningless. At least we haven’t attracted too much of a crowd so far, but the SWAT team hasn’t arrived yet.’

‘Small mercies,’ Scarlett murmured. ‘Listen, when you do get in, check the daughter’s room for drug paraphernalia. Stephanie is . . . Wait. Marcus, how old is she?’

‘Twenty. Goes to Brown University.’

‘I heard him,’ Deacon said. ‘So you think the cocaine in Tala’s pocket belonged to Stephanie?’

‘It’s possible.’ She told Deacon the rest of the details that Marcus had uncovered. ‘I’m about ten minutes out from you. We should get Lynda to use what I just gave you to sweeten the warrant pot.’

‘I’ll call her,’ Deacon said. ‘See you soon.’

Cincinnati, Ohio

Tuesday 4 August, 1.25 P.M.

‘Dammit,’ Scarlett muttered as she turned the car on to the Anderses’ street.

Marcus sighed. It seemed like half of CPD had gathered there ahead of them. At the head of the line of cars stood Deacon Novak, arms folded across his chest, jaw taut, his eyes covered by the wraparound shades that had become his trademark. ‘Doesn’t look like Deacon got the warrant from your boss.’

‘He would have called if he had,’ she said, stopping the car at the tail end of the line. ‘But I was still hoping.’ She turned to him, her expression severe. ‘Please don’t do anything that’ll force me to call in favors to bail you out of jail.’

He blinked at her innocently. ‘I am a law-abiding citizen, Detective.’

Uncertainty flickered in her eyes. She didn’t disbelieve him, he could see. But she wasn’t entirely sure of him either. ‘Keep it that way,’ she murmured. ‘Please.’

She hadn’t told him to stay in the car. Just not to get caught. So he nodded. ‘I’d prefer to call in a few of your favors for something much more pleasurable than bailing me out of jail,’ he said quietly. And very, very seriously.

She sucked in a sharp breath, the uncertainty in her eyes flashing to an arousal she immediately shuttered away. ‘I’ll be back as soon as I can.’

He took a few moments to admire the movement of her long, lean body as she jogged up the line of cars toward her partner. She was . . .

Mine. She’s mine.

And she had been from the moment he’d opened his eyes to see her leaning over him as he lay bleeding . . . and dying. He’d been ready to die that day, hadn’t truly minded the idea – not until he’d seen her staring down at him. What he’d seen in her dark, dark eyes, which he now knew were the deepest blue he’d ever seen, had called him back. Had filled him with a sudden craving to fight for another day.

It still did. Enough that he should keep his damn ass in her department car and let her do her job. But that wasn’t who he was. He owed it to Tala to find her child. He owed it to himself, too, knowing he wouldn’t be able to look in the mirror if he sat here and did nothing when he might have an entrée that the cops didn’t have.

Sitting here was not the right thing to do, plain and simple.

Taking a plain black ball cap out of his computer bag, he settled it on his head and activated the camera in the bill. He then got out of Scarlett’s car quietly, walking in the direction opposite from the Anders house until he reached the line of trees that bordered their property, shielding the house from the road. He made his way through the trees, staying in the shadows.

The basement wall was fully visible at the back of the house, which was built into the valley between two hills. Perfectly centered was a solid, non-windowed door covered by a storm door. Both doors opened level with the ground. There was no cover along the back of the house. No trees or bushes to hide behind. The back yard ran flat for the first hundred feet, before the property sloped back up toward the main road.