Thread of Truth, стр. 5

I took the binder and told them I'd be in touch soon.

I drove back to Coronado, the late afternoon traffic bringing the drive to a crawl as I moved past Mission Bay, Sea World, and then the airport. The sun seemed especially bright and I reached out to adjust the car visor on the passenger side, hoping to block the glare. Traffic slowed even more as the highway curved toward downtown. It seemed as if the sheer number of people now on the roads in San Diego was growing by the day. Even though it was May, there had already been an influx of early summer arrivals, trying to get a head start on the beaches and to take advantage of the pre-season rental rates. I appreciated that people loved San Diego as a vacation destination but I had long ago reached the point where I wished they would start visiting the other coast.

Elizabeth's car was in the driveway when I finally made it to the house and that fact made the long drive home worth it. I pushed open the front door with one hand, the binder from the Lockers in the other. The smell of barbecued meat made my mouth water.

Elizabeth craned her head through the door that led to the back patio. “I found the steaks in the fridge and I was hungry.”

“You read my mind,” I said, tossing the binder and my keys on the couch.

I joined her out on the patio. My gaze drifted to the meat sizzling on the open grill. She’d already flipped the steaks.

“I didn't look for anything else in the fridge,” she said. “That'll be your job.”

“I'll make a salad,” I told her, dropping into the chair across from the grill. “And there's broccoli in the fridge.”

She pointed the tongs at me. “You look tired.”

She did not. Her long blonde hair was pulled into a ponytail, her cheeks pink from the heat of the grill. The loose t-shirt and gym shorts she was wearing did nothing to hide the fact that she was lean and youthful and fit.

“When don't I?” I asked.

“Fair point,” she said with a smirk. “You are old.”

“I was going to say it was nice to see you, but I'm rethinking it.”

She chuckled and turned back to tend to the meat.

My daughter had returned from her long road trip a different person. To me, it seemed as if she could finally see the path in front of her. She’d seemed to make peace with her long, difficult past, and it had provided her with the clarity she needed to move forward. She'd gone back to running for UCSD and had a pretty good outdoor track season. She was finally graduating in two weeks. She hadn't decided on a career path yet, but it wasn't stressing her out. I usually only saw her on the weekends, if I saw her at all. She'd moved into a new apartment near school and was living with a roommate who was a good friend, as well. So it was a pleasant surprise to find her in the backyard.

“Where were you?” she asked. She used metal tongs to gently lift one of the steaks, inspecting her grillwork. If she was anything like me, she would be a master.

“Meeting with a client,” I told her.

She turned to me with raised eyebrows. “A client?”

“Son is missing, but it's sort of weird.”

“Weird how?”

I told her about my meeting with the Lockers.

“That is kind of weird,” she said when I'd finished. “Do you believe them?”

“I believe them in that they think he's turned his life around,” I said. “I'm just not sure they're being honest with themselves. Seems like a quick turnaround for a kid who seemed to be headed in the wrong direction.”

“Maybe he hadn't gone too far in the wrong direction.”

“Maybe.”

Elizabeth poked at the meat with her tongs, as if doing so might indicate it was done. “Though I'm not sure having a baby would normally be considered a sign of turning one's life around, especially at eighteen.”

“Yeah, I thought so, too,” I said, clasping my hands behind my head. “I thought they were trying to frame it as a good thing, but I kept thinking maybe he hadn't righted the ship as much as they believed he had. Or wanted to believe he had.”

She nodded, her blonde ponytail bobbing behind her. “Right. So are you going to look for him?”

A couple of gulls flew overhead, squawking. Sirens wailed in the distance, a soft sound that eventually faded.

“I said I would.”

She nodded again. “Good.”

She'd been the one who'd really pushed me to cut the cord on teaching and treat investigating as a career. When she returned from Minnesota, she'd really pushed me to quit. She knew I wasn't happy and she knew it had become drudgery for me. Up to that point, she'd been subtle in suggesting I leave and return to investigating. When she came back, she'd been direct and I'd listened. She helped me put up a barebones website and design some simple business cards. She played heavily on the news articles that had been written after I'd found her and used those to give the website – and me – credibility. It made me a little uncomfortable, but I'd started getting inquiries and that had eventually led to a steady stream of business. I wasn't licensed and always had to make that clear, but that hadn't deterred too many folks. The Lockers, though, were the first people to ask me to take a look at something that was a bit more complicated.

“Anything I need to do for graduation?” I asked, switching subjects. “I feel like I've done...nothing.”

“It's not high school,” she reminded me. “I had to fill out some paperwork and pay for the cap and gown. That's pretty much it.”

“Do I need a ticket or something?”

“No. Not for either of them.”

“Either of them? There’s more than one?”

She looked at me and grinned. “There’s the All-College Commencement and then