Shayla snorted. “Yeah, except for the part where I can’t run very fast, my swimming is limited to the dog paddle, I hate the cold, and oh, yeah, I’m afraid of literally everything.”
“Everything,” he repeated.
“Oh, yeah,” she said. “Tornados—although I’ve never been in one—spiders, earthquakes…Iwasin the San Francisco quake, in 1989. I had nightmares for years.”
“And yet you moved to California, home of the earthquake,” Pete pointed out. “Relatively recently, wasn’t it?”
She nodded. “Carter, my ex, got a steady gig in San Diego. It was either move out here and continue to share custody of the boys, or force them to choose which parent they wanted to live with for the school year. I didn’t want them to have that pressure. And since I can write—or not-write—anywhere…” She shrugged. “Everywhere I go, I make note of the sturdiest-looking door frames and furniture. So if a big truck rumbles past and I suddenly dive under the table, it’s not merely because I want to admire your flip-flops.”
Pete laughed. “You know, it’s not about not being afraid—it’s about taking action despite the fear,” he pointed out. “That’s called courage.”
She made that littleshhsound before smiling and saying, “Yes, well, lucky for you my fear of being mocked trumps my fear of earthquakes, otherwise I’d be sitting here, courageously wearing my earthquake helmet, and you’d be sitting here trying hard not to laugh at me.”
He laughed again as he carried his empty bowl to the sink. “Hey, I danced for you. If anyone deserves to be laughed at—”
She made a giant raspberry sound. “Oh, please, if you expect me to believe that a man as smart as you—an officer and a gentleman—doesn’t know that the majority of women rate straight-men-who-dare-to-dance as an automatic eleven on the hotness scale…” Her voice trailed off and it was her turn to blush—although her gorgeous complexion helped to hide it—because, yes, she’d just called himhot.
Of course it was then that Pete’s cellphone rang. He’d left it on the counter and he could see the screen. He answered it. “Lindsey, thanks for calling. Shayla’s still here—I’m putting you on speaker. What’d you find?”
“I’m afraid I’ve got nothing yet,” Lindsey said apologetically. “I wanted to let you know that I heard back from my contact, and she’s not gonna be near a computer until tomorrow morning. She guesses it’ll be around oh-eight-hundred at the earliest.”
Pete reined in his frustration, concentrating on breathing as Shayla let Lindsey know that they’d come up with Daryl Middleton’s name. Lindsey in turn volunteered to ask her friend to run him through the system, too.
“Regardless, we won’t get any info until tomorrow,” Lindsey repeated. “Try to get some sleep, Grunge,” she added and cut the connection.
And then, there they were. Sitting and standing in Pete’s kitchen as the realization that he wasn’t going to find Maddie tonight sank down around him. It was night two of her little escapade—night two in which he’d get little to no sleep.
Shayla must’ve been thinking the same thing, because she said, “There’s really not a whole lot more we can do tonight. I mean, yes, tomorrow morning, first thing, we can go to the school. And I’ll check in with Tevin, see if he knows anyone in the pictures I sent him. Frank’s already texted me. He’s clueless, but I expected that. Ben texted back, too—he’s gonna check with some friends, but he sounded dubious.”
“What time does the school open?” Pete asked. “I mean the office. I know what time school starts, but how early—”
“Mrs. S usually unlocks the door around six-thirty,” she told him. “We could leave here as early as six—be there waiting when she arrives—if you could drive me there and back. That way I can leave my car for the boys—I’m pretty sure Carter took his back tonight and…Talking them into going to school at sixA.M.will be a hard sell.”
He nodded. “Yeah, thanks, I’ll take you up on that. That would be great.”
“And afterthat, depending on whether we find out where Fiona really lives and if we can go and talk to her or her parents, we could take Lindsey’s suggestion and drop in on Maddie’s great-aunt Hiroko since she lives here in San Diego—see if Maddie’s been in touch. Give her a heads-up, in case Maddie reaches out to her.”
Hiroko. Right. That was going to be awkward. But Pete kept nodding. “I also want to rent a truck and move everything that’s in the storage space in Palm Springs back here. There’s room in the garage for it—all of the boxes from Lisa and Maddie’s apartment. Having it close’ll make it easier to sift through. I’d like to find their old computer. Maddie said they had a desktop that had tons of photos on it. Maybe Daryl and Dingo are friends from Palm Springs.”
“I can help you do that,” Shayla said. “And remember, after eight, when Lindsey’s police contact gets access to the computer…Well, it might be as easy as finding out Dingo’s address. We drive over there, we find them…”
Pete nodded. “To be honest, that’s…terrifying, too.”
Shayla did the warm-eyes-and-face thing. “I’ll lend you my earthquake helmet.”
He laughed at that—it was impossible not to.
She smiled, but then she cleared her throat. “Seriously, though, since I suspect you’re going to have trouble sleeping, may I suggest you do something that might sound…” She was doing her careful-word-choice thing again, and she paused before finishing with “…a little unusual?”
Pete leaned back against the counter, completely unable to guess where she was going with this. If she’d been anyone else, he might’ve let his imagination run wild, trying to figure out what she was going to suggest from a variety of options including downing a whole bottle of Scotch, to doing yoga or coloring in a meditation coloring book, to having a rousing round of exhaustive and athletic sex—all to help him sleep.
But she hadn’t disappointed him yet—well, the friend-bombing had disappointed, but in a completely unexpected manner.
“Suggest away,” he said. “As my parent-of-a-teenager sherpa, my mentor, if you will, I am open to whatever wisdom you’re willing to share.”
Shayla winced—which was weird, because his words were meant to be complimentary—but she covered it quickly with a smile. “I was thinking about how you said Lisa taught you to dance, and I was wondering if you’d told Maddie anything about that.”
He shook his head.
