“You see how that’s confusing? Are you going to answer that?” She pointed at the phone, inadvertently raising her voice. She collected herself and added through clenched teeth, “It could be important.”
“If it’s urgent they’ll call 9-1-1. If I sat there answering the phone all day, I wouldn’t get a single thing done.”
“Mm-hmm.” She eyed the teetering files in his in-tray. Evidence. He wanted evidence. “How about this?” She drew out her phone and brought up Vivien’s last social media post—a selfie at a local bar with a man too good-looking to be good news. Vivien was beaming; he looked pissed. “She’s written in the caption, ‘Expecting a proposal any day.’ People have replied with things like, ‘Omigod, so jealous,’ and, ‘When do I get to meet him?’ That’s the last confirmed sighting I have. If you can find that guy, maybe he knows something.”
She thrust the phone in Officer Sheng’s face. He took it, holding it at arm’s length. She could almost see the recalibration in his pupils as he focused. He … laughed.
“What… what is it? You know him?”
“Are you pranking me?” His focus darted around the room. “Is this a prank?”
“Absolutely not! Don’t you think he looks dangerous, the way he’s glaring at the camera like he wants to pick a fight with it?”
The cop leaned forward. “So, you want me to, what, arrest him?”
“I don’t know about that, but he may be a person of interest.”
“Oh, he’s definitely a person of interest.”
“Wait, he is? I thought you said?—”
“A person of interest to pretty much everyone in America.” He assessed her for a long moment. “You … really don’t know who he is?”
She shook her head.
He tapped something into his computer and swung the monitor around. The screen filled with images of the most handsome man Lana had ever seen—portraits, full-length shots in tuxedos with stunning women in gowns, candid snaps in a supermarket and jogging on a street… Short brown hair, a California tan, bright green eyes.
“Who isthat?” Lana leaned forward, her butt rising from the chair.
“Uh, Griffin Hart?”
She shook her head.
“Are you messing with me? Child star? Action hero? Son of Peter Hart and Evangeline Zavala? Grandson of Lloyd Zavala? Born famous and just gets more famous?” He waved a hand in front of her face. “Nothing? Really?”
Lana forced her eyes from the screen and sat. “And you think this Griffin Hart might be involved in Vivien’s disappearance?”
The cop exhaled heavily, spinning the monitor back. “No, I do not think he was involved. I think your sister asked him for a selfie, like thousands of others.”
“Then why does he look so pissed?”
“He’s not known as a Mr. Nice Guy. And he gets a lot of stalkers—we were put on alert when they started filmingGods and Mortalshere.” He gestured to a lineup of mugshots stuck to a whiteboard. “The casting assistants sometimes recruit extras in town, if they’re short, but a couple of times they signed up these nutters.”
“Oh, yes, there was a man down the street just now, recruiting.” He’d told Lana she had a “great look” for background acting. As she went to thank him for the compliment, he added: “You’re so very average. We need people who won’t stand out.”
The cop pointed at the mugshot of a forty-something redhead. “This one thinks she was married to Griffin Hart in aprevious life. That one over there? She’s convinced he’s being hypnotized and is actually her kid. This guy believes he and Griffin Hart are predestined by cosmic design to be besties. We’re constantly playing whack-a-mole with these freaks. We don’t literally whack them,” he added quickly. “I can’t believe you don’t know who he is. You live in L.A.?”
“I had a … sheltered upbringing.”
“Ohhh, yes.” He tapped the screen. “The cult. Washington State, was it?”
“Not a cult—an off-grid unplugged community. My parents still live there.”
“You’ve called them, I take it? Or sent a Pony Express?” He flashed a self-congratulatory smile at the joke. “If it’s off-grid, how do you know your sister hasn’t gone back there?”
“I’ve written to them, sure. Kept them updated. They haven’t heard from her.”
“You’ve written to them? By what, letter?”
