Page 55 of The Advocate’s Ultimatum

“Not yet.”

“Is she married?”

There it was. “No.”

“She ever been?”

“No.”

Rourke nodded as if filing something away.

JP filed something too. Not the questions, just how smoothly he’d asked them, like a man checking whether a door was still unlocked. JP suppressed a smile. It didn’t matter. That door was closed.

JP glanced toward the courthouse. “I’m here on the Hannah Caldwell case.”

Rourke’s expression shifted. “That was a tough one. Cases like that don’t go away,” he said. “You just learn to carry them.”

“Did that one stick with you more than most?”

Rourke’s eyes drifted toward the street, then back. “She was five,” he said simply.

They moved to a bench just off to the side. Traffic hummed in the background. People passed without noticing them.

JP sat, hat low. Rourke leaned forward, forearms on his knees.

“Are you reopening the case?” Rourke asked.

“We’re looking at it,” JP said.

Rourke nodded. “It’s about time someone did.”

JP glanced at him. “Do you think it was done wrong?”

“I think it was wrapped up too fast.”

“Did you spend much time with Victor Hayes?”

Rourke’s jaw tightened. “Yeah.”

“What’d you think?”

Rourke straightened considering. “He was a problem, a bad boyfriend and inconsistent. And he made himself look guilty every time he opened his mouth.”

“Do I hear a but?” JP asked.

A flicker in Rourke’s eyes. “I never saw him as the kind of guy who plans something like that.”

“Meaning?”

“He reacts,” Rourke said. “He screws up. He lies to cover it. But taking a kid, disappearing her, leaving nothing behind…” He shook his head. “That’s not his MO.”

“Did you tell anyone that back then?” JP asked.

Rourke shrugged. “I raised questions. And I probably told Sabre. But mostly, I just reported the facts.”

JP pulled out the tattoo sketch and held it between them. “Have you ever seen this?”

Rourke gave it a measured look. “No.”